Morning Real Estate Review

Construction up .9% in May (HousingWire)  A surge in home building led to the biggest gain in 5 months, with construction now 7% above last May's numbers.

The mother of all housing bubbles: Norway (AEI) While America's housing market has slid over the past 6 years, Norway's just keeps rising.

Supreme Court passes on RESPA case (HousingWire) The Court fails to address a 9th Circuit decision that lets a party sue under RESPA without showing actual harm.

Habitat for Humanity finishes phase of Ivy City project, starts another (Washington Post)  The new "passive houses" provide low income housing with minimal energy consumption.

Morning Real Estate Review

McGraw Hill says construction will be up 2% this year (San Fran News)  The firm says that tepid growth in the economy will lead to small growth in 2012 over last year's construction numbers.

JBG will hold on office tower at Rosslyn's Central Place (Washington Post) As Monday Properties fails to sign a tenant on its new office under construction next door, JBG decides to start the apartment building and hold on office space.


Mendelson promotion a win for NIMBYs (CityPaper)  The new Council's Chair has a history of opposing development during and before his tenure as Councilmember.

The housing recovery, in 2 charts (Washington Post)  There are signs that the housing economy is improving, though modestly, in several national and regional indicators.

Georgetown Park still without new tenants (Washington Post)  Two years after buying the mall, Vornado is still negotiating leases and the future of Georgetown's mall.

Morning Real Estate Review

US cities now outpacing suburbs, new data shows (Slate) For first time in half a century, urban areas are outpacing their suburban neighbors in population and economic growth.

CitiMorgage launches program for soldiers on the move (HousingWire) To help soldiers who are stuck with existing mortgages while they move bases, CitiMortgage has introduced a Citi Military PCS (permanent change of station) transfer assistance program.

30-year fixed-rate mortgage rates unchanged, 15-year fixed-rate falls to new low (The Washington Post) While the 30-year fixed-rate average mortgage rate has continued holding steady, the 15-year fixed-rate average has found itself at a new low.

Cover story: Good manners a must during open house (The Washington Times) Though it may not be on the forefront of every seller’s mind, it’s important to remember to have good manners while selling a house.

Charting the market: Sellers’ prospects improving (The Washington Times) More demand and less supply, as this year is seeing, leads to a seller’s market.

Your Next Place

I'll admit, I'm kind of an "old things" snob - I only wear vintage clothes, won't drink bourbon unless it's at least 12 years old, and don't like any movie made after about 1978.  But one new thing I really love is a new condo, especially when they're like this.  I mean, look at it!  It would be like living inside an iPhone.  What snob could resist that?

This two-level Logan Circle condo in the Metropole features a wide-open floor plan, high ceilings, and totally unique finishes.  The kitchen gets a ton of light from the massive wall of windows; there's also exposed ductwork, for that frisson of rough industrial edges, but also Bosch appliances and custom cabinets for that frisson of, well, living in a million dollar condo.  Both good frissons.

Upstairs are the fine, spacious bedrooms, and there are three, yes three, very fine bathrooms.  As with the rest of the house, the utmost care has been given to every detail - the cabinets, the towel racks, the light fixtures, even the shower curtain rods are cool.  This is a condo that's guaranteed to make all your friends feel inferior and lame when they visit, which in my mind is the real point of home ownership.

And of course, the location.  Everything you could possibly want is within a block; a gym, a salon, restaurants, half a dozen bars, Whole Foods.  The condo comes with a parking space, but only a very bad person would live here and still insist on driving.  (Just kidding, when I visit my parents in Iowa, I drive their car twenty feet down the driveway to get the mail.)

1515 15th Street NW #430
2 Bedrooms, 3.5 Baths
$999,999

Morning Real Estate Review

Servicers cut principal on 10% of mortgage mods, numbers expected to rise (HousingWire) This year mortgage servicers included principal reduction on 10.2 percent of modifications during the first quarter, which is a raise of 3 percent from this past year.

