Zillow: DC Area Home Values Projected to Dip Slightly in 2015

• June 24, 2015
• 2 Comments

by Tianna Mañón

The Zillow Home Value Index charted in the DC statistical area over time.

A Zillow report released this week found that there’s been very little change in the DC area housing market since last May. Year over year, Zillow’s home value index — a measurement drawn from the company’s Zestimates — has increased just 0.4 percent. The area rental index, also based on Zestimate-type technology, has increased 2 percent.

Zillow projects that the DC area’s housing market may dip about 0.6 percent in the next year.

The small changes to the region’s market suggest that the regional housing market is finally leveling off since the financial crisis of 2008 and the recovery years that followed.

Zillow uses an estimate for the current market value of a home and then takes the median of the estimates in a given geographic area to calculate its Home Value Index. The company uses the DC metropolitan statistical area to define the boundaries of its data. This May, the DC area home value index sat at $359,700, about half a percent more than it was last year. But in DC proper, the median for May was much higher, at $510,500.

Rents in the DC statistical area have been steadily climbing.

Rents in the DC area have grown by 2.1 percent since last May and currently sit at $2,107, according to the company. In DC proper, according to data provided to UrbanTurf, rents were much higher, at a median of $2,649.

Zillow found that rent growth is outpacing home values, which can promote home buying, realtors and lenders recently told UrbanTurf. Region-wide, Zillow noted, home values are still 16 percent less than the DC area’s housing-bubble peak in March 2006.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/zillow_dc_area_home_values_projected_to_dip_slightly_in_2015/10034

2 Comments

1. HstRez said at 4:08 pm on Thursday June 25, 2015:
   Is it just me or is Zillow a complete crock? This report flies in the face of just about every other report I have read on the topic for the past 6 months. Also, just a bit of anecdotal evidence that Zillow is completely full of shit - their Rent Zestimate for my rental property is 20% lower than what I actually rent it for. And their home value Zestimate seems to be about 20% - 30% lower than comps.

1. HouseguyDC said at 4:46 pm on Thursday June 25, 2015:
   Yes. Zestimates are usually awful. The simple reason is that an algorithm can't accurately value your home because it can't go inside and see you have a renovated kitchen vs the neighbor's sold home that didn't. And anything on a "regional" level is generally useless information because that can include everything the bay to the mountains and Baltimore to Richmond. Real estate is all local. If you have a home in Georgetown the DOM for Upper Marlboro shouldn't concern you.