$632,475Average Value$697Average Price per Sq Ft32Homes For Sale
Lively living in Penn Quarter
Just blocks from The White House and the National Mall, Penn Quarter is where politicians, diplomats, lawyers and ambitious young professionals mingle at swanky restaurants, electrifying arena concerts and rousing theater performances. Punctuated by the Capital One Arena, the Chinatown district and the National Portrait Gallery, Penn Quarter is a hub of entertainment, art and culture.
Rick Morrison, a local Realtor with Long & Foster, says there’s a bustling, lively atmosphere in Penn Quarter that only a few call home. “The people that want to buy in the Penn Quarter are here lightly for business. They’re in and out multiple times a month, so they need a pied-à-terre or somewhere to lay their head,” he says. “There are some people who decide to buy in the Penn Quarter that live there year-round, but they are often from what I would consider much higher glass-and-steel cities and want to live in a dense area.”
While Penn Quarter has become one of the hottest neighborhoods in the district, it wasn’t always this way. “It was kind of seedy back when I was growing up,” says Sterling Mehring, a Realtor with Long & Foster and a native of the D.C. metropolitan area who has worked in the real estate industry since the early 1970s. “There were disreputable businesses. Getting rid of those was a precondition of redevelopment. The Metro and the Capital One Center laid the groundwork for development, and then all the hot new restaurants moved in.”
Eclectic dining scene featuring restaurants by Jose Andres and Guy Fieri
Feasting in the neighborhood means making a choice between upscale experiences at restaurants like barmini or Jaleo by celebrity chef Jose Andres – two of several restaurants the Michelin-winning restauranteur owns in the area – or popping into casual spots like Ella's Wood Fired Kitchen. The faces of other celebrity chefs also adorn windows at Guy Fieri’s DC Kitchen + Bar in the Capital One Arena and at Gordon Ramsay’s soon-to-open Street Pizza.
Options abound, from fast food to upscale steakhouses and authentic Chinese food. “Penn Quarter used to be all Chinatown,” Mehring says, “and it still preserves much of that culture.” Cross under the towering Friendship Arch to find restaurants like Full Kee and NewBigWong, one of Eater Magazine’s “Essential Late-Night Food” choices. There are also several eateries around the Capital One Center where huge crowds regularly watch the Washington Capitals take the ice or the Washington Wizards and Georgetown University Hoyas play basketball. When the home teams are away, folks can catch the game at neighborhood sports bars like Penn Social, place live bets at the Caesar’s Sportsbook in the arena or gather with friends to go bowling or see a movie at the Gallery Place mall next door.
Locals living in Penn Quarter also have prime access to the luxury stores at CityCenterDC, like Bulgari, Chanel, Dior and Louis Vuitton. The mixed-use space also houses steakhouses, gelato shops and Italian restaurants. For groceries, medicine and other essentials, people typically walk a half mile north to the Safeway just off New York Avenue.
Steps from The National Mall, museums and Ford's Theatre
Penn Quarter is named for Pennsylvania Avenue, the iconic thoroughfare that runs along the neighborhood’s southern edge. Just steps away is the National Mall, where two pebbled walking paths lead to the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and branches of Smithsonian Museums like the Air and Space Museum and the National Gallery of Art. “The National Mall functions as the green space” for people living in Penn Quarter, says Morrison, who previously managed a restaurant in the community. “When I would go on my lunch break, I would go run there, shower at the gym on G Street and then go back to work.”
Inside Penn Quarter, the permanent exhibition in the Smithsonian Portrait Gallery features several presidential portraits from various painters. Visitors can also lunch in its large atrium with green gardens. Connected to the Portrait Gallery is the American Art Museum, where people can trace the nation's progression chronicled in fine art. History buffs visit Ford’s Theatre, the infamous backdrop of President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, furnished with exact replicas of its original 1865 décor. Locals can still catch plays in the historic space four times a year. For shows year-round, try Warner Theatre, which opened its doors in 1924 and stages everything from rock concerts to comedy shows under its gold leaf, chandeliered ceilings.
Condos with city views
Condo units of all sizes, in renovated prewar neoclassical buildings with stately columns and new modernist high rises, line the streets throughout Penn Quarter. Studio and one-bedroom apartments are priced between $270,000 and $715,000. The higher the floor, the higher the price point. Homeowners association fees for these options range from $450 to $800 and include access to amenities like fitness rooms, rooftop terraces, pest control, sewer and trash fees. “A lot of the new residents are millennials working for the government,” says Mehring. “They’ve got everything they need right outside their doors.” At the top of the market, 1,300 to 2,000-square-foot condos with two to four bedrooms and views of the famously low-lying city sell for $1 to $5 million. Homeowners association fees for these options are much steeper, anywhere from $1,400 to $4,300 a month.
Easy access to the D.C. Metro
In the heart of Penn Quarter, the Gallery Place-Chinatown stop next to the Capital One Center is a major hub for the Metro rail system, averaging about 9,600 daily passengers on the Red, Green and Yellow Lines. In addition to the nearby Archives-Navy Memorial-Penn Quarter stop on the Green and Yellow Lines in the DC Metro system, Penn Quarter is also the site of the Judiciary Square stop on the Red Line. While much of Penn Quarter is oriented toward entertainment, the Judiciary Square section of the community is far more sober and reverent with the city’s district courthouse, the Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia and the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial.
People can access medical care at George Washington Hospital, which is 2.5 miles away. To travel outside the city, locals can make the nearly 4.5-mile drive along George Washington Memorial Parkway to reach Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. There’s also an Amtrak stop at Union Station less than a mile east.
STEM program offered at Cardozo Education Campus
District of Columbia Public Schools serves students living in Penn Quarter. They may attend Thomson Elementary School, which earns a B rating from Niche and was the first elementary school in the district to become an International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme World School. They’ll later filter into B-minus-rated Cardozo Education Campus, which serves sixth through 12th grades. Students can enroll in the school’s TransSTEM Academy, offering computer science and engineering courses.
GreatSchools:
The GreatSchools Rating helps parents compare schools within a state based on a variety of school quality indicators and provides a helpful picture of how effectively each school serves all of its students. Ratings are on a scale of 1 (below average) to 10 (above average) and can include test scores, college readiness, academic progress, advanced courses, equity, discipline and attendance data. We also advise parents to visit schools, consider other information on school performance and programs, and consider family needs as part of the school selection process.
View GreatSchools Rating Methodology
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to let others know what life in this neighborhood is like.
Crime and Safety
1 - Low Crime, 10 - High Crime
Penn Quarter
US
Homicide
5
4
Sexual Assault
9
4
Assault with Weapon
5
4
Robbery
3
4
Burglary
7
4
Motor Vehicle Theft
6
4
Larceny
5
4
Crime Score
5
4
Source: WhatIsMyCrimeRisk.com
Penn Quarter Demographics and Home Trends
On average, homes in Penn Quarter, Washington sell after 87 days on the market compared to the national average of 53 days. The median sale price for homes in Penn Quarter, Washington over the last 12 months is $540,000, up 8% from the median home sale price over the previous 12 months.
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Isabelle Williams-BrownIsabelle Williams and Associates LLC
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