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Scaling Southeast's Washington Heights
A rehabilitated building at what is now called Brandywine Crossing, where Denise Kuenzel, lower right, was able to purchase her first home.
(Photos By Nikki Kahn -- The Washington Post)
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Tolson said he is charging $10,000 to $20,000 less than market price for each condo, in part because he wants the units to sell quickly. Of the 114 units, 40 have closed and sales for 18 are pending. The new owners are largely coming from the District and Prince George's County, with a handful from Virginia.
Kimberly Stribling, 30, a single mother, had been renting in the neighborhood and looking for a place to buy for two years.
"The housing market is ridiculous," said Stribling, who sews book bindings in the Government Printing Office. "Everything was between $200,000 and $300,000, which is out of my range."
One day, she drove past Brandywine Crossing and slowed down to read the sign. "It looked nice and it said mid-$100,000s," she said. "That was for me."
Kuenzel, the postal worker, is paid $47,500 a year, a comfortable income in many parts of the country but not enough to afford much in the overheated Washington real estate market.
"Just when I was getting ready to buy, the buying and selling frenzy took off," Kuenzel said. "I was so behind the power curve, I thought, . . . 'I'll never catch up.' "
She put her name on a waiting list for one of the city's several affordable housing programs "like 3,000 other people," she said, but feared "they'll never get to me."
Then, while trolling the Internet, Kuenzel came across Brandywine Crossing.
Her two-bedroom, one-bath basement condo is about 750 square feet. With a parking space, the unit cost $138,450, less than the price of some studios in more affluent neighborhoods.
"Other places have hardwood floors and granite counters and fancy Jacuzzi tubs and they cost $200,000 and up," she said. "I've got laminate floors and laminate countertops and a plain tub and plain tile floor. But I love it. It's mine, and it's brand-new. I've never lived in something brand-new before. I'm cleaning it all the time to keep it looking new."
