Seven-figure home sales now make up 20% of the DC housing market
The high-end housing market in the D.C. metro did start the year strong, and with some unusually notable sales and listings. But it has the same problem that the overall market has.
In January, 20.42% of the homes on the market in the D.C. metro were priced at $1.5 million or more, and 14.5% were priced between $1.5 million and $2.5 million, according to Long & Foster’s monthly luxury insights report.
More than 5% were listed for $2.5 million or more.
The median price of a sale among $1.5 million-plus listings was $1.9 million in January.
But in January, 146 sales closed at $1.5 million or more, down from 184 in January 2022. The high-end of the D.C. housing market has the same problem that the overall market has. There were 5.8 months of simply available of properties in that price range, compared to 6.7 months a year earlier.
“As I draw a radius around the Capitol of 25 miles, in 2022, there were more than 3,200 sales above $1.5 million, and in 2023, there were fewer than 2,800, so that’s a reduction of about 15%,” said Corey Burr, senior vice president at TTR Sotheby’s International Realty’s The Burr Group in Friendship Heights.
The high-end housing market in the D.C. metro area did start the year strong, and with some unusually notable sales and listings.
“There was just a $10 million sale in McLean. In D.C., we just had the Jaqueline Kennedy property sell at auction for $15 million. Dan Snyder’s property in Potomac is on the market for $35 million,” Burr said.
Those luxury buyers are largely paying what the sellers are asking, showing the market supports the lofty prices.
According to Long & Foster, the average sale price for a home of more than $1.5 million in January was 96.9% of the list price — slightly higher than a year ago. Those listings do take longer to sell, and are on the market for an average of 70 days in January, compared to 47 days a year ago.
Continually rising prices for the overall D.C. region are pushing some properties into seven-figure territory.
The median prices of what sold in Alexandria, Arlington County, Fairfax and Loudoun counties and the District were all more than $600,000, according to listing service Bright MLS.
But Burr said the luxury market in D.C. continues to come into its own.
“Washington used to be kind of a secondary stepchild to the most expensive real estate markets in the country, like New York and San Francisco, Boston and Miami. But we’ve really caught up in the last 15 years. It is a testament to how well our region has grown, not just dependent on the federal government, but on so many other industries that are building up,” he said.