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Washington Business Journal - by Sarah Krouse Staff Reporter
The 14th Street NW corridor has seen a slew of new retail in the last three years — some of the city’s hottest restaurants, the ever-popular gelato shop and several furniture stores.
What it hasn’t seen: a residential groundbreaking.
But at least one developer is trying to get a shovel in the ground by the end of the year. In February, The JBG Cos. closed on its purchase of Swann Drycleaners, the last parcel needed for its condominium project on the site of the historic Whitman-Walker Clinic.
The company acquired the south end of the 1800 block of 14th Street NW when developer Scott Pannick walked away from it in 2008. JBG paid $11 million for the entire stretch between S and Swann streets.
The company plans to finish the design on the 120-unit project, which will also include 18,000 square feet of retail, in late spring, apply for permits and break ground in the fourth quarter if it can get financing.
New condo sales surged in 2009 and prices seem to hit bottom earlier in the year for select close in jurisdictions (The District, Alexandria, Arlington). Suburban Maryland is lagged behind other jurisdictions in their decline, but prices continued to increase a bit longer there as well.
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Thursday, January 7, 2010, 2:43pm EST
D.C. area condo sales up 34% in 2009
Washington Business Journal - by Sarah Krouse, Staff Reporter
Condominium sales in the Washington area jumped 34 percent in 2009 with a total of 2,350 units sold, fueled by the first time home buyer’s tax credit, low interest rates and the creation of high paying jobs in the region.
Loudoun and Prince William counties led the area with 707 sales, followed by the District with 524 condo sales, according to Delta Associates’ year-end report.
There were 439 sales in Arlington and Alexandria, 273 units sold in Montgomery County and 202 condo sales in Fairfax County and Falls Church with an average sales pace of three units per month.
The surge in Washington area sales in 2009 brought the region’s inventory-to-sale ratio, or the pace it would take to deplete the current supply of condos for sale, down to 2.6 years compared to 5.9 years at the end of 2008.
With the 1st time buyer tax credit being extended and expanded, will December and January be the best time for buyers to pull the trigger?
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By Dina ElBoghdady
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, November 23, 2009
Sales of previously owned homes jumped 10.1 percent in October from September to their highest pace in more than two years, driven in part by a lucrative tax credit for first-time home buyers, according to industry data released Monday.
The National Association of Realtors reported that sales of existing single family homes, townhomes and condominiums surged to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.10 million units last month from a downwardly revised rate of 5.54 million in September -- the highest pace since February 2007. Sales were up 23.5 percent from the same time last year.
Every region in the country experienced a pick-up in sales. Meanwhile, the national median home price fell 7.1 percent to $173,100 in October compared to the same time last year.
The low prices, historically low interest rates and the tax credit all played a part in boosting sales and clearing out an oversupply of homes, particularly the aggressively priced foreclosures, which tend to drag down home prices, economists said. Foreclosures and other distressed properties made up 30 percent of sales last month.
The supply of homes at the end of October fell 3.7 percent to 3.57 million, the lowest level in more than two-and-a-half years, said Lawrence Yun, the realtor group's chief economist. If sales were to continue at the current pace, it would take seven months to sell them. A healthy range is typically six months.
Yun singled out the tax credit as playing the biggest role in energizing buyers. The $8,000 tax credit was to expire on Nov. 30 and many buyers were rushing to beat the deadline, Yun said.
$1,000+ per square foot...what do you think Mr. Clancy's would sell for if he were to try to flip it?
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By Kris Hudson | Wall Street Journal
Tom Clancy has given a bit of a boost to the battered condominium market – at least in Baltimore.
The novelist this week paid $12.6 million for three condos that will be combined to create an 11,959-square-foot penthouse in the Ritz-Carlton Residences in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, according to published reports and people familiar with the matter.
The price amounts to $1,054 per square foot. That’s a stratospheric price tag for gritty Baltimore, where average condo sales run in the range of $300 to $500 per square foot and luxury condos go for $600 to $800 per.
“I think it’s probably the largest [condo sale in Baltimore] by a long shot,” said Bob Merbler, a partner in Baltimore brokerage Yerman, Witman, Gaines & Conklin Realty LLC, who specializes in luxury-condo sales but wasn’t involved in the Clancy deal. “A few years ago, if you had a $1 million or $2 million house in Baltimore city, that raised eyebrows.”
Developer RXR Realty LLC completed construction of the 191-unit Ritz Carlton Residences last summer. Unlike other hotel-residence projects that offer both hotel rooms and for-sale condos, the Baltimore project is made up solely of for-sale condos. However, residents there do get access to hotel amenities such as concierge service, a spa and an indoor pool.
This Bloomberg article notes the impressive performance of the Washington area economy and housing market thanks to increased spending by the Federal Government. The preference for smaller, less expensive homes (typically condos in this region) is also highlighted by several large builders sales results. Is this permanent rebound for the area's housing market?
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Washington Beats U.S. Housing Slump on Obama Budget
By John Gittelsohn
Nov. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Demand for new homes is growing faster in the Washington area than in any other major U.S. city as existing inventory shrinks and a record $3.52 trillion federal budget fuels the local economy.
Builders took out construction permits on 4,442 single- family homes in the Washington metropolitan area in the third quarter, up 11 percent from a year earlier, according to the Census Bureau. Nationwide, permits fell 17 percent.
The federal budget rose 18 percent this year to $3.52 trillion and is projected to grow to $5.3 trillion by 2019, according to the Treasury Department. NVR Inc., [bn:WBTKR=TOL:US] Toll Brothers
Inc []., Hovnanian Enterprises Inc., Pulte Homes Inc., KB Home and D.R. Horton Inc. are buying land and reporting sales growth in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia, anticipating job and home price gains in the region.
“It’s good to have a rich uncle and the federal government clearly isn’t spending less,” said Stephen Fuller, professor of public policy and director of the Center for
Regional Analysis at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. “We’re on a rebound much faster than other locations because of increased spending to manage the economy and to manage two wars.”
About 15 percent of all federal procurement goes to the Washington area, Fuller said. In the latest example of federal largess, the administration on Oct. 29 endorsed plans to extend an $8,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers, which is scheduled to expire Nov. 30.
Price Rally
Prices of existing homes in the Washington region climbed each month from March through August, gaining a total of 7.8 percent, as measured by the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index. The index for the nation’s 20 largest cities rose 4.8 percent from its low in April.
In Fairfax County, Virginia, the most populous county abutting the District of Columbia, September prices surged 12 percent from a year earlier to a median of $365,000, according to Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc. The number of total listings fell 28 percent.
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