Home Price Watch: Hillcrest, Where Median Sales Prices Have Risen 35 Percent

• October 28, 2014
• 2 Comments

by Lark Turner

A home on the market in Hillcrest.

In this week’s Home Price Watch, we’re checking out Hillcrest, where cash buyers are prevalent and prices have skyrocketed year-over-year, according to data from RealEstate Business Intelligence (RBI). Between 2013 and 2014, the median home price in the neighborhood jumped 35.44 percent, from $239,950 to $325,000. The segmented data used for this article shows a year-over-year snapshot in the legal Hillcrest subdivision between January-September 2013 and January-September 2014.

The neighborhood, which has been home to DC mayors and former presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, is located east of the Anacostia River and just west of the Maryland border. It’s bounded by Pennsylvania Avenue to the northeast, Southern Avenue to the southeast and Naylor Road to the southwest.

The heat in Hillcrest’s market eclipses that of any other neighborhood we’ve looked at so far this year, including 16th Street Heights, which showed a 22 percent median price jump between January-May 2013 and January-May 2014. (For the period from January-September 2014, prices have risen 18 percent in 16th Street Heights.)

All indicators show a large growth in real estate investment in the neighborhood. Twenty-five percent more homes were sold this year than last. The amount of time homes were spending on the market dropped 22 percent, from 51 days to 40.

Click to enlarge.

Here are a few more takeaways from the data:

• Investors are showing a high level of interest in Hillcrest. Of the 55 sales so far this year, 16 have been all-cash transactions.
• Given the climate in the neighborhood, list prices have overstepped demand. The average sold price to original list price ratio dropped by about 3 percent between this year and last. The average list price for sold properties is $301,430 in 2014, up from $241,459 last year. That’s an increase of 24.84 percent.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/home_price_watch_hillcrest_where_median_sales_prices_have_risen_35_percent/9143

2 Comments

1. AbD said at 7:39 pm on Tuesday October 28, 2014:
   Great data UrbanTurf! Wonder if this is because of the Skyland Development coming to that neighborhood.

1. Jake said at 7:51 pm on Thursday December 11, 2014:
   AbD - probably not because of Skyland... it's been "around the corner" for ever, and will take an awfully long time once construction starts. Hillcrest is a mix of older folk and a younger generation who are looking for that single-family home suburban feel. I think that one of the things that is keeping housing prices under what they could be is the state of repair of these houses that have had the same residents for the last 30 years... it becomes harder to do upkeep or updates as you get older. We've been working on our Hillcrest house for 7 years now, and it has only a faint resemblance to the house we bought... and we've been seeing both flips and owner-renovations on our block. Once we get some decent retail (Skyland, eta never) it will be a wonderful little hamlet in the city.