An auction held late September 2007 in the Dupont Circle area.

This morning, Mayor Adrian Fenty held a press conference to officially announce the auction of more than 30 D.C. properties. The event is tomorrow, so as you can imagine, information about the houses has been floating around for quite a while now.

The properties were selected from a list of 219 long vacant, nuisance properties, according to Angelita Colón-Francia, spokesperson for the Department of Housing and Community Development. If you buy, don’t expect to move in next week though. She warns “these are properties that will need rehabilitation.”

According to the press release, there are homes in seven of the city’s eight wards, the majority of which can be found in Trinidad, Deanwood, and what our editor Erik Wemple refers to as “the gentrification plume:” Columbia Heights, Shaw, and LeDroit Park.

“Columbia Heights has the most properties for sale than any other neighborhood,” the release states. “The District acquired the properties for a number of reasons including tax foreclosures, friendly acquisitions and eminent domain – after accumulating numerous code violations and complaints. The properties are currently in the portfolio of the Department of Housing and Community Development, which is coordinating the auction.”

The auction will be held tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. at 441 Fourth Street NW. Properties can be seen at the website for Alex Cooper Real Estate.

Image by Darrow Montgomery