McEnearney's Howell on Urban Housing Shift Back to D.C. (Audio)

soon be warranted. Tenured on two thirty seconds, yeald one point seven six percent, SMP five hundred Index down nine to two thousand forty seven, A drop there of point nine percent. Has stackdown fifty nine, a drop of one point three percent down, Industrials down one hundred eighty points, a drop of one percent, Gold up six ten the ounce to twelve eighty, a gain of five tenths of one percent. Crude of eighty three cents of arrow fifty five on West Texas inter Media, Crude a game of

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Business flash. You're listening to Taking Stock with Kathleen Hayes and on Bloomberg Radio, Broadcasting live today at the Kimpton Morrison House Hotel in Alexandria, Virginia, the Washington metro area home of Bloomberg ninety one and one oh five point seven fm h D two one of the big reports the markets have had their eye on today and certainly the three feed officials who are suggesting maybe rate hacks are possible in June housing starts new home construction having

a nice game last month of six point six percent nationally to nearly one point two million at an annual rate. What is going on in the Washington D C. Area? How about people who left to go to the suburbs trying to rush their way back into the district. Joining us now is David Howell. He's c i O, it's Chief information officer at McNerney Associates, a leading Washington d C. Metro real estate company. Thanks for joining us today, David. Thanks appreciate the operating to be here. So what is

the big trend now? I when I first came to the East coast about thirty years why can't believe it? So long I started coming to Washington for work. I was coming financial news in the fit. I remember what the old district was like. It is so different now, it really is, and and the trend has been with real development and real boom in d C, and people

have been migrating more towards the district. There's been a real huge development boom in d C, with huge development towards apartments and condos um and particularly with orientation towards apartments and condos without parking, without with any orientation towards towards cars, which is a completely new development. David speak about nightmare community, I'm wondering, what's the commune? Can it be like tonight? How come long can people expect to to stay in in traffic if let's say the whole

the city's in full swing. Well, and I think that's part of what's driven the move towards the district people that have been migrating from the outer suburbs. An hour long community is not at all unusual, and particularly if they're driving. And we've had some recent problems with Metro in particular. Um and although they will get those problems fixed, UM, it's washingt d C typically has the second longest commutes in the country. UM And so forty five minute, hour long,

hour and a half commutes are not unusual. Well, you know, we look earlier today to Mark Jinks. He's the city manager for Harry and Alexandria, and he talked about I asked him what was the biggest thing in his forty years in managing, you know, urban development he's a city manager here. Of course, the rail link for the Washington C area. He said, it's made a big difference. Does Washington d C need more of what you just described dwellings that don't rely on cars and public transportation that

mose people around it does? And I think, UM, those areas in the closer in suburbs and d C that have planned well for transit have the one are the ones that have really prospered. Alexandria City, Arlington have done that extremely well. Some of the outer suburbs of Fairfax County they're learning they have not that done that quite as well. They have not done as dense planning around

the metro stops as Arlington and Alexandria have. The Maryland suburbs have done that probably better than some of the Virginia suburbs have. They're learning. UM. The silver line out through some of the areas in Fairfax County they've learned and they're doing that better UM and they're profiting from it. UM and So those closer in suburbs that did that well in the beginning, they've done very well. UM. The ones that are doing it now, they're going to prosper

in the long term. And the revitalization that you see, let's say in a place like Alexandria, can you comment on that, you bet? Again, those those areas that are around the metro stops that that allowed for dense um development in the very beginning, they've done very well. The ones that UM Vienna in Fairfax County immediately comes to mind, where they had single family houses and broader townhouse communities rather than town centers and more dense development. UM. They're

having to rethink their planning. Now. Where would you like to see a new metro stop. That's a great question because frankly, those new met pro stops are really hard to come by now because the land is so hard to to purchase now, is so expensive to do UM. I think, frankly, those new metro stops probably aren't going to happen now. What's really going to happen now is they simply have to rethink the zoning and the planning

around where those metro stops are now. So speaking of things, getting more expensive, not going to new associates, your real estate company. Prices go up, commissions get higher. Business must to be really good. But what does it mean for the potential home buyer and the potential home seller in

this area? You know, Ultimately markets seek balance over time, and where we've seen this explosive growth in d C um as compared to the suburbs ten years ago, in the last boom, it was the suburbs that were booming that it will seek balance over time. Um As prices have gone up in d C. Ultimately, it's going to reach a point where prices have come to a point where people will start to move back more to the suburbs.

Not the suburbs are dead now. Is just a little bit more affordable in the suburbs, and it will get people will come back to the suburbs. New York City, Coastal California. A lot of foreign he has come in and help boost those prices. Is that happen in washing d C. I don't think it's happened in DC as much as it has in San Francisco. In l A and New York we've seen some of that, but just not as much as it has in those other big cities.

Tell me about the issues that your customers are most concerned about in an interest rate environment with low as interest rates are now. Obviously rates are not the issue. Down payment is the biggest issue for most of our folks. Um And and not that that's an enormous issue, but down payment is the bigger issue than payments. Well, David Hall, we thank you so much for joining us today. Thanks for the opportunity, appreciate being here. I was just gonna ask,

I want to. I just wanted to if there's one thing that you could describe now and say it's going to be different you come back in a year from now or so on, what is the what do you think is gonna be the biggest change here? I think the biggest change here is going to be jobs, because our biggest challenge here has been with the sequestration and the cutbacks and defense spending UM that really arecipitated the downturn in our market here. That's eventually going to get better.

So I think our market here is going to be better a year from now than it is now. Um And frankly, Northern Virginia market was impacted more to the negative than most of our market because of the cutback and defense spending. Contractors here are learning how to to to adjust for that. So I think our market is gonna be better a year from now than it is now. Very interesting. Thank you very much, Thank you appreciated David Howell. He is the chief information officer and executive vice president

of McInnerny Associates. They're based in Washington, d C. Thank you very much. We are broadcasting live from the Kempton Morrison House Hotel and alex Hendria, Virginia. This is Bloomberg Radio. Coming up Bloomberg Law brought to you by Deutch Jakins PC. If you feel you've been unlawfully terminated, you owe it's yourself to call the law firm of Detch Jakins now for a free phone consultation called eight hundred four nine eight zero.