Clarendon1021's reservation list is drawing similar people, said David W. Faeder, managing partner of Fountain Square Properties, which is developing that project along with the Carlyle Group and Walnut Street Development.
About a quarter of those expressing interest in Clarendon1021 already own townhouses or single-family homes, another quarter are first-time home buyers and about 15 to 20 percent are renters, Faeder said. The rest either own a condo elsewhere or did not disclose information. Two hundred of the building's 415 units have sold since Sept. 17.
The Monroe at Virginia Square held a preview party for potential buyers.
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There is another big group that sometimes gets overlooked -- investors. According to a recent study by research firm Delta Associates, "investors represent 30 to 35 percent of the condo market" in the Washington area, chief executive Gregory H. Leisch said. That's higher than in all other condo markets in the nation except South Florida, Leisch said.
Investors represent about 25 percent of condo sales in San Francisco and New York and about 20 percent in Chicago, he said.
Leisch said two-thirds of Washington investors are in it for "the short term," to "flip" or assign the contract to another buyer before they sign, or to resell the unit soon after settlement, which is about 18 months after the original contract. Both maneuvers would let the original buyer get in on the huge price gains condos are showing, gains that can start when the building has been on the market for only a few weeks.
The other third of Washington investors, Leisch said, are in it for the longer term, "they're buying it for rental income . . . and may actually intend to move into the unit someday."
The potential for profit is what drew real estate agent Steve So of New Star Realty & Investment and his client to a three-day open house last week for the Monroe at Virginia Square Metro.
The nine-story, 79-unit building is selling from the $500,000s to $1.2 million for units ranging from 785 square feet to 1,890 square feet. It won't open until early 2006, so the preview event was held in a sales office down the street. The office has a luxe model kitchen and bath to entice potential buyers.
Real estate agent So works in the Fairfax office of New Star, which calls itself the biggest Korean American real estate company in the United States. He said his client was looking to buy both as a homeowner and as an investor, planning to stay nine months to a year. The reason for the short stay, he said, was obvious: the expected return.
Most people looking these days, he said, are investors.
Leisch's most recent data show condo prices areawide rising 23 percent during the first nine months of 2004, compared with a 21 percent increase posted for all of 2003. Prices of single-family houses were up 19 percent in the first nine months of 2004, compared with 13.6 percent over the same period in 2003.
Condo units in the close-in suburbs are showing the biggest growth, said Leisch, with median prices up 24 percent so far this year. Prices of D.C. condos are up 21 percent.
Nationally, sales of existing condos and co-ops set a record in the second quarter of 2004, according to the National Association of Realtors. And median prices nationally were 12 percent higher than the same quarter the year before.
The expectation that condos will keep jumping by astounding numbers has driven the market here to an unheard-of pace, said the experts, but Leisch and others caution that the future can't sustain such numbers.
