The 8-Year Path of DC Real Estate in Three Charts

• January 27th 2017

by UrbanTurf Staff

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For months last year when we reported on the local housing market, the term “record-breaking” was used frequently to describe everything from home prices to home sales. And a look back at statistics from 2016, reveal that the DC housing market, for the year, set records in everything from home price to home sales.

UrbanTurf picked out three charts that are indicative of the change in the DC housing market since the beginning of 2009 that also help put the climate and performance of the market last year in perspective.

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Last year, the median home sales price in DC was $545,000, the highest level on record for the city. The median price represents a 47 percent increase from the first quarter of 2009 (31 percent when adjusted for inflation), when the price level sat at $369,900. As expected given the rise in prices, sales volume in the District in 2016, at over $5.5 billion, was the highest on record.

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The inventory of homes for sale has been the headline for the DC housing market for quite awhile, and a look at housing supply reveals just how acute the shortage has become. In the first quarter of 2009, there was a seven-month supply of homes for sale in DC. (The benchmark of a balanced housing market is usually a six-month supply.) In the fourth quarter of 2016, that supply had dropped to a mere 1.5 months, and there is no indication that will change anytime soon.

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Perhaps one of the reasons that there is an inventory shortage in DC is that homes are not staying on the market very long. Back in the first quarter of 2009, the median days on market statistic for the city was 72 days. In the fourth quarter of last year, that metric had dropped to 14 days, having sat below three weeks since 2013.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/a_decade_in_dc_real_estate_in_three_charts/12093.