Home Price Watch: A 38 Percent Rise in Takoma Park

• April 27, 2015

by Lark Turner

A recently-sold home in Takoma Park.

Using first quarter data from RealEstate Business Intelligence, UrbanTurf is returning to Home Price Watch which looks at how the housing markets in DC area neighborhoods have changed year-over-year. This week we’re in Takoma Park, Maryland, where home prices have jumped 38 percent since the beginning of 2014.

A closer look at the data reveals that the big increase in prices is likely attributable to a decline in the number of condos and co-ops that have hit the market in the city so far this year. There were 28 sales between January and March, but just 7 of those sales were condos or co-ops, compared to 38 total sales last year, 17 of which were condos and co-ops. The impact of condo and co-op sales also helps explain the 2014 performance of the neighborhood. The outsize number of condo and co-op sales — just 10 sold in the segment in 2013 — probably brought the median price down last year.

This year, 11 detached homes with four or more bedrooms sold in the neighborhood at an average of $535,227. Last year in that segment 9 homes sold with an average price of $512,656, which was also up significantly from 2013. Otherwise, prices fell slightly for two-bedrooms or smaller and three-bedrooms or smaller in Takoma Park this year.

Click to enlarge.

A few other takeaways:

• Homes are taking longer to sell in Takoma Park, perhaps because prices are higher. The number of days a home spent on the market increased to an average of 68 this year, up 62 percent from last year’s 42 days.
• Perhaps as a result, buyers are not as frequently getting their asking price. The average sold price to original list price ratio dropped 1.5 percent, while the ratio of average sold price to original list price was down 5 percent.
• Most of the sales in the neighborhood were conventionally financed, but eight were all-cash sales, potentially indicating some investment interest in the neighborhood.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/home_price_watch_takoma_park_where_the_median_price_rose_38_percent/9813