Since 2000, Home Values in DC and Its Suburbs Have Gone Opposite Ways

• August 18th 2016

by Nena Perry-Brown

Although it may be commonly understood that the trend in the U.S. of flight from cities to the suburbs has reversed over the past decade, Zillow has published a study that shows just how that shift is illustrated by the DC metropolitan housing market.

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, DC proper was known for being a drug trade haven, having a failing school system, and occasionally earning the “Murder Capital” moniker — an important context to keep in mind when noting that the median home value in the District was $136,200 when George W. Bush took office in 2000.

At that same time, homes in the suburbs inside and just outside the Beltway had a respective median value 14 and 17 percent higher than the DC proper price. Sixteen years later, the value of homes in DC outstrips those in the inner-Beltway suburbs by 27 percent. The gap is far wider in the outer-Beltway suburbs, where home values are 44 percent lower than in the District. Since December 2013, home values in DC have grown by an average of 9 percent annually — more than double the annual average growth in the DC suburbs.

DC’s Northeast and Southwest quadrants have especially exemplified this turn-around, as they have historically been less-affluent but have seen the greatest rise in housing values within the city since 2012. Focused efforts toward developing and marketing the Union Market and (re-branded) NoMa areas in NE and the area around Nationals Stadium in SW have spurred much of the demand and desirability in those quadrants.

Homes values in Northwest DC, which has always contained the city’s most tony neighborhoods, remained relatively stable throughout the crash of the housing market in 2008 and have appreciated in value since. Southeast has not been exempt from the rising tide of home value appreciation across the city, albeit to a lesser extent than elsewhere.

For the full Zillow study, click here.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/since_bush_administration_home_values_in_the_dc_suburbs_have_been_bush_leag/11575.