Which D.C. Neighborhoods Are Seeing the Biggest Housing Price Boom?

Kennedy Street is among the areas with the fastest-rising home prices.

The Washington DC Economic Partnership has released its annual neighborhood profiles, which, as usual, make for a nice overview of the qualitative and quantitative changes taking place across the city. But the numbers that jump out, as tends to be the case in this booming housing market, are the increases in housing prices over the past year in certain neighborhoods. Here's how much more homes (both single-family and condos) sold for in 2013 than they did in 2012 in a few areas:

• Anacostia +23%
• Central 14th Street +14%
• Deanwood +14%
• Fort Totten +25%
• Georgia Ave./Walter Reed +25%
• H Street NE +17%
• Hillcrest/Skyland +14%
• Kennedy Street +25%
• Petworth/Park View +13%

The first thing that stands out is that the big jumps in home prices are in increasingly distant areas from the city's center. H Street NE, Petworth, and Central 14th Street (between Spring Road and Longfellow Street) have quieted down, relative to farther-flung neighborhoods—presumably because their prices have already seen most of their spike. The neighborhoods that are booming now make sense. Fort Totten is the next Metro stop up from Petworth, which has already undergone a major price increase. Likewise, Kennedy Street (or Brightwood Park, really) is one neighborhood north of Petworth, with worse Metro access but equally attractive housing stock and lower prices. And the Walter Reed area is already benefiting from the coming mega-development there.

Anacostia and Deanwood, meanwhile, are attractive neighborhoods that are just one or two Metro stops removed from neighborhoods that have already seen a price increase: Capitol Riverfront/Navy Yard and Stadium-Armory, respectively. Don't be surprised if Congress Heights is next.

Photo by Aaron Wiener