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Three Dollars a Square Foot: DC Property Values in 1880

  • August 27th 2012

by UrbanTurf Staff

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Three Dollars a Square Foot: DC Property Values in 1880: Figure 1

It would be nice if homes in DC could still be purchased for $3 a square foot.

Late Friday, Ghosts of DC published a map from the Library of Congress with city property values circa 1880. In addition to the fact that property in Mount Vernon Square and Shaw was worth four times that of Dupont Circle (hat tip Ghosts of DC), we were struck by the fact that in some sought-after NW neighborhoods homes were selling for just $2 to $3 a square foot.

That means that the 1,100 square-foot two-bedroom condo you just bought for $540,000 could have been yours for about $2,500 back in the late 19th century.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/three_dollars_a_square_foot_dc_property_values_in_1880/5953.

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