If this is YOUR house, that you want to live in, the 250k bid is low. The quality isn’t going to be great.

If it’s an investment property you can roll the dice and see where they end up but it will likely be a pain all the way through.

The National Mall is really impressive as a park on its' own with all the major sites, and when all these trees are at their peak bloom, it brings serious crowds.

People book hotel rooms for "Cherry Blossoms" because these few weeks around the peak bloom are just generally considered a good time to visit D.C. Then marketing picks up on it.

Typically pay $60-$100 per hour based on their experience/past performance and how urgent the project is for Comms contractors.

As long as 20-40 year olds keep getting money printed at the bank of rich parents. That and dual income lawyer couples from already wealthy backgrounds.

That's true. If you're paying $2,000 a month for 2/2 that's a great deal anywhere in D.C. proper. I guess I'm saying people cast judgement on new, small apartments with nice finishes when they've never really checked the prices.

They have 2/2 950 SF units on the 2nd and 3rd floor right now for $2700-3k here.

Do you have in unit W/D or central HVAC?

https://www.monroestreetmarket.com/sightmap/

As an aside, the rates for this building were way higher than they are now when I looked at it years ago after it opened.

I find anti-shoebox folks are far more likely to come from a wealthy background where they grew up with tons of space(or a neighborhood with character) and were surrounded by groups of folks who look down on small apartment renters(that's for college kids!).

Run an actual cost comparison on a brand new building marketed as "luxury" versus some run down converted row house with stompy and sons living above you next door. There's typically no difference because the baseline for a room for rent STARTS at 1.2k, and once you start accounting for all the demand from people who want "yards", more "square footage", or a parking spot, it's literally all within hundreds of bucks a month.

I hate hearing this. See if you can transfer within the building with no charge or if they will let you out of your lease early.

Just a reminder for next time to do your research.

Units with "issues" are priced lower than other comparable units on higher floors or with better views for a reason.

Tons of people in their 20's and 30's subsidized by old money working in sectors that don't pay a lot. You'd take that 49k salary if your dad was paying for your rent, phone and car too.

Rent the first floor of a row house from an independent owner where your entry/exit opens to the back yard for a dog like that, IMHO.

That's going to be your best option for a big dog on a budget and it may be hard to find the right deal.

Cops just need to pull more people over for traffic violations and nuisances.

I’m not going to be surprised if the man children riding their 3-wheelers(or Land Rovers) around alone blasting bass at 4 AM are riding dirty.

OP, have you ever been to a house party at a rural college in the Midwest? Because so many drivers can surprise you and turn into villains in my experience.

I'm no puritan, but once you move away to an area where people take the Subway or an Uber out to the bars, and you come back to the Midwest, the drunk driving will turn your stomach.

Nearly every single one of the kids will drive home drunk in a truck or SUV their parents bought for them, many of them solo. Kudos to those who actually DD.

Guess where Dad is? He's also driving home over the limit after a night at the bar or out with friends, because "Uber is too expensive" and people who aren't poor or disabled don't take the bus in Ohio.

"I'll have to Uber all the way back here tomorrow morning to pick the car up! That's like 40 bucks that I don't have!"

It's cheap compared to the other 5 big, dense, American cities - LA, SF, DC, NYC, Boston.

A 2b/2b, say looking over the lake in Chicago on a high floor, is typically going to be a lot cheaper than one on the water in Seattle, or right in downtown Portland or Austin, or downtown Denver or Miami.

Lived there for years and moved 7 blocks away for better prices.

A few comments:

• For people without cars who are walking or biking to other parts of D.C., who work downtown, the location can't be beat. Penn Quarter or Logan would have been our second most convenient choices, but at the time they were more expensive, and Penn Quarter has no grocery store. You aren't isolated on the East side of town or the West Side, you can walk to Adams Morgan or Eastern Market, etc.
• MVT businesses are great, but unfortunately the nearby downtown businesses have been declining over the last 5 years heavily. We had a Barnes and Noble and Bed Bath and Beyond, boutique shops on F and E St's, and A LOT more bars and fast casual style restaurants in say 2015-2018.
• MVT is full of transient people compared to most other neighborhoods because it's so close to downtown, which can be good or bad. We met SO many good people there, but relatively there are a lot of subsidized young people and transient people who love to complain and can't wait to get back to their family elsewhere. Contrast that with say Columbia Heights or H St, and you can feel the difference in demographcis.
• The Safeway is average and you are far from other options if you walk. I really prefer the Whole Foods and Trader Joes combo I have now.
• On K St in MVT, the Metro isn't that close. It's ONLY a 5-10 minute walk sure, but I live a block/stone's throw from the metro now so it's all relative.

The price premium for traditional architecture in cities like D.C. is not realistic for the average person.

If people are going to pay 2k a month for an apartment, can you blame them for wanting an in-unit washer dryer and central A/C even though the exterior facade is cheap looking?

Cue the irrational, hypocritical, and environmentally ignorant dislike of high-rise or dense living for reasons like "it is branded as luxury to be more marketable," "there isn't enough parking," "who would want to live in that shoebox," or " having in-unit laundry and a fitness center is bougie."

Program working as intended. STOP for one second.

Actually take the time to imagine if it was easy or free to get RPP there?

Now consider your building has probably 250+ units with other people of your exact demographic.

Now expand that thought to your block. There are a TON of people bringing cars they don't need here because "it's not that expensive."

Rant: The not insignificant number of white middle aged dudes in work attire(either bomber jacket or black trench coat) with a completely stuffed gym bag and basically a stuffed gigantic hiking backpack with what like....7 gaming laptops and 2 water bottles? People backpack the globe with less crap than these dudes have in one bag for a work commute.

You need to be in a taller, no pets, concrete building, on a higher floor, facing the "quiet side" of the particular building/block. Do your research and vet the construction and unit in person.

You may want to rethink that no studio requirement with your budget, and go for a well-built, modern, large studio on a higher floor to get the quiet you want.

I’d recommend Adams Morgan/Georgetown/Capitol Hill if you want the high end city life with green spaces. If you can deal with less density and hipness, try Takoma or Cleveland Park.

NOMA and Navy Yard have the best selection and pricing for new apartments if you’re into that.

Stock in the older areas is more expensive and tends to be dated, but they have more green spaces for dogs.

I have seen a lot of plans and bid on road projects in DC with dedicated bike lanes.

Bike infrastructure isn't' expensive. The real issue is political and industry will.

From the top to the bottom, American planners, owners, architects, and contractors tend to be people who have never left the suburbs in their life.

Flown out of DCA for years. I get to the airport an hour before board time with no checked bags usually.

I've only had a couple long(like 30 min to an hour in a line) security wait times, and it was because they were understaffed and had too many planes going out at about 7-8 AM so a huge rush came all at once. Today is probably one of those days.

Just that the criticisms are rooted in classism and ignorance.

World class cities who have done “shining examples” of every fix you could be talking about don’t “grind to a halt.”

Housing analogy:

Housing is expensive!

We better encourage more home sales and bail out everyone with a mortgage(practically a 1:1 correlation with the top 50% of wealth in the US) because renters aren’t real Americans with families!