The Hottest Housing Market in DC in 2014

• December 18th 2014

by UrbanTurf Staff

There was no shortage of areas in the region this year that could be described as having “hot” housing markets. But the market in a DC neighborhood that abuts Rock Creek Park stood out from the rest.

Now, admittedly, Mount Pleasant has been pretty hot for a couple years, but this year, things seemed to reach a fever pitch.

“The market has been heating up a lot in recent years, but this year, it culminated in multiple offers on almost every listing,” TTR Sotheby’s Loic Pritchett said.

Coldwell Banker’s Mandy Mills echoed this sentiment.

“Mount Pleasant has been undervalued for a really long time, so it’s poised to have this heated market. It’s finally catching up to public perception.”

Mills mentioned a home that her team listed at 3108 18th Street NW where the asking price was $1.25 million. They received six offers and the home ultimately sold for above $1.3 million. “I could name ten other houses that had the same outcome this year,” Mills said.

Pritchett said that he and partner Kelly Williams listed a three-bedroom, 2.5-bath detached rowhouse at 1701 Hobart Street for $1.089 million, a healthy price given comparison sales on the same block. The home generated five offers, three of which had no contingencies.

“We continue to see a buyer pool that is willing to remove their contingencies, have pre-inspections and in some instances offer all cash to win,” Pritchett said. The speed with which homes find buyers in this neighborhood and the competition level of the market is born out in statistics:

• On average, homes sold within 8 days of hitting the market. Only one neighborhood had a faster sales pace in the whole city.
• For the entire year, the average sales price to original list price ratio for Mount Pleasant sat north of 100 percent. That means that more often than not, listed homes garnered multiple offers, and sold for above the asking price.
• 175 homes sold in the neighborhood this year. 103 sold within ten days of hitting the market; 21 of those sold in 24 hours.

Long-time neighborhood agent Rob Low noted that people are drawn to Mount Pleasant because of the proximity to Rock Creek Park, its location relative to downtown, and the “interesting, caring, intelligent people” who live there and often recruit their friends. Mills also pointed out that you can get a lot more house in Mount Pleasant for the same amount of money that you would spend in Dupont or Cleveland Park.

Whatever the reasons, it doesn’t appear that the level of interest is waning. Shortly before we started writing this article last week, we featured a recently-listed four-bedroom on Monroe Street. It was under contract just 72 hours later.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/the_hottest_housing_market_of_2014_mount_pleasant/9345.