Home | Newsletter | Advertise
loading...

Three Dollars a Square Foot: DC Property Values in 1880

  • August 27th 2012

by UrbanTurf Staff

Three Dollars a Square Foot: DC Property Values in 1880: Figure 1

It would be nice if homes in DC could still be purchased for $3 a square foot.

Late Friday, Ghosts of DC published a map from the Library of Congress with city property values circa 1880. In addition to the fact that property in Mount Vernon Square and Shaw was worth four times that of Dupont Circle (hat tip Ghosts of DC), we were struck by the fact that in some sought-after NW neighborhoods homes were selling for just $2 to $3 a square foot.

That means that the 1,100 square-foot two-bedroom condo you just bought for $540,000 could have been yours for about $2,500 back in the late 19th century.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/three_dollars_a_square_foot_dc_property_values_in_1880/5953.

DC Real Estate Guides

Short guides to navigating the DC-area real estate market

We've collected all our helpful guides for buying, selling and renting in and around Washington, DC in one place. Start browsing below!

First-Timer Primers

Intro guides for first-time home buyers

Red Flags Revealed During a Home Inspection Top 5 Tax Breaks For Homeowners Tax Relief for DC Homeowners
Condo Fee Tutorial What is a Rent Back? 10 Ways To Tell If a Home Renovation is Well Done
Obtaining a Basic Business License For Your Rental What is an Adjustable Rate Mortgage? The Splitting the Rent Formula
How Much Cash Do You Need to Buy a House? Is This Condo Building Financially Healthy? Interest Rates and Mortgage Points
The Scoop on Mortgage Insurance

Unique Spaces

Awesome and unusual real estate from across the DC Metro

The Most Intriguing Loft in DC The R Street Firehouse DC’s One-Room House
Dupont Circle’s Old Frat House To Become Alley Home Best Transition From a Garage To a Home The Roundhouse
Tilden Gardens Restaurant-Turned-Home Hits Market Next Week Logan Circle’s Most Intriguing Garage Frank Lloyd Wright Goes Green in Kensington
Sears Bungalow Gets a Modern Makeover Old Town General Store Becomes Three-Level Home Making the Most of a Skinny House
A Studio 27 Renovation on Capitol Hill Once a Carriage House, Now a Home The Bank that Became a Home
From Pie to Hooch to Heroin to Home The Live-Aboards of Gangplank Marina A Treehouse with Rock Creek Park As A Backyard
Modern Tranquility in Sperryville Saddle Up For Stable Living Throwing a Curve at 550 Square Feet
A Modern Hilltop Retreat Tilden Street Restaurant Becomes Spacious Home Focus on Design: A Vastu Unit at 22 West
The DC Area’s First Net Zero Home A Yankee Goes Green DC’s First Carbon Neutral Home
Eco-Friendly Alley House Off H Street The Gym, The Stables and The Firehouse