National PSA (about Home Ownership?) Being Filmed in Columbia Heights this Morning

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by Prince Of Petworth June 20, 2014 at 9:46 am 40 Comments

Columbia Heights PSA01

Thanks to a reader for sending:

“On my morning bike commute I saw a commercial shoot for a national PSA. They wouldn’t give me many details. They did say that it was for promoting home ownership. They were shooting in the 1200 block of Kenyon St. NW.”

Columbia Heights PSA05

Anonymous

Let’s shoot a PSA about buying a home in a place where the average American cannot afford one!
Anonymous

Lets shoot a PSA in a place where people spend $800,000 for a house and constantly have packages stolen from their porches!
- Hagiographer
  
  Who knows, maybe it’s a PSA discouraging home ownership?
  
  “Are you sick of long-term commitments? Tired of needing to worry about upkeep and maintenance? Buried by property taxes? Consider renting! This message was brought to you by the Council to Restore Serfdom.”
- Accountering
  
  I love this comment! Also love the mower as a prop. Who uses one of those, and not just a weed wacker?
  - dat
    
    I’m not sure what’s driving all the mower comments — do any of you actually own rowhouses in petworth? Most have fairly decent sized backyards and require an actual mower — not a weedwacker. Also, “mowing” with a weedwacker is pretty awful for the grass (and looks like crap). We wheel ours around front to do the front yard (which granted, only takes about 8 passes).
    - HaileUnlikely
      
      Comical to see the mower on the sidewalk in front of an non-end-unit rowhouse, though, as you’d have to either take it through the house (have fun with that) or around the block to get it from the back yard (where it’s actually useful) to the front yard.
      - dat
        
        We wheel ours around the block every time we mow our non-end unit… never really thought anything of it. All of our neighbors do the same.
    - TakomaNick
      
      Yeah even for a small patch of grass an actual mower makes for sense than a weed wacker. There are some great electric models that cost under $200. I recommend GreenWorks. It folds up and is about 55 lbs so it’s relatively easy to carry up from the basement.
    - austindc
      
      Definitely! I just use a little push mower (no motor) and it works like a dream. A dream about mowing some grass.
    - Anonymous
      
      Works like a charm…
      
      http://www.amazon.com/Black-Decker-MTC220-12-Inch-Cordless/dp/B00HH4K548
- dunning-kruger
  
  Doesn’t take much to set off a wave of entitled bitterness on this blog eh?
  .
  You aren’t entitled to an affordable house in the neighborhood of your choosing.
  .
  You will never escape petty crime in a major city so quit whining about it, it makes no difference what you paid for your house.
  .
  If you want an affordable house you might have to live near the minorities you claim not to hate but refuse to have as neighbors.
  .
  If you wait until a neighborhood is past the point of no return (gentrificationwise/whitewashed) expect to pay top dollar as everyone knows that it is a safe investment.
  .
  All these skittish new DC homebuyers are creating the very problem they constantly whine about. You ALL want the same houses on the same “safe” block and then freak out when life happens “but I paid $xxxxxx, so life isn’t supposed to happen to meeeee!” So you’ve realized that crime exists all over and that white faces on your neighbors only create the illusion of safety. Why not pay half of what a house on a gentrified block costs a couple blocks over and quit lying to yourself? I guarantee those black teenagers that scare you so much won’t steal $300k worth of packages off your porch.
  .
  This rant/PSA is brought to you by a lifetime of living in DC and working in real estate/development so feel free to not take my advice and bemoan the pop-ups, high costs, and low supply you help create by not looking outside certain neighborhoods, I profit from it directly but I don’t love what out state developers will do if people continue to push up pricing in only a select few neighborhoods.
  - Anonymous
    
    Don’t worry, it’s spreading all over the city. Just a matter of time, really.
Anonymous

That’s not even a home; it’s a condo. (See the electric meters on the side of the house.) And where are they keeping that mower? Who’s using a mower that large for a yard that small?
- Anonymous
  
  I believe that meter is for the property next door to the house they’re shooting the PSA at. But yeah, that mower is kinda overkill for a small row house yard.
  - epric002
    
    i dunno, looks like multiple mailboxes on the front too.
  - Anonymous
    
    they both have meters, and that place has two mailboxes. definitely a condo. but that counts as home ownership.
    - Anonymous
      
      It’s the new American dream: overpriced luxury condo in an “up and coming” neighborhood with cosmetic features that don’t last and cost a fortune to upkeep, and with a tiny yard and oversized lawn mower.
      - Anonymous
        
        in DC… there are plenty of Cities where you can get a lovely home for a good price and actually NEED that lawn mower.
- Anonymous
  
  No, it’s there — it’s just not facing the street. You can see two meters under the flag to the left.
- senorjsm
  
  This home was previously featured on this site as a pop-up: https://www.popville.com/2013/10/kenyon-street-pop-up-completed.
  - Anonymous
    
    Ugh…let’s shoot a PSA at a hideous pop-up over-priced condo.
- Anonymous
  
  A home can be anything and are not restricted to just houses.
Bnon

They need a lawnmower for that tiny lawn? They’d be better off with a good pair of kitchen shears.
ams

My mortgage and fees, even in a co-op, is way less than people pay in rent in DC. This PSA is a great idea.
- iaom
  
  Pro tip: Not everyone has hundreds of thousands of dollars sitting around for a down payment.
  - anon
    
    Not everyone needs to put down a down payment. I bought with zero down. And even if you do, you’d only need “hundreds of thousands of dollars” for a $1 million plus home.
    - ams
      
      Yes. This. A reasonable down payment for a starter “home” (small condo, co-op, etc.) is anywhere from 0% down to 20% max. We’re talking $0-80,000, with everything in between. Best advice I can give is to get an excellent real estate agent.
    - TakomaNick
      
      +1
      
      I did this too. It’s a good option for young professionals who aren’t making much money yet but expect to in the future. Many programs have income limits. So you may qualify now but not after you get a promotion.
    - 20011
      
      ” I bought with zero down.”
      
      So how much equity do you have in your home?
  - ams
    
    Ha! I wish I had that kind of money!
- HaileUnlikely
  
  If you had just bought a condo in the building shown in the ad, I assure you it would not be.
TV person

That lawnmower is called a prop, people.
Symbol of suburban homeownership and responsibility.

And I’d presume the people in front of the camera are actors.

And they are reading from a script.

Please do not look for real-life represented at a video shoot.
- austindc
  
  it’s realty tv!
  - textdoc
    
    Haha!
SF

Somebody should parody these ads. Show this dude waking up to the sound of a burst pipe in January, having his AC fail in August, discovering shoddy electrical work, basement flooding, patio furniture stolen, etc etc.
- nw_dc_1988
  
  I guess that’s like doing a parody of a pro-birth control PSA. If affordable, home ownership is usually good and usually worth it (and so is birth control).
Anonymous

Even worse than Bashar al-Assad?
- Chris
  
  S/he didn’t mean literally the worst. That was a figure of speech.
Catherine

Thank you, Prince of Petworth, for your interest and for sharing these photographs.

This PSA is not about home ownership. Once it’s released to the public, I will share the link on here!
Anonymous

10 bucks says it’s a commercial from the National Assn. of Realtors; they’re located around here somewhere and most commercials like that ton TV are theirs.

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