Gulfs, the Center and Celebrity Cupcakes

From Jeff Munroe

There’s always a block-long line at Georgetown Cupcake, where the TLC reality show DC Cupcakes is filmed.

Given that the nature of television is to create celebrity, the line didn’t really surprise me.  What really caught my attention on a recent visit to DC was what was around the corner from the cupcake shop.  There were four recently restored “townhouses” that were being offered for sale with prices beginning at $3,995,000.  Up until that moment I had been under the impression that real estate was in trouble in this country. 

I know you can’t tell a book by its cover, but from the outside each townhouse looked like it was about 1000 square feet.  The only “come-on” in the advertising was a notice that each came with two parking places.  Chances are those parking places alone are worth more than your house.  

Less than two weeks later, I was on the border of Virginia again, this time in Bristol, Tennessee at King College for the inaugural Buechnerfest. (Which was wonderful.) I had another real-estate moment there when I heard an off-hand comment by a visitor from another college about the problems created for his school when people want to give them houses.  The school is having a terrible time selling the property, which is most likely why the donors decided to give it away in the first place.  I felt strangely reassured -- real estate is in trouble.

• Read more and respond.