A real estate blog has a funny proposition: How much would the White House fetch if it were sold like any other piece of real estate? more ›

As a recent home buyer, this makes me feel like the space I got isn't so far out of the norm -- Curbed wrote yesterday that the District leads the rest of the country in terms of how small our homes are. more ›

The District pulled in $8.7 million during its annual auction of properties with delinquent tax bills, reports Michael Neibauer, including a $4 million surplus because there were several properties up for sale which drew extra interest from investors. more ›

If you want to live in the District's suburbs, your savings on housing costs are certain to be eaten up by significantly higher transportation costs -- so says a new report published today by the Center for Neighborhood Technology and the D.C. Office of Planning. more ›

You guys remember when there were those rumors about Donald Trump looking to purchase the Old Post Office and turning it into a hotel? more ›

It's no secret that Prince George's County has been one of the hardest hit areas of the country during the foreclosure crisis -- but check out this map, courtesy the Wall Street Journal, which vividly depicts the county's struggles. more ›

The federal government has a whole bunch of properties -- at least 12,000 -- they they're looking to offload in order to raise $15 billion. How many of those properties are inside Washington proper? Well, considering the amount of the District that belongs to the government, not too many. more ›

The 42 points our attention to the news that the infamous Real World D.C. house in Dupont Circle will be the new home of the Laogai Museum, which was previously located inside a row house at 1109 M Street NW. more ›

The Case-Shiller numbers are out for December, and Washington's housing market was the healthiest in the 20-city index over the past 12 months. Home prices were up 0.3 percent from November to December, but were also up 4.1 percent from December 2009 to December 2010. more ›

It makes sense that a group who trades in real estate data would know how to play the commercial real estate game. CoStar Group probably deserves some credit for this move, though: Jonathan O'Connell reports that the firm will sell its location at 1331 L Street NW -- which they purchased last year for $41 million -- for a whopping $101 million to a German firm, notching "the most profitable flip of commercial real estate in Washington" since the beginning of the recession. (No word on whether the deal will still allow the new owners to purchase the Cleveland Browns.) On the plus side: according to Mike DeBonis, the completion of the deal will apparently bring in $1.5 million to the city coffers. On the other hand, the sale of the property for more than twice what CoStar paid does sort make one wonder why the Council didn't think to ask about such a potential profit when they awarded the company a ten-year, $6.1 million tax abatement. more ›

Ah, the Height Act -- that singular piece of regulation, whose repeal, many would have you believe, would go a long way toward solving any number of problems that Washington currently faces: from traffic to housing, retail to population growth. Such opponents of the Act will certainly have cringed this morning upon reading this report in today's Washington Post, explaining how a potential development over the rails behind Union Station which would scrape -- or violate, depending on your perspective -- the limit is yet again being slapped with accusations that it will "scar" the area. Oh, the horror, the horror! more ›

It's easy to take the stance that sacred American structures are priceless. But where's the fun in that? Besides, things like the White House are made of tangible materials and sit on land which has appraisable worth, so they can certainly be valued. Occasionally, such frivolous curiosities can even help bolster the monuments' standing as a symbol for the current state of the country! more ›

According to new data from the Brookings Institution, D.C.'s home price recovery is "among the worst in the nation," ranking 33rd on a list of the 100 biggest housing markets. What's that you say? You thought the D.C. housing market was doing pretty well, up, say, 4.5 percent year over year? more ›

That Jimmy McMillan, maybe he was on to something. The Washington Post reports that, according to census figures, one in five renters and one in seven homeowners in the Washington area are funneling more than half of their income to housing costs. And its not only a matter of a lack of affordable housing for low-income residents (though inclusionary zoning initiatives certainly have been dragging over the last couple of years in the District). Middle-class residents are really feeling the pinch, too, even in places like affluent Fairfax County. Obviously, it's difficult to compare dense, urban Washington D.C. proper with other jurisdictions; not too many other areas around the United States have a median rent of $1,300. (Plus, many who decide to spend more on housing in the District do so conscious of the extra cost and to save money on, say, commuting.) But even among those who rake in up to $50,000 a year and live in Washington's suburbs, the Post found many homeowners blasting well over the thirty-percent standard -- nearly double the national rate. more ›

