Market Watch: Logan Circle, Columbia Heights, Dupont Circle

• November 28, 2011
• 5 Comments

by Keith Gibbons

Home under contract on V Street.

Housing Market Watch returns this week after a little hiatus. Keith Gibbons, the brains behind DCHousingPrices.com, has a new and improved way to analyze recent MRIS statistics for specific zip codes in the DC region that gives a more in-depth look at the housing market in those areas.

Editor’s Note: Analyzing real estate data by zip code is about as granular as one can get in DC, as MRIS does not provide neighborhood-specific data sets. So, it should be kept in mind that this analysis includes home price data for Columbia Heights as well as Dupont Circle, where prices can be considerably higher.

It’s been awhile since I posted a zip code sales analysis, but now I’m back! A few things have changed, however, as I’ve revamped my analysis based on your feedback. You’ll see three major changes going forward:

1. I now provide zip code sales and price data in three-month windows for the current and prior year (e.g., August-October 2010 and 2011). This is to provide more sufficient insight into sales trends in a given zip code.
2. I have switched the places of the data columns, so the 2010 column is now on the left, and the 2011 column is on the right.
3. Finally, I’ve combined the data and put it all into one table. I’ll probably be adjusting the table over the next few weeks, so your suggestions for improvements are welcomed.

This week, I have analyzed home sales data for the 20009 zip code. Roughly speaking, 20009 is bordered to the north by Irving Street, to the west by Connecticut Avenue, to the east by 11th Street and to the south by Q Street NW. Portions of Dupont Circle (excluding the circle itself), Logan Circle, Columbia Heights, the U Street Corridor and Adams Morgan are encompassed within those borders.

Forty-seven units sold in 20009 in October 2011. Here are some key points in October’s data:

• Total unit sales were 9.62 percent lower than the previous year. Eight houses were sold for an average price of $796,125, down 16.8 percent. Thirty-nine condos were sold for an average price of $402,850, down 11.44 percent.
• There were 208 active listings in October: 183 condos and 25 single-family homes. More than half of the condos listed were priced between $200,000 and $499,000 and most of the houses were listed above $500,000.

According to MRIS, properties in 20009 sold for 94.8 percent of their listing price in October, a slight dip from 2010. Overall, homes are selling quickly in 20009 – the average days on market fell to 62, down almost 13 percent from October 2010. Looking ahead, 48 homes went under contract in October and another 45 went under a contingent contract.

Perhaps the biggest takeaway from the data above is just how tight inventory is in the zip code right now. The chart above shows that the inventory for both single-family homes and condos for sale in 20009 dropped between August, September and October 2010 and those same months this year. (The only exception being a small increase in condo inventory between September 2010 and September 2011.) Also, in every month above except for one, housing inventory fell below the healthy benchmark of a six-month supply.

This article is based on custom data provided to UrbanTurf by MRIS, a developer of real estate technology and information as well as the largest multiple listing service (MLS) in the United States.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/housing_market_watch_200091/4624

5 Comments

1. LaszloB said at 5:19 pm on Monday November 28, 2011:

   Love this, thanks!
   I would wonder what % of these properties were REO, or short sales.  That could skew the price data, I would think.  Also, in the table, does “Unit Volume” equal # units sold?  Finally, it’s hard to translate the standard metric of inventory in months to how many units/homes are actually for sale .. is there another way to state this?

1. anon said at 8:10 am on Tuesday November 29, 2011:

   Wondering…if you have access to MRIS as an agent, perhaps you’d be willing to build searches that actually match neighborhood borders using the mapping function instead of zip codes.  As you note, prices in Columbia Heights are vastly different than in Dupont Circle.

1. Mark Wellborn said at 9:12 am on Tuesday November 29, 2011:

   anon,

   We don’t have the same MRIS access as a real estate agent, rather MRIS provides us with zip code specific housing data for DC that we then dissect.

   Mark Wellborn
   Editor

1. Keith said at 11:33 am on Wednesday December 7, 2011:

   Yes, unit volume is the number of units sold in the period. Months inventory is a standard metric. You can figure out how many units are listed by multiplying the units sold by the months inventory.

1. Rachel said at 11:02 am on Thursday January 5, 2012:

   Is there any way you could include price per SF? These overall downward trends in pricing are concerning, but I wonder if there aren’t some underlying factors.  For example, were a larger percentage of sales for smaller units?

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