DC: A Seller’s Market

• April 17, 2012
• 6 Comments

by Shilpi Paul

In another indication that now is a good time to have a home on the market in the nation’s capital, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that median asking home prices have jumped by 17 percent in DC over the last year. The article confirms what several other outlets have been seeing in the housing market nationwide: inventories are down and prices are going up. Citing recently-released data from Realtor.com, the WSJ reported that nationwide median asking prices have jumped by 5.6 percent since last year.

While a 17 percent increase seems a little too eye-popping to believe (we are more inclined to go with the 7.8 price increase from last week’s RealEstate Business Intelligence report), today’s stats add to mounting evidence (both real and anecdotal) that it is a nice time to be a seller in the city right now:

• The DC area has 3.2 months of active supply on the market right now, well below the 6-month benchmark that indicates a healthy market. The 10,503 active listings in March represent a 26.4 percent dip from March 2011 and that number is 37.3 percent lower than the five-year March average, according to RealEstate Business Intelligence.

• Redfin reported in February that 42.4 percent of offers made since the beginning of the year in DC have faced some sort of competition (i.e. multiple bid) scenario, the fourth highest percentage in the country.

• Boutique projects are selling at a very quick pace. Ontario Road Flats, a six-unit Adams Morgan project, sold out in a week, and it took 1300 Euclid, another six-unit project in Columbia Heights, just about two weeks to sell out. The Thompson on 10th Street sold out in just 5 days.

• Lastly, but perhaps most telling, UrbanTurf has been receiving a steady stream of emails and comments of late with a common chorus: When a buyer sees a house they like, it is usually gone within days for above the asking price.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/its_a_good_time_to_be_a_home_seller_in_dc/5428

6 Comments

1. Jer said at 4:47 pm on Tuesday April 17, 2012:

   I wonder if these multiple bids take into account that usually the actual selling price is greatly reduced from the seller’s original (unrealistic) asking price.

1. kob said at 6:10 pm on Tuesday April 17, 2012:

   On the one hand, I won’t dispute the data but things have been so bad for so long it’s hard to believe there’s real improvement. But the rents are high, the mortgage rates are still low, and the job market at least has a small pulse. Whether this lasts at all .....

1. Mike said at 3:25 pm on Wednesday April 18, 2012:

   Well, what am I doing wrong?  I’ve been trying to sell my condo in Mt Pleasant since Nov!  It’s a great place, well kept, new appliances, etc. and it’s priced right.  Well, I just dropped the price a couple of weeks ago.  sigh….

1. Joe said at 3:49 pm on Wednesday April 18, 2012:

   @Mike Just a guess, you probably paid too much and are probably asking too much.

1. df said at 4:00 pm on Wednesday April 18, 2012:

   Mike, Unit 31 recently sold at $305K and your current competition (#46) is listed at $279,000.  Your place looks nice, but it’s all about price. If you had started at $300K (which is probably where you will end up, more or less), you’d be outta there by now.

1. Mike said at 12:30 pm on Thursday April 19, 2012:

   LOL, yup.

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