Condos in Petworth (for sale, real estate, crime)

[BarbJ]

Tell me about Petworth - transportation, shopping, atmosphere, condo prices.
What are its boundaries?

[saganista]

Petworth is somewhat euphemistically called a 'neighborhood in transition'. It is one of many DC neighborhoods that had a particularly hard time after the riots that followed the assassination of MLK in 1968. By 1980, it was a seriously depressed area, awash in crime and drugs. It has been a long road back, but truthfully, the journey there has just begun. Not much help arrived in the 80's or even the early 90's, but the success of renewal projects in other parts of town, and rapidly rising housing prices in the inner and middle suburbs rekindled interest in the prospects of urban living, and many of the District's more blighted areas began to gain attention. Petworth remained for a while on the fringes of that, benefitting only indirectly until the Georgia Avenue-Petworth Metro station opened in 1999. As it had in other areas, the arrival of Metro opened new doors. Whites and Hispanics began moving into the area. There was some tension over that for several years, but after a while, people began to realize that the people being displaced in this were actually the hoods and the worst of the drug dealers, and a remarkably diverse community began to see the possibility of a jointly written future for itself. Corporate money began to take an interest in the area and some definite progress has been made. That's about where we stand today.

The area was originally built out as a suburb in the building boom of the 1920's and it has some wonderful architecture left over from that period. It also has tons of green space in the grounds of the Soldiers' and Airmen's Home and its separate golf course, a couple of major cemeteries, and the campus of Catholic University. It is less than four miles from Silver Spring and Takoma Park, and the same from the heart of downtown DC.

Specifically, transportation includes the Metro Green and Yellow Lines from the southern end of the neighborhood, and various bus routes, principally along Georgia, Kansas, and New Hampshire Avenues. Shopping remains a problem. There is a Safeway, a couple of CVS's, and miscellaneous Mom & Pop operations, but major retail is not in place. It is in the works. The atmosphere is eclectic. There are so many influences in Petworth that none of them clearly dominates, although a substantial portion of the bars and restaurants are Hispanic. Condos are plentiful along Georgia Avenue in particular. They can be had in the $250-300K range. Townhouses and row houses are quite plentiful and are running $350-450K. The SFH stock kicks in just above that and goes up to a practical max of perhaps $800K. Quite a bit of renovation has been done on older homes, some of it very good, and some done on the cheap with results that show it. All in all, you might pick up a property in Petworth for six figures less than you would pay for an equivalent in a neighborhhod that has already moved higher up the curve. It would help of course if you didn't mind the sight of the odd local drug dealer or two, or the occasional sound of gunshots. Some people don't deal with those sorts of things very well.

The quasi-official boundaries of Petworth are Georgia Avenue and North Capitol Street, along with Rock Creek Road and roughly Kennedy Street...

[saganista]

Hmmm. The word 'Church' seems to have been omitted from 'Rock Creek Church Road'. It was late and I was doing that on edit after realizing I'd forgotten to include the boundaries, and poof...there it went. There is a Rock Creek Drive over in Woodley Park, but I don't think there is a Rock Creek Road in DC. There is Rock Creek Church Road, however, and it indeed serves to mark the southeastern boundary of Petworth...

[BarbJ]

Thanks so much for your detailed info on Petworthy. Perhaps I can find a condo I can afford there. After having lived in a 3,000 sq ft home for 30 + years i don't know if my husband and I can squeeze into a 600 sq ft condo in DC. Perhaps a "transitioning" neighborhood such as Petworth is the answer.

[saganista]

If you're still in after the shopping, drug dealers, and gunshots info (this is transitional urban living), it's certainly worth taking a look. You can get at least a peek at what sort of housing is currently available for sale in the area on good old Trulia - Real Estate, Homes For Sale, Sold Properties, Real Estate Maps. Petworth is not an actual town or city name, so you'd need to search the zip code which is mostly 20011. If it were me, I'd give some preference to places the further south they were. The south side is a little softer and closer to the Metro station. The Safeway is also on the south side, on Georgia Avenue just up from Quincy Street...