“it should come as no surprise to hear that there is a serious deficit of affordable homes to buy in the District”

Good Deal or Not Revisited (GDoN-R) is a weekly post that reviews the settled sales data of a recent individual real estate transaction in the District of Columbia. Each post is a snapshot of the real estate market at a particular moment in time. GDoN-R generally posts on Friday in the late morning.

GDoN-R has been written exclusively for PoPville since 2009 by Suzanne Des Marais. Suzanne is a practicing Realtor with the Bediz Group, LLC at Keller Williams Capital Properties . 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 and/or Smartcharts by Showingtime). Information is deemed reliable but not guaranteed.

Featured Property: 1415 Girard St NW #303
Legal Subdivision: Columbia Heights
Advertised Subdivision per Listing: Columbia Heights
Bedrooms: 1 Baths: 1 Parking: Street Ownership: Cooperative
Original List Price: $275,000. List Price at Contract: $275,000.
List Date: 10/13/2016 Days on Market: 14
Settled Sales Price: $275,000.
Seller Subsidy: $0.
Settlement Date: 12/09/2016
Transaction type: Standard

Original GDoN post can be seen: here.

The listing can be seen here: here.

If you read these Revisited posts regularly, it should come as no surprise to hear that there is a serious deficit of affordable homes to buy in the District of Columbia. DC Government has tried numerous strategies to address this problem over the years. In the case of the subject property, which has an income restriction for purchasers in what is considered “Moderate” or “Work Force” range income (based on Area Median Income or AMI), the property was developed specifically to provide units that are affordable over the long term. Non-profit CityFirst Homes developed the building, which is cooperatively owned by the residents.

Other purchase programs with an aim toward increasing DC home ownership for folks with more modest income include the actual creation of housing subject to affordability covenants, such as Affordable Dwelling Units (ADUs) and the Inclusionary Zoning (IZ) units in new construction buildings. Each of these types of housing has very specific requirements including an eligibility cap on Purchaser’s income, an expectation for owners to live in the unit, and ability to qualify for financing (you still have to have decent credit). Typically, there is a limit to the amount of equity that the owner may receive upon the sale of the unit, in order to continue the cycle of affordability.

Quite recently, the Mayor announced a number of improved incentives to assist moderate income individuals and families to become homeowners in the city. You can see the popville post here.

The listing agent for this property Kaye Placeres with Dwell Residential, A Real Living at Home Company. Rory Obletz with Redfin Corp assisted the Buyer.