It may not be quite as sexy as the X Prize or the Netflix prize, but MRIS, which is the listing provider for D.C. and quite a bit of the mid-Atlantic region has announced a MRIS Innovation contest to develop a local real estate app, with a grand prize of $25,000. more ›

D.C.-area home prices on the whole were up in August, bucking the national trend. But some Maryland and Virginia homes appeared to be really priced to move in the third quarter of this year, according to data provided by ZipRealty. Three ZIP Codes in D.C. proper appeared on the discount brokerage's "cool" list (20032, 20037 and 20024), which is for areas where homes are selling below list price on average. more ›

Last spring, we noted that Atlantic business editor Megan McArdlejust could not find a tolerable home in the District on which to spend her federally-subsidized home buyer tax credit! McCardle received a fair amount of criticism from various sources for saying things like there are no Metro stops in Anacostia. (But there is a Ray's the Steaks nearby!) more ›

Michael Neibauer reports that Shiloh Baptist Church, who owns several vacant properties along a stretch of 9th Street NW (check out our thorough history of covering these properties here), could get a tax break for redeveloping them. Councilmember Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) has proposed legislation which would reclassify the properties at 1526, 1528, 1532, 1533 and 1534 9th Street NW as Class 1 residential (instead of Class 3 vacant) if Shiloh spends money they received from the sale of other buildings on 8th Street on its planned Victory Village complex at those addresses. (Victory Village, which broke ground last week, will also be tax-exempt, once it gets built.) So, excuse me while I scratch my head a bit: wasn't it just last year that the city found that the Church's properties had been improperly classified, causing the city to miss out on nearly $100,000 in revenue -- and now Evans wants to change that back, during a period of financial drought, no less? If the idea of the city bending over backwards to give the reward of a sizable tax break to a property owner who took nearly four years to really get cracking on fixing up some of the city's most loudly-complained about buildings strikes you as odd, you're not alone. more ›

Spring homebuying season (and the accompanying federal tax credit) have come and gone. According to data from ZipRealty, the outer Virginia suburbs were where the action was the second quarter. For example, in the "hottest" ZIP, 20109 in Manassas, buyers were willing to pay 1.61 percent above the list price. The second hottest market was also in Manassas, and two of the top 10 were in Sterling. more ›

April's Case-Shiller index was released this morning, and D.C. saw the strongest price appreciation in the 20-city metric, jumping 2.4 percent from March to April. In comparison, prices fell in New York by 0.3 percent. The national index was up 0.8 percent, so D.C. was way ahead of the curve. more ›

The historic Randall School property in Southwest D.C. -- which art collectors Don and Mera Rubell purchased for $6.5 million from the Corcoran Gallery of Art back in February -- will get a new look, courtesy of three designers. more ›

It's been just under a year since PB Capital Corp. picked up the aging Watergate Hotel at foreclosure auction for $25 million, and now it looks like that price was indeed right. This week, PB Capital finalized the sale of the 251-room property to New York-based Euro Capital Properties Inc. for a cool $45 million, Melissa Castro reports in the Washington Business Journal. more ›

The National Association of Realtors released their quarterly data today by metropolitan area. As reported by the Washington Business Journal, the headline number is that first quarter prices in D.C. were up 4.7 percent year over year for single-family homes. However, prices were actually down quarter over quarter. more ›

Life doesn't appear to be a stroll in a rose garden lately for accused White House crasher Carlos Allen. more ›

The Case Shiller Home Price Index was released earlier this week for January. The 20-city index was positive year over year for the first time in three long years. But one chart caught my eye shows the relative strength of D.C. home prices compared to other cities in the index. more ›

Hot news from the Washington Business Journal this morning on the long-stalled CityCenter DC project. Tierney Plumb reports that mega-law firm Skadden has signed a letter of intent to lease 350,000 sq. ft. of office space at the yet-to-be constructed project planned for the old convention center site. more ›

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Looks like a deal is nearly in place for a Giant Food to go in to the empty lot at the corner of 3rd and H Street NE, according to a Washington Business Journal report. An agreement is said to be pending between the grocer and Chevy Chase-based developer Steuart Investment Co. Steuart was recently the recipient of a $5 million tax abatement from the D.C. Council to help speed up development of the parcel. more ›

Apologies to anyone reading this who actually does make a living playing ball in the National Basketball Association, but its probably safe to say that if you're looking at this right now, you will never, ever have a closet this large. Ever. more ›