Many would agree that it takes serious patience when it comes to home buying, especially when you are dealing with a lack of inventory like in DC. July marked the first time that home sales in DC were lower than a year ago for the first time in 19 months. July also marked the most DC homes under contract for the month of July since 2005. With such record trends in mind, the Ninja team set out to see what exactly July home sales looked like in the District. We also included June home sales for this piece given no separate Ninja Report for the month of June. This first visual is broken down by total home sales for both months and the average cost per sq ft. for each month. If you drag your mouse over the bars, you can see more information like the averages for closing price, list price, days on the market, and more.
When it comes to sales, there was a considerable drop in total sales from June to July. July saw an 18% drop in total sales, with 760 sales compared to 928 in June. While there were fewer sales in July, buyers had to pay 34% more per square foot ($1,416) than buyers in June ($489). The two months did share some similarities when it came to how long it took a home to sold on the market (roughly 73 days) and the closing price (roughly $660,000). Both months also saw sellers have to take on average roughly $2,500 less than their list price. The next visual shows the top 10 neighborhoods (w/ neighborhoods that had at least 20 total sales) that experienced home sales for the combined months of June and July. If you drag your mouse over the bar, you can see more information like averages for closing price, list price, days on the market, and more.
Once again, Columbia Heights continues to dominate DC’s 2016 home sales. Columbia Heights has experienced the most total home sales for the months of February, April, May, and June. The average closing price has remained rather consistent for the neighborhood at roughly $615,000. The same can be said for Dupont Circle, which has appeared in the top 5 neighborhoods with most sales for every Ninja Report thus far. As for June and July, we were interested to see that only two neighborhoods in the top 10 saw an increase in sales from June to July. Thus, even the most competitive/in-demand neighborhoods were unable to escape the overall downturn DC witnessed in July home sales.
This visual represents the top 5 neighborhoods (w/20 home sales or more) that on average experienced the highest over-ask and under-ask. Hover your mouse over the bars in order to see more data about each neighborhood like average closing price and list price. The Ninja team immediately noticed that top sales doesn’t always necessarily more in-demand and therefore likely willing to pay over-ask. For example, Cathedral Heights had the fourth highest amount of home sales in June/July, yet, sellers on average had to settle for approximately $11,000 less than their list price. Similarly, Georgetown ranked number 10 for most home sales yet witnessed the highest under-ask in DC, though this should be taken in the context of Georgetown’s famously high priced homes which on average closed for $1.2 million over the past two months.
This final visual gives you a geographic appreciation for where home sales occurred for both months, broken down by ward. We hope you enjoyed this editions combined report and we will be back with an August Report next month!
Ninja Notes