The 8-Year Path of Georgetown Home Prices in Four Charts

• May 17th 2016

by Nena Perry-Brown

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While the 2008 recession caused upheaval in the housing market nationwide, many neighborhoods in the DC area managed to escape the worst of the tumult. UrbanTurf has spent 2016 taking a look at neighborhoods in the area to see how housing prices have fared over the last eight years.

We have examined Capitol Hill; the zip code that includes Shaw, Bloomingdale, LeDroit Park and Mount Vernon Square; Chevy Chase DC; Trinidad; Columbia Heights; the 20020 zip code, which includes Historic Anacostia, Naylor Gardens and Hillcrest; Petworth; and Cleveland Park.

This week, we are taking a look at how prices fared in Georgetown.

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A Bumpy Ride for One-Bedrooms

The median price for a one-bedroom unit in Georgetown has had a rocky run over the past eight years. While the inflation-adjusted median was $551,633 back in 2008, prices peaked in the third quarter of 2011 ($562,409) before dropping 31 percent to $386,811 in late 2015. Current prices are a 16 percent recovery from the low of $333,242 in the last quarter of 2013.

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A 26 Percent Increase For Three-Bedroom Prices

The three-bedroom submarket was much more stable than that of one-bedroom units, with prices vacillating between 2008 and 2016 but still showing a 26 percent median price increase — 2.92 percent annual appreciation — over that time. The third quarter of 2011 was a low point in the market, with median prices for three-bedroom rowhouses dropping to $1,085,118. Despite the dip, prices closed the year at $1,667,376. 2015 was perhaps the strongest year since 2008, as three-bedrooms hit a high of $1,723,068 in the first quarter before dropping to $1,591,200 by year’s end.

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2015 Also a Vintage Year For Four-Bedroom Townhomes

In a trend that runs counter to how prices fared across the city immediately after the recession, four-bedroom rowhomes in Georgetown peaked soon after their 2008 lows ($1,576,096 and $1,466,045 in the second and third quarters, respectively), hitting an inflation-adjusted median of $3,271,669 in the beginning of 2009. Prices have trended upward since hitting an 8-year low of $1,528,210 in the second quarter of 2013. Overall, the late-2015 median of $2,285,702 is a 45 percent increase over the second quarter-2008 median of $1,576,096, an increase that represents an annual appreciation of 4.76 percent .

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Flatter, Yet Fluctuating Prices on Five-Bedrooms

Values for five-bedroom homes rose 1.4 percent annually or 11.87 percent in total between 2008 and the end of 2015 before dipping back down to $1.9 million in the first quarter of 2016. The unpredictable direction for prices over the last eight years — $4.6 million in the first quarter of 2012 to $1.2 million at the beginning of 2015 — shows just how variable prices can be for this property type.

(Note: The dip to zero on the chart represents a quarter in which no five-bedroom homes sold in the neighborhood.)

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/the_8-year_rise_of_georgetown_home_prices_in_three_charts/11239.