Inauguration Housing: The Market’s Weak People! was originally published on Housing Complex on Dec. 31, 2008, at 4:17 pm
Finally!
Much praise to Politico reporter Nancy Cook for writing a piece about how the inauguration housing market just plain sucks.
Of the roughly 550 listings on inauguralhomes.com, a paid classified website devoted to Inauguration rentals, only 5 percent have been snatched up, according to the site’s co-founder, Kevin Diamond.
A similar site started by the D.C.-area Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc. has leased just one of its roughly 150 properties as of Dec. 30, says real estate agent Hill Slowinski.
And other residents who posted their properties on Craigslist are finding the market weak. They attribute it to the sluggish economy, the rush of the holidays and the fact that many would-be Inauguration attendees remain uncertain of their plans because most of the 240,000 tickets to the swearing-in ceremony won’t be distributed until early January.
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I’ve been telling friends—not to mention random people I met on vacation—that the rental craziness being reported around the country is a lot of hype, and not a lot of action. Since November, I’ve been chronicling my friend’s attempt to rent her place. Despite many advertisements, numbers trickery, and a lot of enthusiasm, she hasn’t entered into discussions with a single serious renter. There seems to be a lot of interest in inauguration housing (as this blog’s traffic numbers show). However, I think most of it is coming from people in this area looking for a quick buck.
