DC market now

[Anonymous]

OP, you're worried about the wrong things. If your clients are somehow exposed to the tech sector, they're currently experiencing decreased growth plus the threat that AI will significantly reduce their workforce needs. This, in turn, will result in much less legal spending. For example, companies will be less willing to fight expensive litigation battles, there will be fewer startups and IPOs, and there will be much more pushback on $3500/hr billable rates. The glory days are behind us, and by 2027, the legal industry will be contracting significantly, including mass layoffs. If you're a service partner, you should be very worried and may want to rethink your housing budget accordingly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, you're worried about the wrong things. If your clients are somehow exposed to the tech sector, they're currently experiencing decreased growth plus the threat that AI will significantly reduce their workforce needs. This, in turn, will result in much less legal spending. For example, companies will be less willing to fight expensive litigation battles, there will be fewer startups and IPOs, and there will be much more pushback on $3500/hr billable rates. The glory days are behind us, and by 2027, the legal industry will be contracting significantly, including mass layoffs. If you're a service partner, you should be very worried and may want to rethink your housing budget accordingly.

Just… no. This is so wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC area prices used to be about the same as LA, Seattle, Boston, etc. but those places have appreciate so much more than us. Our prices are more like mid-tier places like Raleigh now.

In no way is DC on the same level as Raleigh. It's where culture goes to die.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC area prices used to be about the same as LA, Seattle, Boston, etc. but those places have appreciate so much more than us. Our prices are more like mid-tier places like Raleigh now.

In no way is DC on the same level as Raleigh. It's where culture goes to die.

+1 Most of North Carolina is where culture goes to die. . Chapel Hill, Durham and Blowing Rock are nice, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, perhaps you ought to make a pro / con list and discuss moving with your family. No one here is going to calm your nerves about the SOTU. Our nerves are jangled, too.

But jangled or not, staying in here - or doubling down, as you put it - is a personal decision. I, for one, lived in DC through the Mayor Barry days when we were told to boil water because it had 'fecal matter' in it. I rented then, and I bought my first DC home after that announcement. Regardless of who is in the WH or what level of fecal matter is in the Potomac, I love DC and I have no plans to leave.

You clearly aren't as attached and so, fancy lawyer with options, you ought to do your own pro/con with your family and stop yucking our yum (not the fecal matter, of course, that is yuck ... but yum of this stunningly beautiful city with its resilient interesting, dynamic and strong residents - its amazing metro and exciting new arts scene on the Wharf and the renaissance of the old arts scene that will surely take place in 3 years).

Please, if you don't like it here then go! We've got more lawyers in DC then we can shake a stick at and someone who wants to be here will take your place. Good luck and hopefully happier days to you.

Nearly 100 percent of my neighbors are transplants who came here for jobs. Three people on block alone are from Brooklyn and moved her for jobs 40-50 years ago and are long retired. Not a single retired neighbor moved. Why.

Moving north is just getting colder and moving south is just getting hotter. Plus I like museums, pro sports teams, weather not too hot or cold. I also like in retirement there is so much to explore within 3 hours or DC by car and we have 3 airports.

The neighbors who do have a retirement place it is a small house or condo mainly in Delware or Florida but kept main home .My buddy retired Milton DC and from October to March there is nothing open. Also no good hospitals, no airport, no sports teams, no nothing really in Delaware at all in winter to do.

It is not like this place is great or even very good but trouble is most places are worse or too expensive.

This sums it up pretty perfectly.

[Anonymous]

The problem with DC is that there is no fennel anywhere. That is the problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The problem with DC is that there is no fennel anywhere. That is the problem.

I would indeed agree that the lack of fennel is odd. But it's very easy to grow, so solve the problem! Throw down some seed!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, you're worried about the wrong things. If your clients are somehow exposed to the tech sector, they're currently experiencing decreased growth plus the threat that AI will significantly reduce their workforce needs. This, in turn, will result in much less legal spending. For example, companies will be less willing to fight expensive litigation battles, there will be fewer startups and IPOs, and there will be much more pushback on $3500/hr billable rates. The glory days are behind us, and by 2027, the legal industry will be contracting significantly, including mass layoffs. If you're a service partner, you should be very worried and may want to rethink your housing budget accordingly.

hahahah. OP here. I’ll worry abt my practice you worry about whatever you do… trust me. We are ok.

[Anonymous]

That's why so many of us live in MD or VA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How on Earth are people getting comfortable buying real estate in DC right now? I’m already a homeowner here and under different circumstances would be looking to upgrade my home but:

- the Potomac River is a biohazard and sure that won’t be the case forever but didn’t we learn something here?? this area is such a disaster - truly - it’s so mismanaged that things like this are likely to keep happening

- city may very well be under federal rule soon. Whole country going down the tubes but this area is uniquely bad. We’ve lost the Kennedy center. Smithsonians probably next. All those perks of living here will be gone by the time trump done with us

I could go on but hopefully you get it. Look…we are seeing it in prices. So yes demand is down.

I’d love to have lived here long term in another universe…how are those of you who are deciding to double down on DC justifying it to yourselves.

