The Gazillionaire Effect

• April 14th 2009

by Mark Wellborn

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Our go-to guy for local real estate sales analysis Keith Gibbons recently compiled his monthly report for DC property sales in March 2009. On its face, it seems the data reveals a significant uptick in condo sales. Then Keith realized it was due to something else: The Gazillionaire Effect.

From his post:

“When you look at the data, you’d think there’s a sudden boomlet in condo sales since MRIS’ data show a 16.37% increase in dollar volume and an almost 30% increase in average sales prices for that market. However, a little investigation showed that ten condos sold for more than $1MM; two cost between $2.5-5MM and one sold for more than $5MM [$7.295 million sale of Georgetown Ritz Carlton penthouse]. Since MRIS’ data aren’t granular enough for detailed analysis, it’s difficult to determine the degree to which these particular sales skewed the market. At least until I analyze the District’s sales data. Since the Ritz-Carlton sale clouds an effective analysis of the month’s sales using MRIS data, I declare the month null and void thanks to the Gazillionare Effect.”

Despite the Gazillionaire Effect, Keith’s report does have a few other great nuggets of insight into March sales. Click here for more.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/the_gazillionaire_effect/799.