Canal Towpath

GM likes to say that anyone who believes in the power of supply and demand has never tried to find day care in DC. It’s pretty brutal. GM put his name on the list of three centers seven month before his daughter was even born. And despite having “priority” at two of those centers, he didn’t get off the waitlist until his daughter was nine months old.

But it’s about to get (slightly) easier to find day care in Georgetown. Bright Horizons is opening a new day care center in Georgetown this fall. It will be located at 1010 Wisconsin Ave. (just above K St.).

The center will serve 116 children, ages six weeks to five years. It will be open from 7:30 am to 6:30 pm.

GM uses another Bright Horizons center downtown, and he couldn’t be happier with it. If you’re looking for day care, you ought to consider them.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• MRP to sell Washington Harbour for $370 million. Lets hope the new owners keeps the ice rink!
• Make way for ducklings.

3300 block of Water St.

This week in Old Georgetown in Color, GM returns to another old photo he’s shown before. It’s a photo of the Potomac waterfront after a flood. The photo at the Library of Congress merely says “Potomac flood, Georgetown, D.C.” [created between 1909 and 1923].

GM thinks, however, that this flood was from Feb. 1918. Check out this excerpt from a Washington Post article from 2/19/1918:

30,000 Throng Aqueduct Bridge and Neighboring Roads to Witness Wreckage Left By Weeks’ Flood

Everybody nearly was out on the Aqueduct bridge yesterday…watching the ice in the Potomac go by. There were close to 30,000 of them during the height of the ruch witnessing and commenting on the greatest flood the Capital has seen since 1889…A young woman stood on the bridge. She was filled with poetry by the maelstrom which whirled beneath her feet. She grasped her escort by the arm “Ain’t it wonderful what nature can do?” she breathed.

Ain’t it?

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• The photo above came from Tommy Wells’ Flickr stream. He clearly has no fear treading on his opponent’s turf!
• Just FYI: “Georgetown doesn’t have a big drug scene, but many students smoke pot recreationally.”

Dumbarton Oaks

It’s been a while since GM did any deep analysis of Georgetown’s real estate market. But he’s been noticing the prices getting a little out of control recently, so he decided to see whether the stats backed up that observation. And they certainly do.

GM compared the first six months of this year to the first six months of last year (to capture to same annual cycles). And even considering that June isn’t even over yet, volume is up. Price is up too.

From January 1, 2012 to June 30, 2012, there were 94 properties sold in Georgetown. The average price was $1.39 million. But average prices for real estate, especially in Georgetown, can be easily skewed by a few extremely expensive homes. Looking instead to the far more meaningful median number, that was $1.01 million. Even more informative is that the average price per square foot was $689 (the median was only a shade lower at $670).

Now consider the last five and a half months. There were 106 properties sold. The average price was $1.43 million and the median was $1.08 million. The price per square foot was an average $721 (the median was $703).

So in each category the numbers are up. Not ear-splittingly up, but up nonetheless.

In case you’re interested, the most expensive home sold so far this year was 3044 O St., which sold for $8.6 million. As for the most expensive per square foot, that would be Herb Miller’s house, which sold for $7.55 million or $1,353 per square foot.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Pinstripes bowling alley is finalized. They should be open by November.
• Malmaison is now open.

Dumbarton Oaks