ABCDE
REAL ESTATE
saturday, april 3, 2010
MORTGAGE RATES
Steadily gaining
5.08% iRates
for 30-year fixed loans rose to the highest rate since the first week of January. E2
GREEN SCENE
Shake off winter
Spring is a time for renewal, planting and lots of questions from gardeners in seek of help at home. E3
6@washingtonpost.com/realestate Searchable listings of home sales and tax assessments, plus a mortgage rate
calculator, community profiles and updated real estate news
WHERE WE LIVE
AMY REININK FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
Writer Brit Wyckoff in the living room of his Rosedale home.
District’s Rosedale feels the beginnings of revival
New places to go, lower home prices are draws
by Amy Reinink
Special to The Washington Post
From the outside, there’s little to distinguish the Langston Bar and Grille from the takeout joints and convenience stores around it. But the interior of the upscale Benning Road soul-food restau- rant, with exposed-brick walls and modern furnishings that make it look like any hip down- town happy-hour spot, hints at a sea change — both for the build- ing, formerly home to a low-pro- file cobbler, and the Northeast Washington neighborhood it calls home.
Residents of Rosedale, located just east of Eastern Market and Capitol Hill, say the neighbor- hood is in the midst of a revival that will make businesses such as the Langston Bar and Grille the rule rather than the exception. “Rosedale is definitely on an upswing,” said Rosedale Citizens’ Alliance President Necothia “Nik- ki” Bowens, 44, a medical office manager and fourth-generation
Rosedale resident. “The streets are looking better, and we’re get- ting more residents coming out to volunteer to improve the neigh- borhood even more. There’s a lot of hope in the neighborhood right now.”
Rosedale has recently started to see signs of the kind of revival the nearby H Street corridor has en- joyed for years, with an influx of bars and restaurants and a host of young professionals buying the large, affordably priced row- houses that characterize the neighborhood’s housing stock. Bob Coomber, 31, a staff attor-
ney for the Office of Compliance, a nonpartisan agency created by Congress, moved to Rosedale with his wife last year after realizing they could get “twice the house for half the price” compared with nearby neighborhoods such as Eastern Market. “Even six or seven blocks away, we were looking at teeny places, condos, without yards or parking spaces, in the mid-$600s,” Coom- ber said. In addition to home prices, Coomber said he enjoys being close to Capitol Hill and running on trails along the Anacostia Riv-
rosedale continued on E2
ILLUSTRATION BY MARK FREDRICKSON FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
THE NATION’S HOUSING
Kenneth R. Harney
As deadline looms, tax credit moves few repeat buyers
C
ould Congress’s ambitious second round of home purchase tax credits — especially the $6,500 repeat-buyer credit — turn out to be a wimp in terms of economic stimulus?
With the April 30 deadline to sign home purchase contracts looming for the $8,000 first-time buyer credit and the $6,500 version, some real estate and building experts are concerned that fewer consumers may be motivated by the credits this spring than last fall. The $6,500 credit, in
particular, appears to be generating relatively little buzz among shoppers. As Gloria J. Ruesch, a broker with N.P. Dodge Real Estate in Omaha, put it: “I don’t think most people have any idea about it, or just don’t understand it. No one’s talking about it.” Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, confirmed that the repeat-buyer credit “may not be sufficient to
really move people to list their houses for sale and buy another.” Although there are no hard statistics yet, he said, for many move-up or downsizing owners, “this is not a clear-cut deal.” Yun estimates that upward of
2million home purchase and sale transactions were stimulated last year by the $8,000 first-time buyer tax credit. His initial projections were that as many as 1.5 million purchases could be triggered by the availability of the $6,500 credit for repeat buyers from late 2009 through mid-2010. Both credits were designed by Congress and the Obama administration to stimulate new economic activity and help create jobs. The $8,000 credit is intended for people who have not owned a home during the past three years and who sign up to buy one by April 30 and close by June 30. The credit is a revised version of last year’s and comes with higher qualifying income limits for purchasers. But it also
harney continued on E3
Homeowners watch for stormy weather
As coverage an costs change, insurance review becomes critical
by Kimberly Lankford
Special to The Washington Post
omeowners in the Washington area are relatively lucky when it comes to homeowners insurance. The average cost of coverage is less than $700 a year in Maryland and Virginia, well below the national average, and slightly more than $1,000 annually in the District. And locals have plenty of coverage options — even people with waterfront property can choose from several insurers. With drifting cherry blossoms the harbingers of spring storms, and the start of hurricane season June 1, it is a good time to review your homeowners policy to make sure you’re protected from the weather, especially since there’s a 30-day waiting period before flood coverage takes effect. One of the biggest mistakes people make is to base their home’s insurance value on its market value. The numbers are totally different. You need
H
enough insurance to pay to rebuild your home if it is destroyed, which can be a lot less than its market value — especially in the D.C. area, where land is so expensive. You can’t reduce your insurance cover- age just because your home’s market value has de- creased, either. “Construction costs and labor rates have not
gone down,” said Arthur Slade of the D.C. Depart- ment of Insurance, Securities and Banking. Insurers used to pay whatever it cost to rebuild your home, but now most limit coverage to 120 to 130 percent of the insured value. When you take out a policy, insurers will ask a lot of questions, or send an agent or appraiser to your home to calcu- late the coverage amount. But it’s up to you to change your limits if you make major home im- provements. It can cost less than $50 a year to boost your cov-
erage by tens of thousands of dollars, if you need it. You can get a report with your home’s replacement cost estimate for $7.95 at www.accucoverage.com, which accesses the same building-cost database that insurers use.
Fill coverage gaps
Most homeowners insurance policies exclude a
few key risks that could mean thousands of dollars
insurance continued on E4
E
AX DC MG PG VN VS R
House Lawyer
Borrowers must make sure prior mortgages get released, or they can face big
problems on their next purchase. E2
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