It's an Expensive Day in the Neighbourhood

[bjarvis]

There is a house at the east end of our street north of Washington, DC which was recently renovated and put up for sale. Looking in the windows, it seems a nice place and we harboured (briefly) fantasies of moving up to a larger, nicer house without having to move far.

The thought was nixed within seconds because the soundwall of the Capital Beltway off-ramp for south-bound Georgia Avenue is a mere 20 feet from the back of the house. This means that highway noise would be considerably more intense than the negligible white noise of our current location. It also means that the house is under dire threat of imminent domain demolition if/when the state decides to expand the beltway.

The house is larger than ours: two stories with one extra bedroom, twice the floor space and a slightly larger lot of land but no garage.


$674,995.

That's almost $200k more than I think it's worth, and three times more than we paid for our home only a few years ago. It's a nice house, but considering the flaws of its location, I think the sellers are exceedingly optimistic.


Despite the lack of occupants, I dropped a newsletter from the civic association in the mail slot. It might help the sale to demonstrate there is an active association of homeowners in the area. Besides, anyone with pockets deep enough to afford the place is someone we'd definitely like to have involved in the association.

Interested parties can see the listing here. The photo makes it look much larger than it actually is, but from a seller's perspective, that's probably a good thing.

Comments

[allanh.livejournal.com]

It's still 1,500 square feet larger and $50,000 cheaper than what we just bought.

And a lot of home sellers on both coasts are being exceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeedingly optimistic right now.

Not that that makes me feel any better, mind you.

(I'm not having buyer's remorse; I'm merely pointing out the ironic juxtaposition. Besides, it feels so good when I stop pounding my head onto my desk.)

[tdjohnsn.livejournal.com]

Wow. That just calls out for having a bat cave underneath.

You couldn't park Kent's minivan in a bat cave though. You'd need something more like this.

[billeyler.livejournal.com]

(sound of jaw dropping)

[apparentparadox]

The photo makes it look much larger than it actually is, but from a seller's perspective, that's probably a good thing.

Yeah, but then you get them in bed & feel really disappointed. Oh, wait. You were talking about a house. Never mind.

[dr-scott.livejournal.com]

Icky pseudo-Colonial, and as Allan pointed out, mere pocket change compared to Bay Area houses. Can't believe they haven't replaced the (presumably converted to living space) garage. I really want to spend my time chipping ice off my car in the early AM!

Another optimistic seller

[rlegters.livejournal.com]

There's a home kitty-corner from ours that's for sale. It's 3 bdrms, 1.75 baths but only 1440 sq ft. He originally wanted $695,000 for it. He's down to $625,000 now, which is still about $100K more than similar homes in the neighborhood. He's done some really beautiful re-modelling, but it's still a little house for that much money. When you open the front door, it just barely clears the living room sofa.
By the way, zillow.com says your house is worth around $525,000.

[paigemom.livejournal.com]

That is a little over twice the square footage and TEN TIMES the price we paid for our house 2 years ago.

The good news is that one with a similar but smaller floor plan than ours is for sale about 4 doors down for $85k.

Which means we might, MIGHT not lose our shirts when we get out of here.