Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Price and Sales Update

Good news on the sales front for Riverdale Park Station.

They have sold all but one remaining Dawson in buildings 5 and 6 (Lots 40-59) so that means only one completed unit remains for sale.

Building 7 and 8 (Lots 60 - 89) which will probably be completed by the end of the Summer (August/September) and already ALL the Cassidy units have sold even with the $543,000 BASE price tag.   When you consider that the Cassidy's are all end units and also require large add on's to price that are not even optional along with the selected options these are probably all selling in the upper 500's now.   Back when there was only a $25,000 difference between a Cassidy and a Parker (in March 2017) I wrote a blog about how this pricing was totally out of wack and they needed to raise the price of a Cassidy here:

http://riverdaleparkstation.blogspot.com/2017/03/dearth-of-cassidys.html

At that point they had sold all the Cassidy's already and had a 12 person waiting list for Cassidy's and building 3 had not started yet.

Now that there is a $73,000 difference between just the base price of a Parker and a Cassidy along with an additional 35k of options you need to add for a Cassidy the pendulum has may have swung too far the other way.

Although everything I wrote in that blog is still true and the advantages of the Cassidy are still there we are now talking 187 square feet extra for $100,000 now.  But the market is speaking and folks want the extras like the 2 car garage and bigger master closet and extra bedroom and are willing to pay for them...

In addition to all the Cassidy's (8 units) 2 Dawson's and 3 Parker's have also sold in Building 7 and 8.

That means in Building 7 and 8 currently 13 out of 29 units have sold  (16 units remain, all Parker's and Dawson's).

I found out that the lots in building 9 and 10 are not released for sale yet  (Lots 90 - 119).   Seems they are following the same strategy as earlier where they will not sell unless they are at least 6 months from being ready and the foundation work still has not begun on those buildings.

The pricing has stayed at roughly the same level since Fall of 2017 aside from another $5000 bump in Cassidy's in March of 2018

The pricing history on the smallest floor plan (Dawson) has been:

12/9/16:               $415,000
1/22/16:               $425,000
3/2/17:                 $430,000 
3/28/17:               $440,000
6/5/17:                 $443,000
11/5/17:               $440,000


 The pricing history on the middle floor plan (Parker) has been:

12/9/16:               $440,000
1/22/16:               $450,000
3/2/17:                 $455,000
3/28/17:               $470,000
6/5/17:                 $473,000
10/1/17:               $483,000
11/5/17:               $470,000

 The pricing history on the largest floor plan (Cassidy) has been:


12/9/16:               $465,000
1/22/16:               $475,000
3/2/17:                 $480,000
3/28/17:               $495,000
6/5/17:                 $518,000
8/25/17:               $537,490
3/1/18:                 $543,000

Friday, May 18, 2018

Big weekend for area surrounding Riverdale Park Station

Not too much news in Riverdale Park Station itself but lots of news this weekend in walking distance.

In Riverdale Park Station News:

  • The bridge to the Discovery District that was supposed to open by Mother's Day (May 13th) has been delayed to Fathers Day (June 17th).  Given that we were first told this would open in late 2017 I am just glad the delays are getting shorter now.   Seems it may actually open in the June/July timeframe.
  • They are bringing back the Friday 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM live music series at Bear Square starting on June 1st!   I went to a lot of these last year and they had some good local bands and it was not very crowded.  Glad they are bringing this back.

In close walking distance news:

  • The new large playground at University Park Elementary school across the street from Riverdale Park Station opens tomorrow morning (5/19/18) at 10:00 AM.  We walked over here last weekend and it is a pretty impressive playground and only a 5 minute walk from our house.
                       https://www.upmd.org/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=34

  • Captial Bikeshare is finally opening and Riverdale Park Station gets a stop right in front of Whole Foods.


You can see from that map all of the "Future Stations" listed and how much more useful it will be once those are opened.   I have learned the reason they are not opening at College Park Metro now is College Park has a contract with Zagster that runs until Spring of 2019.  At least we can use it to ride down to Hyattsville.   Apparently 3 years ago when College Park signed the deal with Zagster it was looking like Captial Bikeshare would not succeed   You can read about that here:

http://www.dbknews.com/2017/04/28/capital-bike-share-college-park/

I'm betting College Park realizes they have made a mistake and Zagster goes away in favor of Capital Bikeshare.   As I posted earlier I am a big fan of Captial Bikeshare...
http://riverdaleparkstation.blogspot.com/2017/04/sales-update-and-capital-bikeshare.html

  • Red Door Spa Opens this weekend at the Hotel at University of Maryland.
Less than a mile north the four star Hotel at the University of Maryland is getting a 5 star spa.  The Elizabeth Arden Red Door Spa opens it's doors tomorrow.

  • Cava Grill opening in this Summer at College Park Shopping Center
I am a huge fan of Cava and have been going to the Union Station location since it opened.  The Diamondback first broke the story here:

I've been using College Park Shopping Center quite a bit since living here as it is only a 0.7 mile walk.  This is a great addition.