The Fast Moving Single-Family Home Market in Capitol Hill

• May 18th 2011

by UrbanTurf Staff

At the end of March, we wrote about a 1910 two-unit listing a couple blocks north of Lincoln Park in Capitol Hill for This Week’s Find. 1217 C Street NE (map) was converted to a 3,150 square-foot three-bedroom home in 2001 and the photo above is of the centered window well that was originally used as a light and ventilation source for each unit. When the property became a single-family home, the well was preserved and now runs from the top floor down to the main level. Iron cat-walks were also added and the master bedroom ceiling was removed to expose and incorporate the original brick and mortar construction of the home.

Just a few days ago, the home sold for $70,000 above its original asking price of $848,750. While the buyer(s) might have been so taken by the features above to offer well above the asking price, we believe that it is more illustrative that the market for three and four-bedroom homes in this section of Capitol Hill is extremely competitive right now.

When UrbanTurf analyzed the 20002 zip code at the end of February, it was revealed that sales of three-bedroom homes were up 32.26 percent percent and the average price rose 36.87 percent from the previous year. What’s more is that sales prices for four-bedroom homes also increased substantially year-over-year. These statistics, combined with a supply of single-family home listings of just south of 3.5 month’s, led our housing market guru Keith Gibbons to conclude that “anyone thinking of buying in 20002 should understand that with houses selling fast and prices increasing, they will also have to move quickly when they find the right home.”

Admittedly, the 20002 zip code encompasses more than just Capitol Hill (it includes Edgewood, Eckington and Trinidad as well), so we decided to take a more granular (i.e. just the section of Capitol Hill in 20002) and recent look at the single-family home market and learned that things have yet to slow down. While 1217 C Street NE was listed in late March and under contract within a week, 407 11th Street NE was listed earlier this month and was under contract in a similar time frame, 438 4th Street NE was under contract within about five days of being listed in late April, and it looks as though 443 4th Street NE had a sale pending on it within a day of being listed on April 29th. Given this activity, we wonder “this won’t last long” prediction will hold true for this home.

Photos courtesy of Mouse On House.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/the_fast_moving_single_family_home_market_in_capitol_hill/3515.