From $1 Million to $11 Million: Ten Years of Georgetown Home Appreciation

• January 6th 2011

by Mark Wellborn

Earlier this week, Russell Firestone of TTR Sotheby’s International Realty put together a post of the top 10 home sales last year in Georgetown. Naturally, the sales prices for all the homes were well out of the reach of the average homebuyer, none south of $3 million.

The publication of the top sales got us to thinking about how much these homes were originally purchased for, particularly those that have been lived in for upwards of ten years or long enough in most people’s thinking to realize some nice appreciation.

We were fairly jealous/surprised of what we found.

For example, 3210 R Street NW, an eight-bedroom, eight-bath home, sold in December for $11,111,111, the highest-priced sale in Georgetown this year. Thirteen years ago, the same home (minus a top floor addition) sold for $1.4 million, about eight times less than what it fetched at the end of last year.

While the other homes that were purchased a decade or so ago did not quite yield that high a return on investment, there was still some significant appreciation. 1315 31st Street NW, the former five-bedroom home of Good Morning America host George Stephanopoulos, sold back in 1998 for $1.5 million and closed in March for about $5.5 million. The four-bedroom home at 1515 30th Street NW was purchased in 2000 for $1.45 million and at the end of 2010 it sold for just over $4 million.

While nearly all of the homes in the top ten were updated/renovated in some manner since they were last purchased and most did not fetch their original asking price, the appreciation is still noteworthy as it proves that even in a city where home prices remain healthy, Georgetown’s insulation from market swings is unmatched.

“When certain home buyers come to DC looking to buy, they all want to start in Georgetown,” Firestone said. “That type of demand will keep home prices in the area increasing for some time.”

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/from_1_million_to_11_million_ten_years_of_georgetown_home_appreciation/2812.