Vacant properties are not a sexy topic, and the Government Accountability Office is no Danielle Steele, but the agency's recent report on the matter is a pretty interesting read for anybody who cares about how all those empty buildings came to be that way and their effect on local governments. Even though loan servicers are [...]

The other side of building new housing units is making good use of the ones we already have. According the D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, there are now 2,257 vacant properties in the District, some of which are characterized as "blighted," and many of which have exemptions from the steep tax because they're [...]

Hoagie House: The red building on the corner of 4th and N Street NW in Shaw that's been vacant and boarded up as long as most people can remember. Finally, the top tax rate for blighted property taxes is kicking in, and the local Advisory Neighborhood Commission is supporting the owner's bid for a break [...]

With the housing market going absolutely bonkers in D.C., the longest-stalled projects are creeping closer to reality—even the Ontario Theater on Columbia Road in Adams Morgan, which has been empty for years now, is likely slated for condos.
A few months ago, owner George Pedas told local ANC commissioner Steve Lanning that he wanted to move quickly on a [...]

It's always puzzling to see properties sit vacant in fast-developing neighborhoods. Sometimes there are bureaucratic reasons for the delay, and sometimes owners are just absent. In the case of 905 R Street NW–one of the most painful eyesores in Shaw–the District transferred the house as part of a group of properties to the New Columbia [...]

Thelma Nelson, busily putting a girl’s hair in curlers with her shiny gold fingernails one Friday afternoon, is a lot richer than she feels.
Like many old-time businesses on H Street NE, her Magic Fingers hair salon has seen its clientele cut in half by four years of streetcar construction along the strip. And when [...]

I know it seems like the District has vacant properties like chickenpox (the kind that doesn't make you immune after you first catch it). Indeed, there are nearly 3,000 properties currently registered as vacant around the city, and yes, they're concentrated in Ward 7 and 8.
But we're actually better off than many places, like Detroit, [...]

City beautiful types already had enough reason to growl at downtown real estate tycoon Douglas Jemal earlier this week, with a post by vacant property watchdog Cary Silverman chronicling the history of a decrepit mansion at 11th and K Northwest–it's covered by a series of wrap ads that make the eyesore even more glaring. Turns [...]

It's data time! In case you needed yet another reminder that our fair city is vastly divided economically, Housing Complex assembled some pie charts for your viewing pleasure.
On the right, population per ward (numbers via Neighborhood Info DC, as of 2000, the latest year for which figures are available) is fairly equal.Below that, registered vacant [...]

When the District wants to offload real estate, there are lots of rules about how the city must prove that it indeed no longer needs the property, how the developers have to bid on the property, for how much the resulting units of affordable housing can be sold, how much of the work must be [...]