DC Metrocentric

Back when the first round Washington Wizards draft pick John Wall was moving to town there was a lot of speculation over where he would live, and though he flirted briefly with Arlington, the young star ended up going with location when it came to his place of work the Verizon Center. The Post had a nice write up this weekend with a peek into Wall’s condo, and it is everything you would expect from a young sports star.

The unit has the requisite flat screen TVs, two walk-in closets and a marble master bathroom, which has two showers, and another hallway closet filled with boxes of Reebok apparel. Apparently the building is also a popular one for the Wizards, as teammates Yi Jianlian, Al Thornton and Kevin Seraphin live in the same complex. Interestingly Wall claims to have the largest unit among his team mates, but it is not for a reason you would expect… he felt that he needed more space for when his mother visits.

[Photo: Credit: Toni L. Sandys / Washington Post]

Weighing in at just shy of 9,000 sq-ft, the Kalorama home of the late Senator Ted Kennedy is still on the market for $6,995,000. The white columned house isn’t exactly priced to move, but given the history, location, and major amenities we understand the price point (and it has already had a million dollar price chop).

So what does the price get you? Well the six bed, eight bathroom home has three fireplaces, an indoor pool and dining space for 50 (plus the library apparently has a hidden room)! There must be some politician in waiting out there who this impressive Washington home would be perfect for, or do you think the price is still high?

More photos after the jump…

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With all the architectural gems around town, we always jump at the chance to get a peak inside, and the next event from the DC Preservation League offers just that opportunity for the Dumbarton House. Topics will include the museum’s on-going research, preservation, and restoration efforts. In addition, Bryan Blundell an architectural preservation specialist, will discuss his work at Dumbarton House and other developments in the stock of the cities other historic homes.

Location: Dumbarton House ~ 2715 Que Street, NW

Date: Tuesday, January 25 ~ 6:00-8:00PM

Cost: $15 for members (DCPL and Dumbarton House/NSCDA); $25 for non-members.

As we go into the new year, there are going to be some major factors that will shape how the Housing Market fares. The WSJ chimed in with a few key factors including foreclosure delays, where mortgage rates go, and of course the big “Washington” factor, specifically around how the future of Fannie and Freddie looks. Anyone dare to make a prediction?

More good news for home owners, but bad news for home buyers..  the Greater Capital Area Association of Realtors says the median price of a condo in D.C. in November was $371,000, up 4.15 % from last year. Just in line with what we have been seeing across the region, this rise came with a decrease in the number of closed sales, which were down more than 40% from 2009. Anyone who claims they know which way the housing market is heading is just plain crazy!

[Photo: Lani Barbitta]

The famous vacant Shaw building with the since painted over “Bienvenue a Shaw, Slum Historique” (pictured below) has finally been sold! Over the years, the building at the corner of 9th and Rhode Island Ave came to symbolize all that was wrong with the areas abandoned buildings, but the future looks bright with the possibility of street retail as well as residential development by the new owners.

This is a symbolic big deal for the neighborhood! [Photo: Rhys]

The National Association of Realtors has released their quarterly numbers on home values across the country and as we have seen over the last year, the Washington Area is leading the way in rising home prices. Home prices in the third quarter were up 4.3% from a year earlier. However this growth is still going to have to keep up for some time to get back up to the peak prices from 2007. 

[Photo: Otavio_DC]

Seems like every other month that another historic property is up on the auction block, this time it’s the beautiful 1920s Beaux-Arts and Neo-Renaissance style St Regis hotel down by the White House. Barclays has foreclosed on the property and will auction it off this Friday. Back in 2007 the property went for $170 million, and we are guessing it will go for a good deal more now (especially considering its recent full renovation).

What do you think the price will be?

[Photo: MV Jantzen]

The Hotel Monaco at 7th and F street sold for a cool $74 million to locally based Pebblebrook. The transaction has been in the works for a while and only recently was finalized (but it seems a little low for such a prime property). Have no fear though, there are no plans to change the historic 1839 building, or the eclectic interior which will still be managed as a Kimpton Hotel.

The Neoclassical building was originally built as a Post Office by a star studded team of architects (for the time) including Robert Mills, designer of the Washington Monument, and Thomas Walter, one of the architects for the United States Capitol. Who knew National Historic Landmarks could be had for under $80 million?

[Photo: NCinDC]

Call it the curse of the PriceChecker, but another unit previously featured in our price guessing game has gone under the chopper. The almost 3000 sq-ft of luxury at the Watergate is now listed for only $3.5 million, which is exactly one MILLION dollars less than it was listed for this time last year (that’s six zeros)!

It’s a great looking unit with incredible views but we guess for only two bedrooms the unit wasn’t moving, what do you think of the new price? More reasonable?

For a little while there really was no where to go but up for area home prices, but it looks like there is still room to run with the latest Case Shiller survey showing 7.3% year over year growth in Washington Area home value. Not only are homes growing at a healthy pace, but we still continue to outpace most of the rest of the country.

Higher home values are of course a double edged sword, good for home owners who saw the value of their house decline for the last few years, and bad for home buyers who face an increasingly pricey market in most neighborhoods.

[Photo: Mr T in DC]

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When the Department of Transportation relocated to their cool looking new digs down by Nats Stadium, the owner of their old building at 400 Seventh St. SW undertook a missive renovation, but until now didn’t have any tenants to actually fill the new space back up. Well the developers and real estate agents can breath a sigh of relief, because the SEC has signed on for almost all of the over 1 million sq-ft of space.

The upgraded building included a full interior build out as well as a new glass curtain exterior and security upgrades.

If you remember, the building also got a nice makeover of its interior courtyard, which we spent some time drooling over last year.

The relatively new glassified building at 1225 Connecticut which we have been critical about in the past, has just this week been put on the market by owner Brookfield Properties. We have always had issues with how these buildings with floor to ceiling windows end up looking once occupied, but this one should fetch a nice price given the location.

The buildings main tenant is the World Bank and we estimate it goes for over $200 million. What do you think? [Photo: DCMetrocentric]

A bunch of stats came out today around the housing market and they paint a fairly nice picture of the direction things have been headed for a while… with a few exceptions of course. More people are putting their homes up for sale as the inventory rose in June, and the overall average sale price of homes last month also was on the rise. All this while residential foreclosures were down 5% for the first half of the year, however unfortunately this is attributed to an increase in short sales (not so good).

[Photo: Lani Barbitta]