How are the influx of luxury buildings in MoCo doing? (Silver Spring: apartments, leasing)

[superseiyan]

First of all, wow, Bethesda! There's a pretty small radius in their downtown there with what has to be like 4-5 new luxury condos coming up. Interesting, I was not aware of the simultaneous construction.

Meanwhile, White Flint and Downtown Silver Spring also have many new units. How are these leasing? I see that at PersSei for example, they are running 2-month free specials (their 1 bedroom dens are in the $2700s!).

Maybe not Silver Spring, but the Bethesda and White Flint buildings are taking the ****, it's not even luxury any more it's like a luxury on steroids--they are essentially 5-star luxury hotels that you live in. Will these luxury buildings at these prices be dominated by empty nesters, by families, or it'll be mixed....?

I can see them attracting rich families that are settling into the area looking to by a mansion. Or for rich young folks new to the area that their parents are paying their place--this is purely on numbers, statistically there just aren't many 25-40 year old couples that are going to be able to afford $3K rents--even those that are getting good DC salaries.

Examples of some of these new ultra-luxury places:

Persei at White Flint

Fenwick at Silver Spring

The Flats at Bethesda

[bufflove]

I only know the Silver Spring submarket well but, yeah, the units fill up pretty quick. There's been a bit of a slowdown as the region has seen a ton of inventory come online in the past 12 months (hence why you're seeing the 1 or 2 months free specials making a comeback), but absorption is still happening at a healthy pace. Generally, you're seeing a lot of paired up Yuppies moving into the units w/people either matching up for a roommate and splitting a 2br or a couple moving into a 1br. There are also a higher % of smaller studios and 1brs (425-550sqft) so there are some slightly more affordable options available to single people. As you note, empty nesters are also moving to these walkable areas more often so that's another sizeable demographic supporting demand.

$2K-3K for a 1br-2br is steep. But when you're talking about two salaries or a retiree w/savings it's much more manageable. Even on a entry level office salary coming up with your half of $2K is doable, especially when considering the walkability of the areas we're discussing - plenty of Millennials don't take on the $8-10K a year cost of car ownership or are a couple sharing one car instead of two.