Del Ray featured on PBS show If You Lived Here

The Del Ray neighborhood was recently profiled on the latest episode of the PBS show If You Lived Here. This episode took a look at three homes in the neighborhood that may be attractive to buyers.

The show followed Jen Walker, a realtor and the unofficial “mayor of Del Ray” who moved to the neighborhood in 1997. Walker gave a tour to hosts John Begeny and Christine Louise and gave a brief history about the Del Ray neighborhood, harkening back to its blue-collar roots when many of the area’s residents worked at the Potomac Yard Railway station. Walker also described its recent evolution which has embraced mom-and-pop businesses as well as a love for dogs and children.

Other residents interviewed throughout the show mentioned earmarks of the neighborhood such as its annual Halloween parade, local restaurants, and a history of African-American-owned businesses such as the Tops of Old Town hat shop. The show also mentioned some of the area’s more colorful history with the old St. Asaph’s racetrack which was the epicenter of gambling not just in the local area but in Northern Virginia in general before its annexation to Alexandria in 1930.

The point of the show is housing and Walker described to the hosts the types of houses that potential house hunters were likely to see. Bungalows and duplexes that had originally been meant for the Potomac Yard workforce dot the neighborhood and are some of the more common houses in Del Ray according to the realtor.

Walker also gave the hosts a quick price range to work with before house hunting, the prices ranged from a one-bedroom apartment in a condo for $225 a month to a townhouse within the $600,000 to $700,000 range to own. Walker also mentioned single-family homes that range from $850 a month to over $2 million to own. These reflect the soaring prices for houses that have occurred over the last two and a half decades.

Walker took the hosts to three homes, a brownstone on Kennedy Street where they marveled at some of the décor and the use of space in the relatively small home, a bungalow on Raymond Avenue which the hosts remarked looked straight out of Better Homes And Gardens magazine, and an expanded bungalow on Randolph Avenue that caught the hosts attention with its embrace of modernity while keeping some of the home’s traditional architecture.

After touring the homes, the hosts would take a guess at their costs, Walker would then let them know if they were within the range.

If You Lived Here are currently in the middle of their second season and can be viewed on PBS’ WETA television affiliate or on their website PBS.org.