From $100K to $800K on 14th Street: Home at Frontiers Finds Its Price

• October 31st 2013

by UrbanTurf Staff

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Last October a row house in the 14th Street corridor hit the market for $1 million; one year later, it has found a buyer. The listed asking price is $800,000.

1350 S Street was a unit in Frontiers Condominiums, a development of seventies-style row houses that sold for $100,000 to $150,000 in 1998 and whose location 14 years later was among the hottest in the city. Located at the intersection of 14th and S (map), Frontiers was at the very epicenter of 14th Street’s breathtaking transformation. Naturally, it was a developer’s dream.

Two firms — Monument Realty and Lakritz Adler — made overtures to the 54 residents at the community to acquire the whole project; both attempts proved unsuccessful. The bylaws stipulated that a decision to sell had to be unanimous, and there were a few residents who were holding out even at reported offers of $1 million to buy their homes.

Well, at least one owner thought the $1 million figure sounded good, and 1350 S hit the market at $995,000 in October of last year. The price seemed unrealistic, and UrbanTurf responded skeptically at the time:

Tenfold appreciation in just over a decade? It seems like all the conversation with developers has shaped residents’ perceptions of the value of their homes. However, it’s hard to say if each unit has the same value when it’s not being sold as part of a package deal. We’ll follow up if and when this home finds a buyer.

Flash forward a year, and the home is finally under contract. Taking a year to sell, in this market of extremely constricted supply and at one of the hottest locations in the city, indicates that the original price was indeed too aggressive.

In the seller’s defense, their million-dollar asking price amounted to $588 per square foot, which is actually low for that location. And, if they’d heard that a developer had offered a million for a unit, that figure had at least some basis in market demand.

Assuming the contract closes, 1350 S will become the “comp” that sets the market for units at Frontiers Condominiums (UrbanTurf couldn’t find any other units that sold in the last year). It will be interesting to see if other owners now decide to sell, cashing in on appreciation which isn’t as much as hoped by the seller of 1350 S but still represents a dramatic increase over 15 years. It will also be interesting to see what the final sale price actually ended up being.

Further reading:

• From $100,000 to $1 Million in Logan Circle
• Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

* Correction: We originally indicated that the home has sold for $800,000. That is the current listing price; the final sale price will be revealed after settlement.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/from_100k_to_800k_on_14th_street_home_at_frontiers_finds_its_price/7766.