Letter from Georgetown
Jim Bell, a Sotheby’s International Realty executive in Washington, DC
Walk N, O, or P Street this week, and you’ll find the neighborhood fully committed. There are pumpkins stacked up on Federal stoops, skeletons lounging in window boxes, and spiders the size of small cars clinging to 200-year-old brick. Some of these houses have been decorating for generations, and the competition is quietly fierce. By Halloween night, the blocks around 31st and Q will be shoulder to shoulder with small witches and their parents. It is, I’d argue, the best night of the year to see what this village really is.
The real estate market
Underneath the pumpkins, the market is doing what I wrote about last week: holding its breath.
But “quiet” isn’t the same as “soft.” At the top, Georgetown buyers are patient and well-informed, and they won’t overpay for the wrong house. The right house still moves. Inventory under $5 million remains thin, and the best homes go private before most people know they're available.
My read: the buyers are here. They’re waiting for November 3rd to tell them what the next two years look like. When the waiting ends, the ones who’ve done their homework now will move first.
At the table
Restaurant news is better than market news, and it’s happening in the alleys.
The table everyone wants this fall is Ox & Olive. Ryan Ratino, the chef behind Jônt and Bresca, has tucked a 50-seat steakhouse and martini bar down the cobblestones of Cherry Hill Lane. It’s dark, moody, and beautifully done. The beef is sourced from small producers and dry-aged, and the martinis are worth the trip on their own. Order the house version, made with olive-oil-washed gin. It’s the most grown-up room in Georgetown right now, and exactly where I’d take a client this week.
A few alleys over, Alfie’s has finally landed. Alex McCoy and Justin Ahn’s cult Thai pop-up from a decade ago now has a permanent home off 31st Street. It’s small and market-driven, with natural wines and a back patio worth fighting for. Next door, Flora Pizzeria is on its way, and Michael Rafidi of Yellow is bringing Bizzeria to the alley off Potomac Street.
We also said goodbye to some old friends. Pizzeria Paradiso closed its M Street ovens this summer after 24 years, and El Centro’s Wisconsin Avenue space is waiting on a new concept from a Los Angeles group. That’s Georgetown’s oldest story: the rents rise, the old guard leaves, and something new and smaller and more interesting moves in around the corner.
The view from here
People ask whether a quiet market worries me. It doesn’t. Georgetown has watched every election since 1800 from these same sidewalks. The houses outlast the headlines. The pumpkins come out every October regardless of who’s winning.
Next week, I’ll walk you through Kalorama.
Jim Bell
TTR Sotheby’s International Realty | Washington, DC