Gentrification

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Mapping D.C.’s Housing Prices

We know that housing prices in D.C. are on the rise — the District is the only major city that saw an increase in home prices in the past year. But our housing prices haven’t really dropped all that much from the peak of the housing bubble, either.

Real estate website Zillow and Wall Street Journal have mapped the drop in home prices in six major metro areas since the height of the housing bubble. The big takeaway for D.C. is that in nearly all D.C. zip codes, home prices haven’t severely plummeted since the height of the bubble; in some neighborhoods, such as Dupont Circle, they’ve dropped by only 4 percent.

The only zip codes with housing drops below the metro average were in 20024 — which includes the Southwest Waterfront — and 20032, in Ward 8. There is also a huge east-west divide in the region; the suburbs to the east in Prince George’s County experienced the most severe post-bubble drops in areas abutting the District. And those suburbs are home to many residents who left D.C.’s Wards 7 and 8.

Screenshot of Zillow/Wall Street Journal Interactive Maps

Green dots show housing price declines from the peak of the market that are above the metro average; red dots show declines below the metro average.

Logan Circle to Get More Gentrified?

Logan Circle is one of those almost completely gentrified neighborhoods. It’s also one of those hot areas where rents may increase by 10 percent. And residents of 54 townhouses in the neighborhood, who “give the neighborhood a modicum of income diversity” could be leaving, reports Housing Complex.


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Two big developers, one of which is Monument Reality, are interested in buying up the properties. In the 1980s residents began buying the townhouses, once city-owned rental units, for $100,000 to $150,000. Now, developers are willing to pay upwards of $800,000 per townhouse, clear the land and put as much housing or commercial density on it as possible. But before that can take place, the condominium associations have to dissolve. More from Housing Complex, who wrote about a meeting of residents that took place Thursday night:

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