Who lives in DC's Million-Dollar Houses?

While the average sale price for a home in D.C. is around $575,000, more than one out of every 10 homes on the market is listed for over $1 million. This can make both newcomers and long-time residents feel like many neighborhoods are out of reach.  Who can afford these prices?

DC was not always this expensive - in the late 1990s, the median home price in the District was just over $150,000.  Prices began to rise around 2000, and even though the subprime mortgage crisis of 2008 and 2009 slowed down the price increases a bit, prices have continued to rise in DC over the past five years.  

Many DC residents in the most expensive neighborhoods have lived there for decades and have benefited from the appreciation of their property over the years.  However, there are some differences between the owners of million-dollar homes in DC and the average DC resident. 

According to census data, 12 percent of homeowners in DC own a home worth more than a million dollars. They’re a little older than the average D.C. homeowner and do make more money— 57 years old, compared to 45, and they make about $250,000 per year, compared to the the average D.C. household income of $68,000 per year.

Ms. Therrell Smith is one owner of a million-dollar home in the District.  She is 99 years old and lives in a beautiful mansion right on Logan Circle.  Her father bought the home 87 years ago, and Ms. Smith continues to live there with younger family members.  She also continues to teach ballet.  

When she was growing up in the neighborhood, segregation prevented her from fully enjoying the neighborhood.  Her family's social life was limited to U Street, which used to be known as Black Broadway.  U Street featured unsegregated concert halls and nightclubs, hundreds of black-owned businesses patronized solely by African-Americans, and the country's first African-American YMCA. The Forster Law Firm office building, located just north of U Street, used to be the home of the Black Fashion Museum (it is now housed in the National Museum of African American History & Culture).

To learn more about the Capitol Hill neighborhood of DC, archeologists are digging beneath an old "shotgun house" located at 12th and E streets SE, which was built around 1850.  Archaeologists have found beer bottles, bone toothbrushes, plates, a button from a Civil War uniform, part of a leather shoe, corroded nails, and even animal remains.  Using these clues, they have pieced together information about a German immigrant community in DCthat was previously unknown.

For more on urban housing issues, find out the secret of many urban 20-somethings, and consider for a moment what might happen in cities if home prices fell rather than rose.  

All the best,

FORSTER LAW FIRM

Summer Real Estate Update

When one commitment leads to another.

It's wedding season, and, along with being a great excuse to eat cake, a time when many couples consider purchasing a home. Depending on the market, some couples choose to purchase a house in the spring before their wedding (though they should consider re-titling the property afterwards), while others wait until after the wedding.  

One real estate agent suggests, “There are several things that you should avoid doing at the same time, if at all possible: changing jobs, having a baby, getting married and buying a home,” if you want to avoid extra stress.   

If you do decide to purchase a home close to your wedding date, check out these tips for keeping your finances in order, including documenting cash wedding gifts if you are planning on buying a home after the wedding, accounting for all gift funds used for a down payment, and budgeting in a "cushion" for home repairs and renovations before you set a price range for your home search.   

While President Obama will be changing jobs in January, he may have followed the advice of not making too many changes at once and held off on buying a new home. He is instead rumored to be leasing this house in the Kalorama neighborhood of D.C. at the conclusion of his term. It's also not too late to snag the coveted 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (SE) address.

If you are also looking to rent in D.C. rather than buy, you may have frequently come across the terms "Dupont," "Metro," and "Busboys and Poets" in D.C. rental listings. According to Zillow, these are some of the terms most often used to lure renters in the District. For some reason, the phrase "overpriced" never seems to show up in listings.  

Finding an apartment in D.C. can be challenging, but what if you have a roommate who also happens to be your landlord? One group of five women managed to make this arrangement work in the H Street neighborhood, even during a renovation of the rowhouse.  

If you do rent from a landlord who is also your roommate, it may feel different than a traditional landlord/tenant relationship but you still maintain your rights as a tenant under the law. The landlord doesn't gain additional rights - for example, they can't evict you just to rent to someone they like better or use "self-help" to evict (like dumping a tenant's belongings and changing the locks) - but you also want to make sure that any issues that are important to you (like the right to sublet your portion of the property) are clearly laid out in your written lease.

When unpleasant issues arise in your apartment, such as the presence of mold, it's good to know your rights as a tenant and how to get your landlord to take care of the issue.  For this particular issue, your landlord needs to let you know if they have discovered mold inside the property in the past three years (unless it has been professionally remediated), check out any suspected mold within a week of your request, and, if there is a problem, fix it within 30 days. If this doesn't happen, make sure to read up on your rights under D.C. law so you can take action. Landlords should read up on this as well.

While each piece of property is generally seen as a unique snowflake under the law, the facades of D.C. properties generally have one feature in common - the use of brick.  The home builders of D.C. have clearly taken the lessons from the Three Little Pigs to heart.  In fact, according to a recent post by the DMPED, over 75% of home facades in D.C. are brick and over 90% of homes in Ward 1 (home to Forster Law Firm) are brick. The further that you get from the city core, the more diversity in building materials you will see.  

Another interesting quirk present in D.C.'s housing stock is the presence of homes that, originally, weren't homes at all. 

If you walk around D.C., particularly in areas like Capitol Hill, you will likely notice a number of homes with oversize bay windows, decorative overhangs, and corner-facing doors - all signs that the property was once used for retail. Shops, grocery stores, and service businesses used to bustle with activity on these streets - however, after their leases lapsed and the default zoning changed to residential use in 1958, many of these retail shops in D.C. were converted to homes.

This is starting to change, as D.C. passed an updated zoning code in January 2016, which goes into effect in September.  The updated zoning code allows for new retail stores under certain conditions to open in residential areas. In the future, accomplishing your errands by simply walking down the street may get even easier.

Wishing you a fantastic Summer, 

FORSTER LAW FIRM

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