The Petworth real estate market is booming and I expect that to continue in 2012. Petworth is one of the few areas in DC that still offers affordable homes. The Petworth neighborhood is metro accessible with easy access to downtown. Young professionals and families are moving to the area because of the convenience and affordable housing prices. I consider Petworth to be Columbia Heights Jr.  The rise in prices in Columbia Heightshas been caused by investor activity in the commercial and residential sectors.  Columbia Heights has seen massive improvements to its main commercial corridor along 14th St NW.  Now Petworth is starting to see a lot of changes to its main commercial corridor (Georgia Ave NW).  Petworth has seen the following shops and restaurants…

The Washington DC real estate market continues to be one of the strongest in the nation. It was a busy weekend out there at open houses in DC. While I was out showing buyers homes it was sometimes challenging to get them through the doors! I believe the warmer than usual weather as well as high demand due to very low interest rates is playing a big role in the high activity level. In my opinion the warm weather has created a earlier then ever spring boom in the Washington DC real estate market. The spring market looks like it will be a continuation of the current Washington DC real estate market with perhaps a little more inventory and a lot more demand. According to MRIS the Washington DC real estate market inventory level in January was down 27.59% from…

Columbia Heights Mansion Converted to Luxury Condos

The pace at which developers are buying up dilapidated old row houses in Columbia Heights is astonishing. If a property needs updating to bring it up to market value, then it's common to see multiple offers from local real estate developers. One of the largest row houses to be renovated in the past few months is on the 3500 block of 13th Street NW in Columbia Heights. We spoke with the developer about his plans for the once stately property. Plans are in the works to convert the 4000 square foot plus building into two luxury condos, each of which will be approximately 2000 square feet and be 3 bedrooms and 2.5 baths. The bottom floor condo will be offered at 879k and the top floor condo will be offered…

Petworth short sales are a great opportunity for homeowners and investors to buy property at a discount but the risks need to be understood.  The biggest risk with purchasing a short sale is the time that it takes to go to settlement.  The time that it takes to close a short sale can easily exceed 90 days from the time the seller accepts your offer.  Buyers that are on a time crunch may not be able to purchase a short sale because of this.  If you need to move by a specific date, then you should consider a regular sale or perhaps a foreclosure.  A foreclosure sale can also have delays which are usually related to title. 

There are 15 Petworth short sales currently on the market.  The price range of these properties is from $75,000 to $425,000.  There…

Welcome to the Rock Creek Realty blog! My goal is to cover what’s happening in different neighborhoods throughout DC including upcoming events, tasty restaurants and reasonably priced bars, general real estate tips and, of course, Rock Creek Realty news.

We’ll start the first blog about a trip to Cleveland Park.

Last Friday night the wife and I had an impromptu date night. She makes the decisions (ha) and decided on sushi. We live in 16th St Heights and didn’t want to trek all over the city, so we headed over to Cleveland Park for some sushi rolls at Spices. Cleveland Park was alive with people, pets and cars creeping for a parking spot at 7:30pm on a Friday night. On the way to Spices we passed St Arnolds mussels bar, which was crowded, so we made a…