E T A T S E L A E R
spring guide
Agents cautiously optimistic about spring market growth
By CHRIS KAIN Current Staff Writer
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Bill Petros/The Current
Designer Patrick Sutton lightened up the 1925 Tudor’s grand living room; landscape architect Scott Brinitzer added whimsical crescents to the gardens.
DC Design House brings 1920s Tudor back to life in Forest Hills
By CAROL BUCKLEY Current Staff Writer
Georgetown to see condo blitz
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he 2011 DC Design House showcases the revival of a 1925 English Tudor that had seen better days before a team of established and up-and-coming designers got their hands on it. But the design team did more than restore the Forest Hills home to the condition of its glory days; it also balanced a historically appropriate look with on-trend installations in every room. And there’s history to consider here: Built for Charles Woodward, founder of the Woodward & Lothrop department stores, the home was later bought by George Wasserman, co-founder of the Hebrew Home of Greater Washington. During its heyday, this property saw grand parties and notable visitors, including Lord and Lady Balfour. The buyer of this 12,000-square-footplus home may take all or none of the fur-
n the midst of the bidding wars that pervaded the District’s white-hot real estate markets of years past, an agent might not have mentioned that a listing of his in Petworth sold after drawing four offers — or that a house in Chevy Chase was listed for $1.5 million but sold for $1.6 million. But after the slowdown of the past few years — and the collapse in other parts of the country — it’s worth noting any multiple offers or above-listing-price transactions as evidence of growing demand. “It’s not across the board like it was, and it’s not crazy bid-ups like it was, but the market is definitely healthy,” said Keene Taylor Jr. with the Taylor Agostino Group of Long & Foster Real Estate. He and other Realtors say that they are beginning to see at least a scattered resur-
gence of multiple offers in some of the “micro-markets” within D.C., where they see an equilibrium between active listings and pending sales. Chuck Holzwarth, a sales associate with Washington Fine Properties, worked with a buyer who submitted one of 13 offers on a Woodley Park house. “It was in a good neighborhood,” Holzwarth explained. “The house needed some work, but it was very well priced.” Such anecdotes point to the state of the market in D.C., at least in certain areas. Buyers in general remain extremely cautious, Realtors say, but they’re willing to go after houses they see as a good value. “Overall, the numbers are good,” said Fred Kendrick, an associate broker with TTR Sotheby’s International Realty. “The numbers are a little bit lower than they could be because of the lack of inventory. For us, that’s the real issue now in the marSee Market/Page R15
And recent numbers suggest that that faith may be well-placed. New assessment figures show the neighborhood’s condominiums increasing in value, while singlene of the most notable features family homes fell slightly. of the recent housing-market Three of those four projects are products crisis in D.C. was the screeching of Georgetownhalt based firm called to the city’s EastBanc, a develcondo boom. Even opment outfit that in parts of the city has grown from its where values first purchase in the remained high, conmid-1990s — an M struction plans for Street town house high-dollar condo— to dozens of resminiums vanished idential, retail and into thin air. commercial holdNow, some of those projects are Artist’s Rendering Courtesy of EastBanc ings in the historic neighborhood. warily getting back The proposed Wisconsin Avenue condo Two of on track, but perbuilding borders on the C&O Canal. EastBanc’s projects haps no neighborwere just introduced to residents last month hood has seen more confidence placed in and would add new condominium units to a the re-emerging market than Georgetown. Wisconsin Avenue site abutting the C&O Four residential projects are now in the Canal, as well as the highly visible parcel pipeline for the area. Two are new construction, and two more propose to redevel- opposite Key Bridge now occupied by a op historic properties. See Condos/Page R30 By CAROL BUCKLEY Current Staff Writer
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nishings that designers have installed here; if they do purchase the items not already snapped up by the visiting public, 20 percent of the price will go to Children’s National Medical Center, also the beneficiary of the design house’s $20 entry fee. That offer may tempt more visitors than it would in other design homes. Unlike in many of the benefit properties, where different aesthetics among rooms can be whiplash-inducing, there’s a continuity here that lets a few themes shine through. Lesson one: Gray isn’t going anywhere as the new neutral of note. From furnishings to the Farrow & Ball paints and Stark wall coverings (both companies are sponsors), warm and cool grays are everywhere. The trail begins in designer Liz Levin’s entry See Design/Page R30
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