Hot, Hot D.C. Housing Market
Yes, the housing market is showing signs of recovery nationwide. But in Washington D.C., sales are especially hot, making this market much more of a sellers’ market than a buyers’ market lately.
Demand is very high in Washington D.C., but the supply is just not there right now, says a recent Washington Post article titled “Washington area homes fly off the listings fast,” which said the market is the tightest it’s been since before the housing market bubble burst. Buyers are snatching up homes in as little as nine days in this hot D.C. housing market.
The end result is that prices in the hot D.C. housing market are steadily increasing. Median housing prices in D.C. were $529,000 in June, according to RealEstate Business Intelligence, which is up 16.3% from a year ago. The D.C. region housing prices were about $440,000, which is 10 percent more than they were last year.
Those higher sales prices have caused more sellers to list their homes, but buyers are snatching them up quickly and it’s that short length of time homes are on the market that makes this a hot D.C. housing market. Homes all around D.C. are regularly selling in under two weeks, according to a recent Washington Business Journal article.
Homes in Dupont Circle, Logan Circle, Mount Pleasant and Columbia Heights were all on the market for well under 12 days, the Washington Business Journal reports.
A number of factors contribute to the hot D.C. housing market. The city depends heavily on government jobs, but even a recent sequester has not had a significant impact on the healthy job market here.
Also, the cost to rent a space in the District is extremely high and on par with mortgage payments for similar properties. In fact, in many cases it’s less expensive to own a property in Washington D.C. than it is to rent one. So, those rental costs are driving a hot D.C. housing market.
For More Information:
Rock Creek Real Estate: http://www.rcrdc.com/blog.php
Washington area homes fly off the listings fast, Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/washington-area-homes-fly-off-the-listings-fast/2013/07/26/43245ae8-e8bf-11e2-aa9f-c03a72e2d342_story.html
Homes get under contract in under a fortnight, Washington Business Journal: http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/breaking_ground/2013/07/homes-get-under-contract-in-under-a.html
