Real Estate Blog - Abbott Klar Real Estate

DC Architorture: P.1

I love DC.  DC is among the most liveable and inspiring places to live in America. Simply Awesome.  Everyone knows that Washington DC has some inspiring and monumental architecture but, perhaps lesser known, are some of masterpieces in uglyness.  As we drive round DC showing great houses, we'll take pictures of some of the more hideous offenses comitted in the name of architecture and post them here.  If you have a nomination, send us a quick picture and email.  So here is our first nomination:

The FBI Building:

Brutalism at its most brutal....

Wow, is that ugly!  Even worse is that it is completely disconnected from the street level.  Now this type of "super-block" consturctions is, thankfully, no longer allowed in DC.  When the FBI building was…

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Abbott Klar Real Estate Group sells a large modern condo in Eckington

Abbott Klar Real Estate Group is excited to announce that we sold a fabulous modern loft condo today at 217 R ST NE #A, WASHINGTON, DC 20002.  This condo building was built in 2004 and is one of the larger condos in Capitol Overlook condos.
This spectacular 2 story Condo Loft with ultra modern architecture has 2bedrooms, plus den (or 3rd bedroom) , 2 full bathrooms rear patio and off street parking. Large gourmet kitchen with granite countertops and stainless steel appliances is open to the living room for entertaining. Perfectly located in Eckington just above NoMA and a short walk to the  New York Avenue metro station. Pefect!

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This week in the News

This week in the News: Here are the most interesting (real estate related) articles we've read this week:

1. From the Wall Street Journal- DC more "hip" than Austin?
2. Interesting testimony on the new parking rules.
3. Trulia does't think we are in a bubble
4. H street streetcar wiring going up!
5. Independent movie theater to union market?
6. Long but worthwhile read from the just published 2013-2014 Washington DC Economic Partnership report. 
7. Cool Studio apartment in NYC
8. Zoning changes, parking rules, accessory apartments and corner stores in the Washington Post.

Enjoy the weekend :-)

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DC Breweries

Beer. Ale. Cold Ones. Brewskies. Cervezas. Libations. Delicious golden brew of the Gods. The drink of choice since ancient times, our ancestors did something right! Sorry various Wonders of the World. Most of you don't exist anymore. Beer does, and it's thriving. Our Founding Fathers couldn't get enough of it. President James Madison wanted to create a National Brewery (we already had a national bank, so why not?) complete with a Secretary of Beer (seriously, best job ever!?). Congress said no. Always ruining the fun that Congress. Shame on them. Oh well. With their resurgance in populairty, home and craft brews have taken a bite out of the monopoly of brewing giants like Budweiser (thank God). Microbrews allow for more experimentation of flavors and the…

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We love buyer agents! And you should too.

We must be going crazy. What are we doing?  We here are Abbott Klar Real Estate Group consistently offer half of our commission, as listing agents, to any buyer agent that brings the buyer who buys one of our listings.  Why would we do that?  Why not just sell it ourselves and make twice as much?

Because our clients come first!

When we work as Listing agents we are hired by the sellers to market the property and help the seller get the best price and terms for the seller.  The goal of the buyer agent is the exact opposite.  A Buyer agent works for the buyer (even though in most cases they are paid by the seller) to get the buyer the best price and terms on the property. 

A sale and purchase of a home is a big deal, and we find that everyone is happier…

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Housing inventory is UP!

According to numbers released by RBI this morning  Active listings of homes for sale increased by 5.6% for the Washington DC metro Area.

 The increase was much more dramatic for Washington DC with an increase of 33.5% year over year. 
Here is the chart of active, new and pending listings for the last year in Washington DC.


If you take a few minutes to study the graph you can see (red line)that there was a 33.5% increase in new listings compared to October of last yeasr.  But even more interesting is the fact that the total number of Active listings in October 2013 was DOWN by 4.2%. This means that there are enough buyers out there today to absorb all the additional inventory.  Of course, we should not get overly excited here: yes, inventory is up, but it…

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Alley life on Capitol Hill

We're all familiar with Capitol Hill's beautiful tree-lined streets with a mish-mash of historic Victorian and Federal homes. But what about the Hill's secret streets? It's alleys. The term 'alley' often brings to mind images of a dark, sketchy place. A narrow, dirty, strip of pavement where a criminal is just waiting in the dark to rob you. While that may be true in another area or in another time, it is about the furthest from the truth you can get when talking about Capitol Hill's alleys (and the other alley neighborhoods throughout the City).
As Washington DC has grown and space has become premium, alley homes have shot up in availability and desirability. This isn't a recent phenomenon; it began during one of D.C's first big population booms. In the…

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Giving Back to the Community

With Thanksgiving almost upon us and the holiday season rapidly approaching, now is the perfect time to give back to others less fortunate. Like the Grinch, reach deep down and let your heart grow three sizes this holiday season! Organize a food drive to help brighten spirits and fill stomachs. Donate clothing, like sweaters and warm pajamas, to help keep people warm as the weather continues to get colder. There are so many ways for you to help, here are some local opportunities for giving back to the community this Holiday season:

The Holiday Project

This organization has been serving communities across the country for 33 years. Every year there are millions of people who spend their holidays in hospitals, nursing homes, and other residential…

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DC public charter schools

Washington, DC, offers a wealth of school choice options for families.  In addition to neighborhood public (DCPS) and independent (private) schools, there are also public charter schools (DCPCS). 

• Roughly 44% of DC public school students attend public charter schools. 
• DC offers universal, full-day preschool and prekindergarten to 3 and 4 year olds throughout the city regardless of income or Ward.

New this year is a single application for public and charter schools through MySchoolDC.org.  This single application is intended to streamline and simplify the application process for families.  This application is for:

1. Children to attend a charter school at any grade level (PK3 – 12th grade)
2. Children to attend an Out of Boundary (OOB)…

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Bloomingdale

Located just outside L'Enfant's original boundaries of the city and just under two miles from the Capitol building, Bloomingdale is the perfect neighborhood for that 'suburbs in the City' feel (not to be confused with the hoity toity upscale department store of a similar name). Bloomingdale got a bit of a later start than the rest of the City. While there has been development of the land in some form since the 1820s, it is in the late 1870s and around the turn of the century that Bloomingdale really started to blossom. It initially consisted of mainly industrial buildings rather than homes. At one point, the land was even used as train yards to house the large coal-driven locamotives of the time.  Slowly but surely (an appropriate pace for a neighborhood…

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