D.C. is by far one of the most walkable cities in the country, and you're really seeing a big shift in homeowners wanting that. They want to buy into the lifestyle, and it's worth it to them to pay basically whatever it takes to be able to live in a neighborhood where their family is, their friends are, their job is, close to entertainment and everything they want to get to.
While several upscale neighborhoods in Northwest Washington remained hot, the biggest news is that demand in several east-of-the-river communities grew substantially this year.
In all, the average sales price for D.C. is up 1.9 percent from the same time a year ago (from $625,575 in 2014 to $637,452 in 2015). Across the board, sales prices are up in the majority of D.C. neighborhoods.
The biggest gainer in sales price this year is Wakefield (at the northern tip of Cleveland Park) with an average sales price up 42 percent from $573,433 to $814,045. Other big gainers in average sales price include Kalorama (41.9 percent increase), Congress Heights (35 percent), Fort Lincoln (27 percent) and Anacostia (27 percent). The last three have been expected to be larger gainers for several years because of an increase in developer presence in the area.
As for the losers, the greatest falls in the average sales price include Barry Farm, a small community just east of the Anacostia River, with a 24 percent decline. Other neighborhoods with declines in average sales price include Spring Valley (22 percent decrease), Wesley Heights (21 percent), Observatory Circle (17 percent), and Cleveland Park (16 percent).
$829,000 Wesley Heights
4 Beds 3 Baths 1,489 Sq. Ft.
The neighborhoods that saw the biggest price gains were Kalorama and Cleveland Park, where prices were up 70 percent.
Columbia Heights and Capitol Hill remain two of the District’s strongest neighborhoods for sales. In Columbia Heights and Mount Pleasant, sales were up 18 percent and the median price of $614,950 was up 21 percent from a year ago. The median price in Capitol Hill SE was $667,700 in June, up 17 percent from a year ago.
The District’s most expensive neighborhood remains Chevy Chase with a median selling price of $1,030,000 in June, up 6 percent from a year ago.