Freddie Mac reduces mortgage portfolio 9.4% in May (HousingWire) Though Freddie Mac bought $30.7 million in loans this May, it sold or liquidated $46.7 million. As a result, the mortgage portfolio balance shrunk at an annualized rate of 9. 4 percent in the same month.

Pending home sales match two-year high (The Washington Post) Pending home sales rose last month and matched its highest level in two years.  Contracts on existing homes were up 5.9 percent in May compared to April and 13.3 percent from a year ago. 

Investors are putting cash to work in residential real estate (The Washington Post) Investors are  favoring residential real estate as investment opportunities, a trend that’s been increasing during the past few years.

The Ground Floor

The Chevy Chase location of Barney's Co-op, the edgier, funkier version of Barney's department store, is closing in August.

C. Wonder, the preppy, reasonably priced home and clothing store, is coming to Tyson's Corner.  The brain child of Christopher Burch (ex-of Tory Burch), C. Wonder will look familiar to Tory fans.  So familiar there seems to be a lawsuit in the making. Estimated construction start date is 8/1/12.

Pappa Razzi, an Italian-ish restaurant located at 1064-1066 Wisconsin Ave, NW in Georgetown, has closed.

Riot Act, a comedy theatre in Penn Quarter, is closing temporarily for rebranding and renaming.  It will re-open July 9th as Penn Social.  The new concept will be a collaboration with United Social Sports, a social sports league. The venue will add games such as skee ball and shuffle board plus keep the stage for music, comedy and game shows.




Jen Angotti is a DCRE agent licensed in DC and VA.  She also writes Concrete Jungle DC, a blog about real estate and design.

Long Branch Community Revitalization Plan Unveiled

Montgomery County planners unveiled an ambitious, wide-ranging community revitalization plan for the east Silver Spring community of Long Branch earlier this week, the first step in a long-term reinvention of the area that will peak with the opening of the Purple Line sometime later this decade.

In essence, the plan seeks to transition Long Branch from a car-centric and pedestrian-unfriendly neighborhood of strip malls, surface parking lots, and little to no public transportation, to a greener, mixed-use area connected by bike lanes, redesigned sidewalks, and two Purple Line Stations. One of the biggest challenges facing the area are the poorly-functioning intersections at Piney Branch Road and Flower Avenue, and Piney Branch Road and University Boulevard (see above).  This inefficiency is compounded by narrow or nonexistent sidewalks in much of the area.  The plan aims to correct this by widening and reconfiguring the above intersections, as well as installing medians, and dramatically widening sidewalks and adding bike lanes throughout Long Branch.

Of course, accessibility should improve while traffic should (theoretically) decrease when the Purple Line opens in a few years.  Long Branch will incorporate not one but two Purple Line light rail stations (see above and below), which will bring considerable changes to local transportation patterns.  The stations, at University Blvd. and Piney Branch Road, and at Arliss Street and Piney Branch Road, should reduce congestion along Piney branch and University, the main traffic arteries; combined with the proposed street improvements, this could have a serious calming effect on the neighborhood.

On the green front, planners also propose street trees throughout the area, wide-ranging park improvements, and the creation of two entirely new parks on the very west end (see below).

This blogger visits Long Branch semi-regularly - there's no better one-stop community for thrift shopping, authentic vietnamese sandwiches, and 99-cent VHS rental emporiums - and I can attest to the almost aggressively indifferent urban design (or lack thereof) in the area.  It's taken the mediocrity of the suburban strip mall aesthetic and added comically inefficient traffic management and a palpable indifference to pedestrians and cyclists.  One is often forced to make right turns off the main traffic arteries, which means braking to a crawl on a zooming four-lane road; when you add in jaywalkers and cyclists forced to ride in the gutter, it's a recipe for disaster.  This plan won't turn Long Branch into NoMa, or even downtown Silver Spring, but it will, if carried out, produce a safer, greener, more functional community.

Silver Spring, Maryland real estate development news