Realtors on Capitol Hill are already starting to feel the effect of the Obama presidency as the newly elected president's advance team and staff begins migrating to the nation's capital.

A New York Times article recently documented how condo sellers are sprucing up their units for an administration that will most likely house in the urban corridors of Washington, D.C., where condominiums make up nearly half of the inventory.

The Times noted the change from the Republican favoritism toward the Old Dominion state of Virginia over the last eight years. "Georgetown, for decades the fabled center of the city's power elite, was said to have been displaced by the bucolic Virginia enclave of McLean, or 'the new home of America's ruling class,' as The New Republic put it in a 2006 cover story."

Washington real estate market watcher Fred Kendrick of Southeby's is quoted by the paper, saying there has been a recent "trickle of significant sales, including five houses in Georgetown priced from $1.5 million to $5 million … . And Mr. Kendrick predicted there would be more to come from new members of Congress and the Obama administration, some of whom have recently purchased property. 'The assistant secretaries, the undersecretaries, they'll buy,'" he said.

Meanwhile, the business is picking up in the region. December 2008 statistics show that in five of the Zip code areas surrounding the White House, homes are selling faster than a year before.

Published: February 9, 2009

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