Of course, the higher home prices and rents that result from the increased desirability of this neighborhood also limit the availability of affordable housing. These pressures on the market are being felt here in the Washington metropolitan area as well as in other expanding real estate markets.
The question of gentrification in Columbia Heights was interestingly portrayed in the Washington Post earlier this month through the eyes of a pair of twelve-year old girls who have grown up in this neighborhood. The girls entered a citywide essay contest on gentrification, a word that they had not previously known, and observed very keenly the effects of the development going on around them.