Sunday, April 03, 2005
Home Ownership
End radio silence. Spring break is over, and my lovely wife and I have returned from northern Virginia a few more hundred thousand dollars in debt.
We successfully found a place to live for the next few years, but let me tell you: the housing market in DC is out of control right now. Bidding wars. Waiving appraisals and home inspections. Back-door deals. Twenty-plus offers per house. Houses going for well over 110% of their listing price. Price inflation that you can track week-by-week. Hardly anything staying on the market for more than five days.
I wish I had a house to sell in northern Virginia.
We're tired, we're emotionally (not to mention financially!) exhausted, but we're happy with what we found: a cute three-level townhouse (blue with white shutters) within a 10-15 minute walk of the metro (albeit the end of the line).
This is seriously all we did this week. Well, that's not true. Friday morning we took a walk around the Tidal Basin, to see the buds that will become cherry blossoms next week. We met up with a few old friends in the evenings. But this spring break was no vacation.
One thing this house purchase does is firm up our calendars a little bit. We don't get to take possession of the house till the first full week of July, so we'll be staying in Cambridge till then. But it's just good to know what's going on. It makes me more excited for the future. At least now I know where the future will be happening!
We successfully found a place to live for the next few years, but let me tell you: the housing market in DC is out of control right now. Bidding wars. Waiving appraisals and home inspections. Back-door deals. Twenty-plus offers per house. Houses going for well over 110% of their listing price. Price inflation that you can track week-by-week. Hardly anything staying on the market for more than five days.
I wish I had a house to sell in northern Virginia.
We're tired, we're emotionally (not to mention financially!) exhausted, but we're happy with what we found: a cute three-level townhouse (blue with white shutters) within a 10-15 minute walk of the metro (albeit the end of the line).
This is seriously all we did this week. Well, that's not true. Friday morning we took a walk around the Tidal Basin, to see the buds that will become cherry blossoms next week. We met up with a few old friends in the evenings. But this spring break was no vacation.
One thing this house purchase does is firm up our calendars a little bit. We don't get to take possession of the house till the first full week of July, so we'll be staying in Cambridge till then. But it's just good to know what's going on. It makes me more excited for the future. At least now I know where the future will be happening!
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