2 Legs Up With a 2nd Home

It wasn't anything fancy, worth about a third of her longtime home in L.A., with its outdoor deck and hot tub, which she values at more than $1 million. The condo features an electric stove, which Auerbach would not have tolerated had she been looking for a primary residence. But the apartment didn't need much updating, and no fuss was what Auerbach wanted in her pied-à-terre. There was no concierge service, but her family was close by. And the condo is on the second floor, which she felt would keep the place safe when she was away.

She liked that she could walk to movie theaters and restaurants, but also to parks and tree-shaded streets with deer-crossing signs.

"That's the beauty of D.C.," she said. "It's just perfect for my second place. It's made me realize how much I love the city."

A taste of the urban life, real estate agents said, is at the top of the list for many local second-home buyers.

"What people seem to want in pied-à-terres is proximity to entertainment, shopping and dining . . . or the potential for that in the future," said Jeff Sachse, of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage's Dupont Circle office.

Sachse and his business partner, Rick Quinones, said up to 20 percent of their business comes from pied-à-terres or from investment condos whose owners intend to use them as second homes in the future. Established neighborhoods such as Georgetown and Logan Circle are popular for the former, while the H Street corridor in Northeast has begun to attract people looking for future pied-à-terres , they said.

What Mark Goode mostly wanted was a peaceful place to come home to -- so far this month, he has traveled to France, Germany, Switzerland and Argentina.

"It's just nice not to have to pack and unpack, to be able to get off the plane and be in your own bed at night," said Goode, who used to stay in hotels during his twice-weekly trips to Washington. "While a hotel can be a nice luxury, it's not very restful."

So Goode, 45, whose primary residence is in Miami Beach, has been testing out a two-bedroom, 2 1/2 -bath unit in a condo building at 3303 Water St. NW in Georgetown. He spends an average of three nights a week there, and plans to buy it at the end of the year.

The location was a big draw -- it's just two blocks from the office of Secondary Life Capital, an insurance investment company he founded in 2004. Besides, Goode said, he has dreamed of living in Georgetown ever since he was stationed as a captain at the Marine Barracks in Southeast Washington in the early 1990s.

Like his high-rise condo on Miami Beach, the building is near the water and boasts spectacular views. Instead of the ocean, his D.C. home looks out to the river and Rosslyn skyline, while the rooftop pool offers views of the Washington Monument. He has an exercise room in the unit, where he works with his Pilates instructor when he is in town.

"It's very secure, and very hassle-free -- everything is taken care of," Goode said. "You can close the doors and leave for two weeks and not think about a thing."

Babak Fouladi of London spends less time in Washington -- about 10 weeks a year. But he became convinced that buying a second home here was a sound financial and lifestyle investment after seeing neighborhoods transform.

"Every time I come here, I see the city booming," said Fouladi, 37, an information technology director for Ericsson, the telecommunications company. "It makes more economical sense for me to actually have a house here. I really enjoy the new neighborhoods."

So he put money down on a $400,000 one-bedroom unit at 1010 Massachusetts Ave. NW, scheduled for delivery next year. It's a neighborhood, Fouladi said, that didn't exist when he was a student at George Washington, from which he graduated in 1993.

Fouladi and his wife, a fashion designer who also travels to Washington on business, want to give the condo a modern decor -- something different from their two-bedroom, pre-World War II flat in London. And when it is finished, Fouladi looks forward to spending weekends here, too, instead of rushing to the airport after Friday meetings.

"I really want to make this city my second home," he said.