May 10, 2007

Believe It Or Not: The DC Condo Market Is Healthy

Prices for condos and co-ops in DC have been nudging up this year. We will say it again: prices for condos in DC – not Rockthesda or 703 – are up. The median sales price is $350k, up 2.3 percent since last month.

Sales are up too. In April, there were 395 contracts for condos in DC. That’s an increase of 11.5 percent over the same period last year.

Want more: Inventory is down by 6.3 percent to 1,352 units. Adding to this trend, the number of new units on the market is down 9 percent, with only 640 new units on the market.

Bottom Line: It seems neither buyers, nor sellers, have an advantage, though the balance is tipping toward sellers. See last month's numbers.

source: Greater Capital Area of Realtors

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looked at your link. Median Dc condo prices are down.

Anonymous said...

Oh, and not only are they down from last April to this April, looking from April 05, they are down 6-7%. In real dollars, that's a 10-13% decrease.

So, um, nice try.

dcbubble.blogspot said...

Actually median prices yoy are up 2 percent and the average prices are up 5 percent.

Ok so prices are down over the two year period.

But over a five year period, ten year period....I bet they are still up

Anonymous said...

No, median prices are down from 354 to 350 YOY April 06 to April 07. Why can't you handle the facts from the very source you cite?

http://www.gcaar.com/statistics/2007-home-sales/dccc0407.pdf

Look in the lower right-hand corner for the helpful chart. Watch the little orange line that tracks the media price go from 354 to 350.

But yes, prices are higher than they were 5 years ago. Buying was a good idea in 2002. Not so much in 2007.

Anonymous said...

Oh, I see. You're talking about month-to-month trends, which is kinda lame, since there are always seasonal trends.

In fact, the relatively weak increase from April 07 over March 07 indicates a pretty weak year in housing going forward. Heck, April 06 was better than March 06 and that was an undoubtedly bad year for DC condos.

dcbubble.blogspot said...

Seasonal trends?

J-Red said...

Moving towards summer is good times. Moving away from summer is bad times. Though I suppose condos should be more insulated from this effect since most condo-dwellers lack school-aged children. Then again, many condo buyers are school-aged children and the offspring of the successful.