1344 Shepherd St. NW

List price: $795,000

Previous sale price: $255,000 (March 2004)

Square footage: 1,468

Concerned about the tripled-in-one-year price of this Petworth row house? Fear not: The owner suggests offsetting your mortgage payments by renting the basement studio, with its 6- and 7-foot-high ceilings, for $1,200 to $1,500 a month. There’s plenty of luxury to spare upstairs, too. Notice the clashing wood finishes on the walls and floors. Marvel at the upstairs-bathroom door as it swings into the glass shower, creating a percussive crash every time you forget to close one of them behind you. It’s the master bathroom, though, that should clinch the deal: It has a bidet. Until up-and-coming Columbia Heights has up and come, you’ll be able to wash the undesirable stench of the working class off your bum after strolling through your new neighborhood. You can visit the Dollar Star, Rib Pit Lounge, and African-and-Caribbean Morazan Grocery around the corner on 14th Street NW to remind yourself of the socioeconomic pluralism your part of town soon won’t have. —Brian Beutler

Art accompanying story in the printed newspaper is not available in this archive: Photograph by Darrow Montgomery.