REGIONAL SPOTLIGHT
WASHINGTON D.C.
D.C. FACTS & FIGURES
• Washington, D.C. was founded in 1790 and named after George Washington and Christopher Columbus. • Washington, D.C. is not a state , but a federal district created specifically to be the seat of the federal government. • Nearly 20 percent of the city is parkland. • Population: 601,723 in D.C. proper, and about 5.3 million in the greater metro area (2010 Census). • Justitia Omnibus , “Justice to all,” is the official motto of Washington, D.C. • The D.C. Metro is the second-busiest subway system , by ridership, in the United States. • George Washington’s crypt (but not his body) is located beneath the Capitol Building. There is also a viewing chamber. • Washington, D.C. gets more rain than Seattle . • D.C. is home to the oldest fish market in the United States, the Maine Avenue Fish Market, which opened in 1805 and has operated continuously ever since.
“D.C. is one of the few markets where you have a lot of people who are not investors who have cash on hand and are ready to buy the same properties that investors are looking for,” he said. “They hire architects and put enough into the property that when they are done, although they may not have much (if any) equity, they have the house of their dreams in the location of their dreams. The ROI is that they have their dream house, and that can make it hard for an investor to compete.” Nikki Ryan, a Realtor with Keller Williams Realty in Reston, Virginia, agreed. “Buyers are looking for updat- ed properties where they don’t have to do any upgrades or renovations, and inventory is so tight it is hard for them to find what they want,” she said. “Houses that have been on the market for a long time are now selling, and if you have a less-than-optimal-condition house to sell, now is the time.” Sherman Ragland, Dean of Realin- vestor Academy and a commercial real estate broker working in the D.C. metro area, noted that Millennials are having a big effect on the region’s housing market. “Every neighborhood in D.C. is popping, quite literally, as the predominant rehab style is the ‘pop-up,” he said. “A pop-up is where a rehabber acquires a two-story townhouse and ‘pops up’ a third, some- times even a fourth floor and converts the house to a multi-unit condominium.” Ragland went on, “These pop-ups have become so prominent that some neigh- borhoods are now aggressively seeking legislation to prohibit them, but they are extremely popular with D.C.’s growing young, affluent population.” Ragland described D.C. as becoming “a city of condo owners,” which can be a good thing for real estate investors. A side effect of the burgeoning Millennial population has been a surprise to him as well: “The number of restaurants and neighborhood retail popping up to serve the needs of this booming population has
Washington's Union Station opened in 1907. Today, more than 40 million people pass through the terminal each year.
become fantastic. D.C. has officially been named a ‘City for Foodies,’ which many of us old-timers never saw coming!” he laughed. Ragland has been investing in the market full-time since 2001.
insisted that the bloody battle between the states not halt construction on the U.S. Capitol then, either. Even when Al- exandria County, today part of the state of Virginia, petitioned to be removed from the District of Columbia in what became known as “the retrocession,” the area’s influence continued to spread both in terms of creating desirable housing markets in the surrounding areas and affecting new-construction trends. “We are in the ‘construction-and- inventory’ phase of the real estate cycle right now,” observed Fuhr. “When you start to get out from under a debacle, like a housing crash, it creates demand and inventory goes down, which causes builders to start trying to build at a
described by the federal government as “a permanent seat of government not exceeding 10 miles square [100 square miles],” has been on a growth path since first President George Washington first annexed the town of Alexandria, Vir- ginia, to be part of the federal district and, as a result, expanded the Capitol’s starting footprint before the ink was dry on the original papers. Since that time, Washington, D.C. has steadfastly continued to build, expand, and grow. During the War of 1812, the U.S. Capitol building was burned (along with much of the rest of the city) and reconstruction immediately commenced. Neither did the Civil War slow develop- ment down; President Abraham Lincoln
breakneck pace.” Fuhr predicted that the entire region could continue in that phase for “several” more years, although he added the caveat that housing afford- ability could abbreviate it. “I have to wonder how people are going to be able to buy those houses,” he said, adding, however, “In Maryland, we’re insulated by the federal government and the few million people who work for it. That in- sulation affects D.C., northern Virginia, and Maryland.” “The federal government jobs play a huge role in the region,” agreed Chan- dler. “It’s the government that fuels the area and drives prices up the closer you get to the metro area.” Chad McCall, co-founder of the Creative Wealth Acad-
A HISTORY OF CONSTRUCTION AND
BUILDING DESPITE THE ODDS Growth never ceases in our national Capitol. In fact, from the time George Thompson and Thomas Gerrard, who received the original colonial land grants in the area in 1662, arrived in the colonies, the D.C. area has, essen- tially, been on a long run of growth and expansion. The D.C. metro area, first
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