What is the next Rental Market to “Pop” in DC?

As DC area workers commute into the city, more and more are finding housing options within city limits that are as affordable as their Northern Virginia and Southern Maryland counterparts.  With commercial and residential development spurring great strides in recent memory of locales such as Columbia Heights and U Street, & H Street – which will be the next rental market to “Pop”?

Outside the obvious, SW Waterfront and Navy Yard I’m looking at you, there are a few more neighborhoods that are ripe for development, and increasing rents, that may not be as straightforward.

Take Trinidad / Carver Langston for instance – bordered by the National Arboretum to the East, and Gallaudet University to the West, this pocket of small multifamily units and row-homes is ripe for redevelopment.  With generous lot sizes can often offer off-street parking, and opportunities to create intimate outdoor spaces, there is more private space to enjoy outdoors than similar properties closer to the city center.  For transportation, easy access to the new Streetcar infrastructure, will make it easy to access public transit.  With views of the capital from your back porch, it’s easy to sacrifice that quick bike ride to work, when similar apartments a mile and a half closer to the Hill will run you an extra 1-2k per month.  From a lifestyle standpoint, with trendy watering wholes like Bardo just around the corner, and easy walking to H St. nightlife and commercial districts, it’s easy to compare the Trinidad of today with the Columbia Heights of 5 years ago.  Many professionals in the know consider Trinidad today to be what Petworth was 5 years ago – about 10-20% redeveloped, and rapidly growing.  As more millennials who enjoy city living, but can’t yet afford the big city rents, enter the workforce, Trinidad will continue to renovate it’s inventory and provide product for this generation of young professionals.

Posted on June 14, 2015 at 10:12 pm by Brandt Tingen 703-674-6777