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Resolved: To Buy, Sell or Finish
The softer market "means you work a little bit harder and a little bit smarter," says Cosmopolitan Properties founder Sonya Abney.
(By Nikki Kahn -- The Washington Post)
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Chris Bushara of Arlington is the first to admit his resolutions are more like wish lists. Bushara, 38, hopes to finish the windows on the fixer-upper he bought six years ago. He also wants to redo a bathroom and work on the landscaping, plus other odds and ends. "It's a never-ending home improvement story," he said.
Of course, home builders and developers have set goals, too.
LaZerrick Howard, who owns several rental properties in the District, this year tried his hand at a condo conversion. He renovated four of his units on the eastern edge of Capitol Hill and began selling them as the Courtney Condominiums in the spring. He sold three after several price reductions and is entering the new year with just one unit left to sell.
Erik Bolog, managing partner of Tenacity Group, aims to convert 1,000 condo units in the region in 2007. That's up 25 percent from this year, he said.
Tenacity focuses on condos that sell in the $150,000 to $300,000 price range, and works with tenants so they can buy the units after renovation and become first-time homeowners.
Favorable market conditions, including "stabilized interest rates, available government funding and a large renter population seeking to become homeowners, give us a great deal of optimism entering into 2007," Bolog said in an e-mail. "We are determined to make our resolution a reality."
Cox, the D.C. renter, said that in retrospect, it's a good thing she waited for the new year to come before buying. She looked around last year but was unsure of herself, she said.
"I felt panicked. I wanted to have a place of my own but I wasn't sure I'm able to," she said. "But now I've been saving and trying to live as if I have a mortgage to pay. . . . I just have a lot more confidence. I feel confident that I would find what I want and not what I have to settle for."
