During the last decade, Nancy Itteilag has lived in four homes in Georgetown, a neighborhood of tidy colorful townhouses, cobblestone streets with old trolley tracks and some of Washington, D.C.’s most high-profile figures.
Itteilag, whom the Wall Street Journal named one of the country’s top 10 real estate agents in 2007, buys all her personal investment properties here. In total, she’s owned five “gems.” Today, she rents three of her homes and lives in the fourth.
“If you ever want to sell a property in Washington, D.C., even in a soft market, Georgetown is highly saleable because there’s no new construction, no competition,” she said.
In the past year, sales have slowed in the nearby tony neighborhoods of Foxhall and Glover Park, but Georgetown’s market has remained strong. Between January and the end of September, 98 single-family homes have sold compared to last year’s 86. Meanwhile, the number of days on the market has increased only six days.
The neighborhood’s housing stock is 10 percent condos, 10 percent detached homes and 80 percent classic Georgetown townhouses, usually dating back to the turn of the last century or before. Toward the north side of the neighborhood lie the ultimate Georgetown status symbols: mansions set back from the road so that they have front yards — homes like that of the late Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham, which sold for $8 million in 2002.
The right house in Georgetown — one that’s fully renovated, has parking and goes on the market when there are few comparable listings — still commands top dollar. The median home price for the first nine months of 2008 was $1.3 million compared to $1.2 million for last year.
For condos, though, prices have dropped nearly 20 percent compared to the first half of 2007, according to William Rich, vice president at real estate research firm Delta Associates. However, this segment of the market isn’t very big: Only 26 units sold last year, and sales levels this year are keeping pace.
Luxury developer EastBanc, for one, is feeling the squeeze. In 2004, EastBanc completed construction on 3303 Water Street, a stunning 70-unit building overlooking the Potomac River, which was sold out by the time residents moved in late that summer.
The group’s latest luxury condo project — located in the West End, a neighborhood next to Georgetown — isn’t faring as well. A 92-unit condo building, 22 West has a rooftop pool and second-floor garden terrace planted with tall grass to block views of an unsightly Exxon station below. Apartments range from $800,000 to $3.8 million, and the building, which opened in the summer, was only 40 percent sold as of late September. “I believe we’ve delivered a great product at a fair price, and we won’t drop the prices,” said Anthony Lanier, EastBanc president.
Regardless of the area slowdown and
the country’s financial instability, two
historically significant properties in Georgetown could further boost sales numbers in
the neighborhood.
In August, Tutt Taylor & Rankin Sotheby’s International Realty listed the Halcyon House, a 30,000-square-foot mansion, for a potentially record-breaking $30 million.
Roughly a month later, Long & Foster Georgetown one-upped them by announcing the sale of the Evermay Estate, a grand brick mansion on 3.5 acres of land, for $49 million. The property, located at 1623 28th Street N.W., once included 150 acres of land stretching all the way to the northern grounds of the White House, the Treasury Building, the Old Executive Building and Lafayette Square. The estate was purchased by diplomat F. Lammot Belin in 1923 and was passed down through heirs.
“There must be some confidence that this is not a disastrous time to put high-level properties on the market,” said Ginny Chew, a real estate agent with Arnold, Bradley, Sargent, Davy & Chew.
Chew hasn’t seen any major changes in her clientele since the boom ended. If anything, buyers these days are just more cautious. “We’re just kind of waiting with our fingers in the wind,” Chew said.