Real Estate in MD/DC Suburbs (Columbia, Silver Spring: apartment, rental homes, condo)

[WayneNewton]

My wife and I are looking at 3 BR townhouses in Gaithersburg, Germantown, Montgomery Village, Columbia, and Annapolis between $250-$275k. If we were to purchase such a home, how much could we expect the value to go up and how long would it take to sell at the end of four years? I ask because after attaining my Ph.D., my next job may very well force us to move once again. I have seen several such homes listed with “reduced $10k” or “motivated seller”. Are townhouses a bad investment? Would I be better off investing my $50k down payment somewhere else and renting an apartment for $1200/month, or will I be able to turn a profit with such a property?

Thanks in advance!

[rubytue]

No one here is going to have a crystal ball. Had you bought in 2001 and sold in 2005, you probabky could have turned a minimum of $100k profit and sold in 72 hours. If you held that same townhome til 2006, it might have dropped to $80k and taken 75 days to sell. Who knows that the next 4 years are going to hold. No one can tell you future appriciation nor time on the market,

That said, historically, single family homes appriciate the most. Condo are most suseptable to market flucuations. Townhomes are somewhere in the middle.

[WayneNewton]

Having only purchased single-family homes in Florida, I am just not familiar with the townhouse concept or their ability to appreciate in the region. I don't expect anyone to tell me exactly how much it will appreciate, just to tell me if it would be enough to cover taxes and closing costs. I hate the idea of renting, and if I do end up staying in DC and the prices do go up, I might be priced out of the market if I don't buy now.

[gumby111]

Generally speaking, townhomes in this area follow the market--if single family homes are appreciating, townhomes will be too. And vice versa. In other words, if your only concern is that your buying a "townhome" instead of a "single family" then that should not stop you from buying. With a four year time period, I can't imagine that you'd be better off renting, absent a rather major collapse in the market.

Good luck.

[edog0000]

My husband and I lived in the DC area for seven years and we own a house in downtown Silver Spring, MD, that we are currently renting out. We recently moved to Annapolis (temporarily) and we are renting a sizable home in the downtown area. We are both incredibly knowledgeable about the housing market in DC/Annapolis...but I must say that anticipating what the market might do in the near future is very difficult right now. To get to my point...we are renting our house in Silver Spring for several hundred dollars over our already sizable mortgage...so it's a great deal for us! What's even better is that we are renting a 3 bedroom, 2 full bath historic house in downtown Annapolis for $1500/month, which is easily $1000 less than rental homes in the DC area. My advice would be to rent--in Annapolis--if you're only going to be here for a few years! People feel pressured to buy, buy, buy...but I would not recommend it for the short-term in the current market.