Best Signs of DC’s Hot Housing Market: Above Asking and Multiple Bids

• December 16, 2013
• 5 Comments

by UrbanTurf Staff

1358 Kenyon Street NW

UrbanTurf usually stays away from publishing rankings or lists…except at the end of the year when we look back at the best that DC’s real estate scene had to offer during the previous 12 months. So, this whole week, we will be looking at not only the best, but the most intriguing and peculiar things that came across our radar over the course of 2013.

For years, one of the most popular articles on UrbanTurf has been Deal of the Week. Anything that implies a bargain gets a reader’s attention, particularly when it comes to real estate.

Due to the scorching nature of the DC area housing market in 2013, however, we had to shelve that series in favor of a couple articles that were more in line with the climate of the market.

Above Asking started when it became clear that the competitive nature of the market meant that virtually any attractive, reasonably-priced home on the market would garner the attention of several buyers and the asking price would be pushed northward. In six DC zip codes, homes sold on average for above their listing price for the entire calendar year.

To complement Above Asking, we also started Multiple Bids, a counterpoint to Deal of the Week in which we picked out homes on the market that we felt would result in a number of buyers making offers.

Here are some of the more noteworthy examples of how the two article series intersected this year:

• This five-level Columbia Heights Victorian was listed for $899,000 and sold for well over $1 million.

• A four-bedroom rowhouse on Hobart Street in Mount Pleasant was listed for $849,000 and ultimately sold for $151,000 more.

Fans of Deal of the Week, fear not. Look for the series to return next year as the market cools from the very hot streak that it has been on.

Note: At the request of the owner, we have taken out information about the Truxton Circle house previously mentioned in this piece.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/best_signs_of_dcs_hot_housing_market_above_asking_and_multiple_bids/7932

5 Comments

1. Lifetime Renter said at 7:02 pm on Monday December 16, 2013:
   <i>virtually any attractive, reasonably-priced home on the market would garner the attention of several buyers and the asking price would be pushed northward.</i> You write as if this is a good thing. It most assuradly is not.

1. sarah said at 7:36 pm on Monday December 16, 2013:
   @Lifetime Renter, I didn't read it that way, but it is most certainly how the market in DC worked this year. I was in competition on five houses -- all well-priced and good looking. All were purchased in competitive bidding wars, not by me. I certainly hope next year is different.

1. mj said at 3:00 am on Tuesday December 17, 2013:
   We're working on a bubble here in DC...buyer beware. It's one thing to bid up a fantastic house in a great location. It's quite another to overpay in an up and coming location...

1. Homeowner said at 4:47 pm on Tuesday December 17, 2013:
   This is definitely a good thing for those of us who have invested in the city that we live in. I bought a fixer upper and my house has increased in value about 20-25% since I bought it a year ago. That's going to allow me to get a line of credit and do some remodeling. I don't agree with the idea that there shouldn't be bidding wars in up and coming neighborhoods. That makes no sense to me. It's all about what you think the house is worth.

1. Burd said at 8:13 pm on Wednesday December 18, 2013:
   @ mj Yep...classic bubble. And now that federal spending is decreasing and the Fed might taper, I'm very cautious about this "hot housing market"