2016 Realtors see market on steady upward trajectory amid tight inventory By MARK LIEBERMAN current Staff Writer
I
nventory is slowly on the rise across the city after several years of stagnation — but according to area Realtors, the market still can’t keep up with high demand. The District saw 1,261 new listings last month, a substantial 27 percent increase over March
2015, according to the Local Market Insight report released last week by RealEstate Business Intelligence. The number of active listings in the city also increased yearover-year, from 1,040 in 2015 to 1,268 last month. However, that’s far below the numbers from five years ago, when more than 2,000 active listings were on the market. Meanwhile, the average num-
ber of days on the market saw a tiny year-over-year increase, from 43 days to 44; five years ago, the average duration was nearly double that. “Right now, what I’m seeing, as much as I didn’t think we’d see it, is a really strong market — good houses selling quickly and a lot with multiple offers,” said Brad Rozansky of the Rozansky Group of Long & Foster Real
Estate. The median sales price also inched up 1 percent to $505,511 this year, compared to an even $500,000 in 2015, and now mirrors the median sales price of five years ago. The overall dollar volume in sales rose at a steeper incline, up 17 percent to nearly $400 million. “We’re still running into multiple offers in the majority of prop-
Where to find Northwest’s habitable modern houses
erties. Not every one, but the majority,” said Kevin McDuffie, Dupont/Logan Circle branch vice president of the Coldwell Banker residential brokerage. “It’s very competitive.” Despite the uptick in price, Realtors maintain that the market currently favors sellers due to inventory constraints. “There’s no land left to add See Market/Page Re6
INSIDE
By LEE CANNON current correspondent
A
lthough many residents envision center-hall Colonials and Federalist row houses when they think of typical Washington architecture, modern architecture has a surprisingly firm foothold in the District, especially in younger neighborhoods in Northeast and Southwest. Some of the best modern single-family homes, though, are situated in Northwest D.C., standing alone or in pockets. To uncover some of the modern homes hidden in plain sight, and learn about the history of the architectural movement in Northwest, take to the backstreets of Forest Hills, Cleveland Park, Kent and Shaw. Some of the great names in architecture from the early days of modernism left their fingerprints in Northwest. In a Smithsonian Associates lecture on Feb. 10, G. Martin Moeller Jr., senior curator at the National Building Museum, traced the history of modern architecture and design in Washington — from the earliest examples to more recent work. “D.C. has a complex relationship with modern architecture, more so than other U.S. cities,” Moeller said. “People often have an eat-your-veggies mentality about why the public should like Brutalism, but there’s a need for discernment. There’s good and bad in everything. Plus, some D.C. modernism is unorthodox.” Moeller mentioned the Hugh Newell Jacobsen house known as Four Pavilions on
Prominent architect’s own home, nestled among Forest Hills trees, now on market
— Page RE3
Brothers foster advisory role with new real estate firm
— Page RE4
above: Photo © Julia Heine / left: Photo © anice Hoachlander
Modern architect Mark McInturff favors large open spaces in homes’ interiors, such as the kitchen in the home above. The Spring Valley home at 5063 Overlook Road NW, left, was designed by Robert Gurney. University Terrace NW in Kent as an illustration: “Modern buildings usually have flat roofs, but this one has peaked roofs. Jacobsen is not commonly considered a modernist, but I think he is.” Moeller went on to mention more iconic homes, many of which are located in Northwest. Walter Gropius, one of the founders of the Bauhaus movement and leaders of The Architects Collaborative, designed two houses in the 1950s for the Hechinger and England families on Chain Bridge Road NW in Kent — around the corner from the mod-
ern home his students Leon Brown and Thomas Wright later built on Arizona Avenue. Long admired as among the first “capitalM modern” single-family homes in Washington, this pair of houses uses much of the iconic modern architecture vocabulary, such as plentiful use of glass as walls and railings that divide spaces yet maintain the unity and free flow of inside to outside. The Hechinger house came onto the real estate market for the first time in January of this year, and lasted only five days before going under contract. See Modern/Page Re14
Open floor plans are now the norm for Northwest interiors
— Page RE12
D.C. Council bill would ease reuse of vacant properties
— Page RE10