One DC Zip Code Remains Hot When It Comes to House Flipping

• September 6th 2018

by Nena Perry-Brown

As the nation's housing market continues to deal with a supply shortage, home-flipping profits are down. While the DC area is no exception in terms of declining profits, the flip market remains robust in certain pockets.

The latest flipping report from ATTOM Data Solutions puts the District at the top of the pack compared to states when it comes to the share of homes being flipped. Specifically, 8.3 percent of homes sold in DC in the second quarter of 2018 were flips; Nevada came in second with 7.4 percent. 

In the District, 39 percent of flipped homes were bought in cash last quarter and the gross profit was $246,500, a 76.3 percent return on investment (ROI). Among zip codes with at least ten flips in the quarter, the 20019 zip code remains one of the hottest nationwide: the flipped homes in this DC zip code represent 21.7 percent of the housing market, the 20th-highest share observed. Nearly 43 percent of the flipped homes in 20019, which includes neighborhoods in both Northeast (Deanwood, Kenilworth, Lincoln Heights) and Southeast (Benning Ridge, Fort Dupont, Marshall Heights), were bought in cash; gross profits averaged $187,000, an impressive ROI of 102.2 percent.

The 20018 zip code comes in second in DC where 20.3 percent of homes sold in the second quarter were flips. Flipped homes here were purchased for a median price of $316,875 and sold for $497,500, a gross profit of $180,625. In the 20002 zip code, 10.6 percent of homes sold were flips but those flips had the highest gross profit in the city. The average flip in 20002 had a purchase price of $431,000 and was sold for $785,600 for a gross profit of $354,600, an 82.3 percent ROI.

Note -- This study counts a home flip when a property is sold twice within a year based on publicly-recorded sales data. The renovation costs are not factored in to the ROI, although experienced flippers estimate those to be anywhere from 20-33 percent of the original purchase price.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/one-dc-zip-code-remains-hot-when-it-comes-to-house-flipping/14404.