GDoN Revisited by Hipchickindc

In real life, hipchickindc is licensed as a real estate broker in the District of Columbia, and as a real estate salesperson in Maryland. Unless specifically noted, neither she nor the company that she is affiliated with represented any of the parties or were directly involved in the transaction reported below. Unless otherwise noted, the source of information is Metropolitan Regional Information Systems (MRIS), which is the local multiple listing system. Information is deemed reliable but not guaranteed.

Featured Properties: 1522 Kingman Pl NW

Original List Price: $995,000.

List Price at Contract: $995,000.

List Date: 9/6/2009

Days on Market: 248 (had been listed from Feb-July ’09 with other agent at $975,000.)

Settled Sales Price: $945,000.

Settlement Date: 2/4/2010

Seller Subsidy: $5000.

Bank Owned?: No

Type Of Financing: Conventional with $193,000. down payment

Original GDoN Post is: here.

Recent Listing is: here.

Kingman Place is a lovely one block long street just off of Logan Circle. I might not even be aware of its existence, except that a friend of mine developed a small condo building on that block a few years back. As commenters to the original Good Deal or Not (GDoN) post noted, it is a sweet location, considering that it’s tucked away and quiet, as well as a quick stroll to Whole Foods and other downtown neighborhood amenities.

I believe the current PoP criteria for official house porn designation is a list price over $1,000,000. From a real estate agent’s or lender’s perspective, it’s more accurate to look at luxury levels according to the need for jumbo financing. Typically, loan amounts above $729,000. require a purchaser to put a higher percentage of down payment, to have more cash in reserves, and to pay a slightly higher interest rate. Given that folks looking in this price range are often using cash from the sale of a property they already own and have sold or are selling, as well as investments held in securities, this segment of the market has not been moving quite as rapidly as the first time buyer market over the past year.

We’re still waiting for the final tabulation of specifically DC numbers to be published by Metropolitan Regional Information Systems (MRIS), so I can’t compare overall sales yet, but here’s a general overview of the trend in fee simple (no condos or co-ops) home sales in NW DC over $900,000. From 1999 to 2003, there was a steady increase in the number of sales over $900,000., starting with 103 in all of NW in 1999, and ending with 406 in 2003. All of the years between 2004 and 2007 saw greater than 500 sales over $900,000. in NW DC. In 2008, there were 480 sales over $900,000. in NW, compared to even fewer (439) in 2009.