My personal endorsement goes to number six considering it took the most time.

(1) $20,000 Inauguration Rental…In Mitchellville

(2) The Inauguration Rental Chronicles, Part 1

(3) Barack Obama’s Capitol Hill, Pre-Election Apartment

(4) Where Should David Axelrod Live?

(5) Six Reasons to Pull Your Craigslist Inauguration Rental Ad

(6) LEEDing By Example: Why Are “Green� Apartments So Rare In D.C.?

(7) Washington City Paper Moves, Stays In Exact Same Place

(8) Where Should Valerie Bowman Jarrett Live?

Craigslister: Lydia Goring, 66.

Offering: $12,000 for five-bedroom Mount Vernon Square home for the entire inauguration week.

Other Current Occupants: Goring’s husband, Keith Burd, 55.

Location: Close to the intersection of 4th and M Streets NW.

Date posted: 11/16/2008

Responses: None. Luckily, a friend of a friend got in touch with Goring, offering to pay her asking price.

Why: Goring never considered renting out her home until other people repeatedly brought up the idea. “Thank goodness none of my friends called me and said they wanted to come,” she says. At 5,600 square feet, her house is plenty spacious with six bedrooms, though one will be locked as a storage space during the rental week. Her home is also a little more than a block from the brand new Safeway, two blocks from the Mount Vernon Square Metro, walking distance from the Chinatown area, Penn Quarter, and the National Mall. Plus Goring could use the cash at the moment. “I’m retired,” she explains. “I have a few other properties. I had a major plumbing problem in one of the houses, and had to dig up the whole backyard,” she says. That entire job should eat up roughly $9,000 of Goring’s rental payment. As for the leftover thousands, Goring says “You also have to spend money to make it nice for people.” She’s expecting eight guests, and believes her one pitifully rounded screen TV is not going to cut it. So she’s planning on buying two new flat screens (she wanted one anyway.) “You’re not going to be able to go downtown and see everything, and sometimes you just might want to stay here and see it on television—that’s going to be the best view.”

I’ve previously written about Marion Barry’s proposals to fortify an affordable housing fund, which has emptied out in recent years since the economy has tanked. A previous proposal ensured $100 million or 15 percent of the deed taxes, whichever is higher, into a special trust fund for affordable housing each year. Well earlier this week, the D.C. council passed a bill committing $50 million annually into The Housing Production Trust Fund. Here’s more on the law from the Washington Business Journal: Read the rest of “Marion Barry’s Bill Sinks $50 Million Into Affordable Housing” »

Craigslister: Katherine Johnson, 50

Offering: $2,500 for her Capitol Hill apartment with one bedroom.

Other Occupants: Daughter Danielle, 17

Location: Close to 11th and C Streets Northeast, just above Lincoln Park.

Special Requests: Absolutely none. Johnson’s advertisement lays it out as simply as possible: “Close to all events during inauguration week. You name the price. I am willing to match any offers you see anywhere.” That’s it.

Date posted:11/15/2008

Responses: Read the rest of “Inauguration Rental Report: $2,500 Capitol Hill Apartment” »

For years, the Tenleytown community and the city have gone back and forth on how to rebuild a public library shut down in the area in 2004. Mayor Adrian Fenty has advocated for a mixed-use development incorporating in the library. Others have argued to keep the spot quieter and less dense—more of the city -blurring-into-suburbia vibe that Tenleytown has always embodied. As Washington Post columnist Marc Fisher discussed on his blog earlier this year, “The Tenley station is probably the most underdeveloped spot along the more affluent western spur of the Red Line–mainly because of resistance from a relative handful of neighbors who like to pretend they’re living 20 miles outside a big city rather than in the heart of one.”

In July 2008, the city selected a developer to rebuild on the 3.6-acre Tenley Library site, according to the Washington Business Journal. But this morning’s Washington Examiner reveals that whatever plans were in the works, the library’s board of trustees has decided to do their own thing.

The library’s board of trustees has instructed Chief Librarian Ginnie Cooper to build a new Tenley-Friendship Library “as quickly as possibleâ€� to replace the branch that was closed in December 2004, trustee President John Hill said Thursday in a statement. Read the rest of “Tenleytown Library Project Moving Forward Despite Fenty Expectations” »

I heard before about real estate agents and salespeople passing out their business cards, fliers, and materials to transition team staffers. But I never talked to anyone that actually attempted the sales strategy. Well, apparently, it doesn’t work.

The offices, located at 451 6th Street N.W., are blocked off with cement barriers and 24/7 guards, according to Vini Kovach, property manager at The V apartments at City Vista, located in Mount Vernon Square at the intersection of L and 5th Streets.

Kovach called over to the headquarters’ housing department, and tried to go down to the building to pass out materials about her property, which had its opening bash last night and currently has two occupants (out of 244 units total). The sales people were not met with open arms.

“We were absolutely told “No, you can’t do that!!!” says Kovach. Read the rest of “Don’t Bother Heading To Obama Headquarters In Penn Quarter” »

Note: This is not the convent in Eckington. But it is a building moving from one location to another.

The city’s affordable housing crunch has just been slightly, slightly relieved. On Friday, builders will break ground on a new 178-unit apartment building in the Eckington area, according to the Washington Business Journal. Apparently, the project has been in the works since 2004 and would have gotten off the ground sooner—quite literally in this case—if The D.C. Historic Preservation League hadn’t made a fuss about keeping an old convent on the site from being demolished. Instead now, it will be lifted and moved down a hill, according to Chapman Todd, director for housing programs at Catholic Charities.

Interestingly, the only information that I could immediately find about this project are two blog posts from more than a year ago. DCmud posted this account of neighborhood conflict on their site: Read the rest of “Catholic Charities Lifting Convent And Moving It Downhill” »

Craigslister: Patrick Holway, 34

Offering: $12,500 Glover Park townhouse with two bedrooms and two bathrooms

Other occupants: Wife Stacey Holway, 32, and “really large dog” Gus.

Location: Benton Street, just west of Wisconsin Avenue.

Special Requests: No pets.

Date posted: 11/15/2008

Responses: Read the rest of “Inauguration Rental Report: The $12,500 Glover Park Townhouse” »

Yesterday, I wrote about the decision of one development group to LEED-certify their new project, the CityMarket at O in Shaw, future home to hundreds of housing units, retail, and a 71,000 square-foot Giant.  For some reason, the piece—which I’ve been working on for quite some time—has coincided with a relative tidal wave of sustainable design news from this story about upgrading the LEED system yesterday, to this new Washington Business Journal piece about the explosion in green building in the last few years.  

According to the Green Outlook 2009: Trends Driving Change report, starts were up from $10 billion in 2005 to $36 to $49 billion this year and could triple by 2013, reaching $96 to $140 billion.

Here’s why developers are changing: Read the rest of “Report: Green Building Up” »

I guess it should come as no surprise that under President George Bush funding for low-income housing was cut continuously in the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Today’s Washington Post looks at the particular challenges facing the agency after eight years of neglect. According to the piece, HUD has dropped the ball on providing solid solutions to the foreclosure crisis. Also, there’s been political cronyism. And many of HUD’s beneficiaries have been cash-starved for years.

When Obama’s team arrives at HUD, it also will find about 1,900 housing authorities nationwide clamoring for money. In many of the years since 2001, they have been living on 81 to 89 percent of the amount of funding that HUD says they need to operate. Read the rest of “HUD to Obama: Help!” »