After returning from his job as a writer for the American Civil Liberties Union one evening this spring, William Potter grabbed an iron pry bar and, with a few whacks, demolished the kitchen of his Petworth rowhouse.
For Potter, 25, this act of destruction was just another thing he thought he would never accomplish so early in life. He certainly didn't think so a year ago, when he was living frugally in a group house in Mount Pleasant and saving for a down payment. Now the first-time homeowner has a second job: rehabbing his house to a livable standard.
Potter, three months into a kitchen-less lifestyle, is among a growing group of young people who came to Washington for school or work and now want to own their own little bit of it. According to Census Bureau figures, thousands of people in their late twenties and early thirties moved to the District from 2000 to 2004, even while Washington's population dropped overall.
Most people in this age group are still renters, and most of this region's growth is in the suburbs, not the city. Still, there is a notable group who, like the "urban pioneers" of the 1970s, seek to take risks on up-and-coming D.C. neighborhoods in the hope that their willingness to buy houses rather than apartments now gives them space to grow as they start families later.
It's not always easy. For one thing, as prices in the District have soared, gentrification has come under fire from those who say that new, well-off homeowners are displacing long-time, poorer residents. Potter said his neighbors "either see me as increasing the property value -- that's a good thing -- or as a gentrifier. I don't know. I don't really feel like either. I guess I'm both. There's no way around it."
It's not easy financially, either. On top of sometimes-hefty monthly mortgage payments, young owners of old houses often face pricey renovations, some of which they must do largely on their own in fits and starts as the money becomes available. Some receive financial help from parents, who give thousands toward down payments and hope that the area's lucrative real estate market will offer a hefty return. Others take on roommates to help shoulder the burden.
Many of these young homeowners say they bought at least in part because of the fear that if they did not act now, they would forever be priced out of homeownership.
"Every time I moved, my rent was increasing and my living situation wasn't necessarily improving," Michael Halpern, 27, said. "Everything was increasing in value so much that I'd have to buy now or I'd be living in Falls Church. It was a now or never situation."
After four years of renting rooms in group houses throughout Northwest Washington, Halpern wanted more space than an efficiency could provide. But on his salary from a nonprofit, he could qualify for a mortgage of only about $160,000. He wanted to buy in the District, in part because of the $5,000 federal tax credit available to first-time buyers in the city. He convinced his parents to co-sign for a loan, and in August, bought a $386,000 three-bedroom house on Shepherd Street in Columbia Heights. To the help pay the bills, he took in two roommates.
Potter said that because of his youth, he struggled during his search to convince family and friends that his desire to buy was serious, though he remained firm and found a real estate agent he trusted. He bought his house, an 82-year-old three-bedroom on Longfellow Street in Northwest, for $325,000 in March, using a fixed-rate 30-year mortgage. Potter used savings and money from a personal injury lawsuit settlement to put 10 percent down.
To say the house needs work is an understatement. The only vestiges of the old kitchen are pipes that snake through holes in freshly hung drywall. But it was the best he could find -- other houses in his price range had water damage or featured shoddy renovation jobs that were left half-done; one even included the tools needed to complete the work. That people were bidding on some of these properties "as-is" was a shock to him.
"Another place I looked at was just a shell," Potter said. "This city isn't meant for people who really just generally want a home."