If you think the shit in the river or in the white house are good things, probably don’t care to hear from you.

Where are we seeing it in prices? DC area, especially close-in high demand areas are doing very well.

The worst housing markets are in FL and TX primarily:

Top 10 metros* with the largest year-over-year drop in home values
Metro Typical home value as of October 31, 2025 YoY % change in value
Austin, TX $426,454 -6.10%
Tampa, FL $356,298 -6.09%
Miami, FL $470,828 -4.79%
Orlando, FL $384,931 -4.55%
Dallas, TX $362,053 -4.02%
Jacksonville, FL $347,020 -3.40%
Phoenix, AZ $444,548 -3.36%
San Antonio, TX $276,411 -2.97%
Atlanta, GA $378,785 -2.92%
Denver, CO $566,597 -2.92%

We met with an agent yesterday in DC. We want to downsize. The agent said the softest market is $1- $1.5m because those in that price range are most concerned about the economy. The $2M + market is going like gangbusters.

Anecdotally, we just had friends list their completely renovated house (right behind Politics and Prose in CCDC/Forest Hills) for $2.2 million and it went under contract in two days. Meanwhile on our block, on a side street off Nebraska down the hill, there is one house at $1.2 million that has been sitting since October and another similarly priced house just went on the market two doors down from that. Up the street there’s another house in that range that’s been sitting.

[Anonymous]

I moved to DC from a part of the country that is trendy and saw a huge influx of homebuyers in recent years. It doesn't compare to DC and I am never leaving. DC has so much more going on for it than most of the country.

It's not the "most" in anyone area (culture, beauty, opportunity, innovation, convenience, affordability, architecture, etc). But it's really a wonderful combination of most of those features, in a way that no other place in the country is.

If you've lived here a long time, just don't think the grass is greener elsewhere. It's not. We're just living through a nightmare right now. Hopefully, the cult is imploding, and they'll all crawl back under their rocks in 3 years and stay put for another century.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I moved to DC from a part of the country that is trendy and saw a huge influx of homebuyers in recent years. It doesn't compare to DC and I am never leaving. DC has so much more going on for it than most of the country.

It's not the "most" in anyone area (culture, beauty, opportunity, innovation, convenience, affordability, architecture, etc). But it's really a wonderful combination of most of those features, in a way that no other place in the country is.

If you've lived here a long time, just don't think the grass is greener elsewhere. It's not. We're just living through a nightmare right now. Hopefully, the cult is imploding, and they'll all crawl back under their rocks in 3 years and stay put for another century.

I left DC 2x. I lived in Atlanta and Charlotte. I could not wait to come back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I moved to DC from a part of the country that is trendy and saw a huge influx of homebuyers in recent years. It doesn't compare to DC and I am never leaving. DC has so much more going on for it than most of the country.

It's not the "most" in anyone area (culture, beauty, opportunity, innovation, convenience, affordability, architecture, etc). But it's really a wonderful combination of most of those features, in a way that no other place in the country is.

If you've lived here a long time, just don't think the grass is greener elsewhere. It's not. We're just living through a nightmare right now. Hopefully, the cult is imploding, and they'll all crawl back under their rocks in 3 years and stay put for another century.

Ditto, all of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I moved to DC from a part of the country that is trendy and saw a huge influx of homebuyers in recent years. It doesn't compare to DC and I am never leaving. DC has so much more going on for it than most of the country.

It's not the "most" in anyone area (culture, beauty, opportunity, innovation, convenience, affordability, architecture, etc). But it's really a wonderful combination of most of those features, in a way that no other place in the country is.

If you've lived here a long time, just don't think the grass is greener elsewhere. It's not. We're just living through a nightmare right now. Hopefully, the cult is imploding, and they'll all crawl back under their rocks in 3 years and stay put for another century.

OP here. I hope so too – to be clear, I moved here thinking I would live here forever. we’ve now been here a little over 10 years so I can’t claim that I’ve seen it all, but we were so thrilled when we moved here from New York City and we enjoy so much about life here. I’m just worried it’s getting irreparably damaged. Maybe I’m just sad I can’t take my kids down to the river this year. But the destruction of some of the most wonderful things here is pretty distressing and it could get way worse. MAGA doesn’t believe in culture or education - 2 things I cherish about DC. They really could ruin it and I’m not saying other places are better. I’m saying it sucks to invest a lot of money in a sinking ship…

[Anonymous]

There's no way I'm moving because of this orange idiot. We love it here. We don't like what he is doing to the city but the people who live here are not the types to take things lying down. That keeps me motivated and committed to the area. Watch a DC Council oversight hearing on public safety/mpd sometime. Residents here have passion and balls and you won't find that just anywhere. I ONLY want these people to be my neighbors.

Recent Brooke Pinto hearing (it is SIX hours but each testimony is only limited to 3 minutes, so just find any place in the hearing and listen for a bit). Not every city has this type of constituency and it makes me proud to call D.C. home. I am NOT going anywhere:

Committee on the Judiciary & Public Safety, Performance Oversight Hearing, Brooke Pinto, Chairperson
https://dc.granicus.com/player/clip/10344