26 May 2011

Buy your house in Trinidad before it's too late!

Real estate prices are on the rise in desirable neighborhoods. Happy days are here again, right? If the house at the right is an indicator of what's to come, we might be looking at a rapid rise in prices here in Trinidad.

I went to an open house for this listing a couple months ago. While it's a nice house, there are more than a few things I thought kept it from being a "great" house. The ceiling height in the finished basement was quite low (I'm 5'9", and I had to duck to get around in many places), two of the three bedrooms are carpeted, the floor plan is a little unorthodox, and what should be a spacious backyard is instead a giant concrete parking pad. In an area that has plenty of on-street parking, it's a shame that this space isn't a nice backyard/garden.

Based on recent neighborhood comps, I didn't think the house was worth the listed price of $379,900, but I was shocked to see yesterday that it sold for higher than list price: $381,000. Most neighborhood home sales in the last couple years have been under $300,000. If houses in Trinidad are approaching $400,000 again, it won't be long until the stories of neighborhood "gentrification" will start being written in the papers and other blogs. Others have mentioned that the southern part of the neighborhood will start to see real estate prices rise as H Street continues to redevelop and the streetcar comes online. Is this the beginning of that wave, or just an anomaly?

19 comments:

  1. but Trinidad is so dangerous and scary and full of dog sized rats and rat sized roaches. though, on the plus side, there's the easy access to drugs and guns.

    if you keep spreading these myths about livable neighborhoods i will never be able to afford a house.

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  2. It would be lovely to see the value of our home begin to approach what we paid for it back in aught-six, but I'm not holding my breath. Not that I have any desire to move, but it'd be nice to be able to refinance our mortgage with the amazing interest rates these days, something that's not possible while owing more than the house is worth. So let's hope it's a wave.

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  3. I've been watching the Trinidad market for roughly a year now and have definitely noticed an upward trend in prices. Whereas it once seemed to me that most houses would list ~250K, the 300K-400K range now seems to be the norm. This is unfortunate, as I don't think my budget can go much beyond 300K right now, and even that'd be a strech.

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  4. rosedale...rosedale...rosedale

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  5. 345k for mine and I got a huge house with a garage. Love it. Edge of trinidad is where it's at

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  6. Anonymous: Welcome to the area. Where did you buy (don't have to give that info if you don't want to).

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  7. 1200 block of florida ave ne. Bought last year.

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  8. Anonymous: Awesome houses on that block. Huge back yards. I looked at one with a separate garage/carriage house before buying further up in the neighborhood. Would have loved to have it, but out of my price range.

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  9. There are still plenty of "cheap" houses to be had in Trinidad my block alone has three for sale at about 200k. I live on Trinidad Ave proper.

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  10. fyi - the sold price does not include any incentives or closing cost credits..so the net price can be quite a bit lower.

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  11. This neighborhood is one that's never going to turn around. A week barely goes by without someone getting killed over some drug bullshit back there.

    Not to mention these were cheaply constructed low income homes when they built 70 years ago. Trinidad always has been and always will be a working class neighborhood and that's putting it nicely.

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  12. Anonymous 1:31 AM: Your comment is ignorant and incorrect, to be blunt. To say that the homes in the neighborhood were cheaply constructed makes me wonder if you've ever actually been in any of them. Most of the southern part of the neighborhood is much older than 70 years - our house is nearly 90 years old. And it was constructed very well - our home is solid, with much of the original elements still intact.

    As far as the 'killing per week' comment - look up the statistics. I think there have been 2 homicides in the neighborhood in the last 2 years. It's not paradise, but you have no idea what you're talking about.

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  13. IMGoph is correct. The prior comments are rampant speculation seemingtly based on nothing factual. The truth is a lot of homes haven't been kept up in outward appearance(s) but they are FAR from constructed cheaply. Research....

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  14. Listen this place is horrible you DONT want to move here. :O) Hi neighbors!

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  15. some of the houses are definitely smaller than others and have a shabbier outward appearance, making it evident that they were the lower-cost models of their day vs others. I'm confident that with some(not all), you're putting lipstick on a pig when you renovate them. Just my IMO though. I think the neighborhood is great!

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  16. rokals,
    houses built for the poor generally don't last 90 years, and if they did, the faults in their construction would be extremely obvious. the shabbiness that you see in some houses wasn't built into them, it is the result of years, even decades of neglect.
    in other words, your superficial analysis is simply incorrect.

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  17. Good to see there are plenty of structural engineers and carpenters on here that can judge a house by walking by (or more likely google maps since they have probably never stepped foot in our neighborhood)

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  18. A house for the poor built 90 years ago is still better built than a modern day mcmansion built for middle class who think they're rich.

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  19. Change is definitely coming to Trinidad, but when it came time to buy I looked at both Trindad and Rosedale and put my money in Rosedale-- similar prices, similar proximity to H, similar distance to metro-- but with the benefit of being right on the upcoming streetcar line on Benning, and two blocks from Capitol Hill proper.

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You can be curmudgeonly too, but let's try to be civil and constructive here, ok?