Is DC Running Out of Group Houses to Rent?

• July 28th 2009

by Mark Wellborn

If you and your friends are looking to upgrade from the shabby house that you have been living in since college, this may be a more difficult time to accomplish that move than in years past. The City Paper’s Ruth Samuelson is reporting that it is getting harder and harder to find a group house in DC where the rent is semi-affordable.

In an attempt to help a recent college grad with her housing search, Samuelson emailed a friend who is living in Columbia Heights who, with his current living mates, is interested in moving. Here is an excerpt from his email:

We had three people looking hard for two months, and not more than a handful of places showed up. 4/5/6 bedroom houses in columbia heights/mount pleasant for 700-1000 per person were just not popping up on craigslist. Petworth maybe. A mile north of the metro, sure. But nothing comparable in location to what we have now, and certainly nothing close to the price/location combination.

So it seems there are housing options, just perhaps not in the desirable places that grads have grown used to. One thing that there did not seem to be a shortage of was young professionals looking for a place to live: The emailer had already interviewed ten potential roommates.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/is_dc_running_out_of_group_houses_to_rent/1179.