Housing or City Living is Uniformly Sexy, all the people are beautiful, etc.

This building will be going up on the site of the old Giant Supermarket on 14th Street NW in Columbia Heights, about two blocks from Tivoli Square.

Today's Express (not online) has a special section on Condo Living, which includes a few pages focusing on Columbia Heights. The big question is whether or not there are way too many condominiums in the production pipeline, if there is enough demand. I was surprised to see that the development above has units from the $200,000s, since most prices I've seen range from $450-$600/square foot. Last week's Examiner real estate section feature an Adams-Morgan "loft" condominium (new construction) for which the asking price is $1.4 million.

Anyway, I'd try to pick up a copy of today's Express (which also has a page on Zach Schrag, author of the newly published book about the Washington subway system, Great Society Subway.)

Speaking of overhang, Wednesday's Washington Times had an article about the declining inventory of rentable apartments, "2BR, 2BA, 2MUCH." From the article:

Anthony Grossi rents a one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment in Arlington and recently signed a six-month lease that raises his rent $75 per month. The increase, more than 4 percent, is typical in the Washington area, which continues to be one of the hottest apartment markets in the country, with average occupancy exceeding 96 percent, above-inflation rent growth, and demand far outpacing supply for affordable rental units, said Gleb Nechayev, vice president and senior economist at Torto Wheaton Research, a business unit of CB Richard Ellis...

More bad news for renters comes in the form of fewer options. About 9,800 rental units were converted into condominiums last year in the Washington area, but only 6,300 new rental units were built, Mr. Nechayev said. But Ms. Smith said no one knows how many of those conversions were bought and then turned back into rental properties. She acknowledged, however, that the smaller market definitely helps Bozzuto's bottom line, and said the company is seeing retention rates increase almost across the board.

Index Keywords: housing