Highs and Lows in Capitol Hill Real Estate, Neighborhood by Neighborhood

This regularly scheduled, sponsored Q&A column is written by Tom Faison of ReMax Allegiance at Eastern Market. Please submit your questions via email.

Almost half the year has passed and Hill Realtors are happy to report that business is brisk. The diversity in housing stock on Capitol Hill allows for a broad spectrum of affordability, welcoming fat wallets and penny-pinchers alike. So there is no scarcity of transactions.

Each “micro-hood” within the broader Capitol Hill area has its own affordability range — what some might call the “price of admission” as the low mark, and the “ceiling” as . . . well, the ceiling. I remember when $400,000 was a big price tag around Eastern Market, as well as when $400,000 would barely get you in the door. The level of affordability in many Hill micro-hoods has leaped in the last few years. A $400,000 ceiling in Trinidad only 60 months ago is now a floor, below which, if you’re lucky enough to find it, is not very pretty.

Here are some of the highs and lows, five years apart, broken down by micro-hood:

Trinidad:

• Twenty-four “renovated” (habitable) homes have settled in Trinidad so far this year. Not one of houses settled for less than $400,000, and three of them blew through the $700,000 ceiling without breaking a sweat.
• Compared to the same area and the same six months in 2010, 19 homes sold. Guess what? The bottom was $75,000. The glass ceiling of $300,000 was barely shattered at $312,000.

Kingman Park/Rosedale:

• Much like Trinidad, although due to the similarity and size of the housing stock, I predict that Kingman Park still has some jumping to do. Seventeen homes settled so far this year, ranging from $400,000 to $775,000.
• Compared to the first six months of 2010, 32 homes settled between $68,000 and $360,000. But an outlier at 15th and Gales streets NE sold for a whopping $465,000.

Atlas District:

• These numbers are stunning from a real estate perspective. Twenty-two homes sold this year to date, ranging from $560,000 for a 900 square-foot, two bedroom house, all the way up to $1 million for a 3,000 square-foot house at 10th and K streets NE.
• Within the same six-month period, only five short years earlier, 35 homes sold within a range of $200,000 to $625,000. I was involved in the two top sales that year and the entire neighborhood was shocked at the sale numbers which now seems like peanuts.

Hill East:

• Considered much more established, larger and less transitional, Hill East still experienced major gains in the last five years. To date this year, 49 homes have sold between $450,000 and $920,000. Hill East has breached the $1 million mark, but nothing commanding that price has been put out this year.
• The first six months of 2010 saw 43 homes listed in Hill East between $200,000 and $700,000. Not as dramatic as the micro-hoods further out, but very remarkable increases any way you slice it.

My numbers and statistics are a little rough, my geographical boundaries a little loose, but what’s crystal clear is that these micro-hoods outside of Capitol Hill proper have jumped in value over the past five years beyond what anyone could have or would have predicted. My personal prediction is that we won’t see these types of leaps over such a short period again anytime soon.

The views and opinions expressed in the column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of HillNow.com.