GDoN Revisited by Hipchickindc – 1617 C St, SE

Hipchickindc is a licensed real estate broker. She is the founder of 10 Square Team and is affiliated with Keller Williams Capital Properties. 10 Square Team is a princeofpetworth.com advertiser. Unless specifically noted, neither she nor the company that she is affiliated with represented any of the parties or were directly involved in the transaction reported below. Unless otherwise noted, the source of information is Metropolitan Regional Information Systems (MRIS), which is the local multiple listing system. Information is deemed reliable but not guaranteed.

Featured Property: 1617 C St SE
Legal Subdivision: Old City #1
Advertised Subdivision per Listing: Capitol Hill
Original List Price: $550,000.
List Price at Contract: $550,000.
List Date: 02/04/2012
Days on Market: 62
Settled Sales Price: $535,000.
Settlement Date: 04/30/2012
Seller Subsidy: $10,000.
Bank Owned?: No Short Sale? No
Type Of Financing: Conventional
Original GDoN post is: here.
The listing can be seen: here. To see pics, open the listing link and scroll through the arrows on the main photo.

I attend several national real estate meetings each year and am involved in the National Association of Realtor®s Mid Year Legislative meetings that are here in town this week. I find it very interesting to hear from real estate agents about market conditions around the country. Some areas are experiencing a similar shortage of inventory that we are, and are also seeing multiple offers and increasing prices. Other parts of the country remain dominated by short sales and foreclosures, and are realistically concerned with potential shadow inventory (foreclosures held back by banks that when released could potentially flood places that are already overwhelmed).

To provide some perspective on the DC market, the April 2012 numbers were released by Real Estate Business Intelligence, a subsidiary of Metropolitan Regional Information Systems. Looking at the District of Columbia specifically and as a whole, compared to April 2011 the total dollar volume sold increased by 6.5% and median prices went up 12.53%. Average days on market decreased nearly 20%. Active listings decreased by over 32%! As I’ve said before, historically low mortgage rates are driving demand and active listings are in short supply. In other words, these are prime conditions for prices to continue to increase.

Continues after the jump.

If there’s one thing to have learned from these Good Deal or Not Revisited (GDoN-R) profiles, it is that there are numerous sub-markets within the District of Columbia. In this case, the subject property is located in what might be described as “Hill East” and is located in the zip code 20003. While the total dollar volume of properties sold in this zip code did show a year over year rise of 7.87%, median prices surprisingly showed a decrease of 3.60%. Days on market actually decreased by a higher percentage than the overall picture of DC, at 21.67%. Inventory is down by over 35%.

The apparent price drop seems counterintuitive, in that clearly demand is high and inventory is down. There were some low sales that pulled the overall pricing numbers down. In looking more closely at prices for the zip 20003, the average sold price of 2 bedroom attached townhomes (like the subject property) compared year over year shows a 5.78% increase. The year over year average sold price for attached homes with 4 or more bedrooms in this zip code escalated 17.80% and condo prices increased an amazing 38.83%.