LIFE IN THE DMV – The Blog
DC-Area Home Sellers Saw $92,000 in Profits Last Quarter
In case you need more evidence of how hot the local housing market has been this year, home seller profits have shot up over the past six months. Homeowners in the DC area who sold in the third quarter of 2020 saw an average profit of $92,100, according to the latest...
Amazon donates $100,000 for Diversity and Robotics Programming at University of Maryland
Amazon is again putting more money toward computer science education in Greater Washington, this time with a $100,000 donation to the University of Maryland’s engineering school for diversity initiatives and robotics programming. Specifically, Amazon Lab126, the...
The Greater D.C. Area Has Become a Hotbed of Speedcubing Talent
Pavan Ravindra’s mother had a rule for him during high school: Don’t stay up too late but wake up early if you want to. So, on weekdays, Ravindra would get out of bed at 4 a.m., eager to start the day. It didn’t take long for him to find a reason to take full...
COVID Is Carrying Young People Away from DC — Whether They Want to Leave or Not
(As published by Medium) Starting in the early summer, we started to see uncharacteristic numbers of unsubscribes from our newsletter. At first I thought it was just people who were over the news. Every new morning in 2020 means waking to some fresh horror, and...
Amazon Launches Innovative “Right Now Needs Fund”
Amazon and Communities In Schools NOVA announced that Amazon is making a $1 million donation to support the immediate needs of thousands of students from underserved communities in Northern Virginia amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Communities In Schools NOVA will...
First Look: Northern Vietnamese Restaurant 1914 Transports Diners To Hanoi’s ‘Train Street’
A new Vietnamese restaurant has landed in Shaw that hopes to capture the atmosphere and cuisine of Hanoi’s famous “train street.” Called 1914, this restaurant specializing in Northern Vietnamese dishes revels in the bustling street life that emerged around Ngõ 224 Lê...
Rossyln Hotel Flipping to Apartments
The Virginian Suites hotel at 1500 Arlington Blvd, near Rosslyn, has closed. Last week workers could be seen hauling furniture out of the building, which is located on the southern side of Route 50, a couple of blocks from the Iwo Jima memorial. A sign on the door...
Ari Gejdenson Dissolves Restaurant Group, Puts Employees in Charge
Before the pandemic, restaurateur Ari Gejdenson‘s Mindful Restaurants Group had a robust portfolio of restaurants in different pockets of D.C. Some have subsequently closed, including Acqua Al 2 in Eastern Market, which served Italian food for a decade, along with its...
Housing Market Stress Due to Exceptional Demand
Exceptional demand for new and existing homes, brought on by the stay-at-home culture of the coronavirus pandemic, has the housing market severely depleted. Sales of newly built homes jumped to the highest level in 14 years in August, but builders’ supply dropped to...
Roller Skating Has Surged in Popularity. Local Skaters Hope It Leads to a Rink in D.C.
Photo of Saletta Coleman Credit: Darrow Montgomery When Saletta Coleman puts on her roller skates, she’s transported to another reality. No matter the setting, moving around to the rhythm of music with eight wheels underneath her feet is all Coleman needs to feel what...
Rossyln is Getting an Outdoor Co-Working Space
Set to open mid-October, “Outdoor Office” (or, just “O2”) is being built and funded by Rosslyn’s Business Improvement District. It will be located in Gateway Park, across the street from the Key Bridge into Georgetown. The space will feature two separate work areas...
Amazon’s Virtual Ignite Digital Festival
Last week, more than 1,500 owners from Amazon’s Delivery Service Partner (DSP) program gathered virtually at the Ignite Digital Festival to share knowledge and experiences and connect with Amazon leadership to help shape the future of customer delivery. In 2018, the...
Unique Condos Coming to Chevy Chase
A new development plan calls for razing a dentist office on Chevy Chase Drive in Bethesda and replacing it with a 70-unit condominium building. The condo building would stand a maximum of 70 feet tall, according to project plans filed with the Montgomery County...
Amazon wins FAA approval to deliver packages by drone
Getting an Amazon package delivered from the sky is closer to becoming a reality. The Federal Aviation Administration has granted Amazon approval to deliver packages by drones. The company has been working on drone delivery for years, but it has been slowed by...
Kids of All Ages on What They Miss Most About Dining in Restaurants
Area youth aren’t shy about wanting a break from home cooking and the occasional takeout meal. “I miss being able to go out and eat food that’s not cooked by us,” Aden says. The 12-year-old, who lives in 16th Street Heights, can’t get enough of Katsuya Fukushima‘s...
DC Region Housing Market Up in August
The DC region just had its strongest August housing market ever, with record home prices and record sales driven by record demand and record low interest rates. Urban Turf has published some of the more telling statistics from the August market. $515,000 -- The...
Pentagon City Park Expansion Approved for Amazon HQ2
The Arlington County Board has unanimously voted to approve a master plan and design guidelines for the 2.47-acre public park. Metropolitan Park’s renovations are part of Amazon’s community benefits package and will be a $14 million project. The project intends...
The Difference a Low Mortgage Rate Makes
Long-term mortgage rates remain just below 3% and just above their all-time record low. A year ago, rates were 56 basis points higher. UrbanTurf has taken its semi-regular look to see how the much lower rates are impacting mortgage payments. A home with a $800,000...
Amazon has a New Fitness Tracker
Amazon has started selling a wrist band that tracks workouts, sleep and body fat. To measure body fat, Amazon will ask users to scan their body with their smartphone cameras while wearing boxers or a sports bra with bike shorts. The fitness tracker will give the...
Arlington Has Resumed Waste Collection
Yard waste collection resumed in Arlington after a four-month hiatus. Residential waste collection customers had to do without the weekly collection of organic material since early May, when the county suspended it on account of increased trash volumes during the...
Scarcity, Low Interest Rates Fuel 63% Jump In D.C. Condo Sales
The D.C. condo market has experienced a stronger-than-normal summer as buyers have sought to take advantage of low interest rates, bringing sales volume and pricing back from the pandemic-induced slowdown. Sales in the D.C. condo market fell significantly in the...