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Articles on DC loan programs, closing costs, taxes, refinancing and neighborhoods.
DC's assessment records separate renovated houses from ones that need some TLC. Citywide, a renovated house sells for $813 per square foot and a house that needs some TLC for $489, a $324 difference (recorded sales through August 2026). The difference is widest in the lowest-priced neighborhoods.
A 65,000-seat stadium and 5,000–6,500 homes are planned for the 174-acre RFK campus, with the stadium targeted for 2030. DC's recorded sales from 2021 through August 2026 show homes nearest the campus trailing the citywide median.
The $400 million Bridge District, the 11th Street Bridge Park, St. Elizabeths East, Skyland Town Center, Reunion Square, and the DHS campus: the projects under way east of the Anacostia, and what recorded sales through August 2026 show for owners and buyers.
The 183-acre East Campus above Congress Heights was the nation's first federal psychiatric hospital for 160 years. DC is redeveloping the campus with the Entertainment and Sports Arena, Sycamore & Oak retail, and District Towns, the first 88 for-sale townhomes, already built and sold.
Historic Anacostia began in 1854 as Uniontown, Washington's first planned suburb, chartered to bar Black and Irish buyers. Frederick Douglass bought Cedar Hill there in 1877, and the neighborhood became the Anacostia Historic District in 1978.
From 1894 to 1900, Washington society rode tally-ho coaches across the new Pennsylvania Avenue bridge to the Overlook Inn, a resort hotel on Hillcrest's plateau beside the earthworks of Civil War Fort Baker. Fort Baker Drive still traces the approach.
The Pennsylvania Avenue crossing of the Anacostia dates to the 1790s. The ferries, the 1890 iron bridge, the 1898 trolley line, the 1939–41 Sousa Bridge, and the houses of Fairlawn and old Twining that each one brought.
Congress Heights and Randle Highlands share a founder: Arthur E. Randle (1859–1929), a newspaper publisher who bought the high ground east of the Anacostia and then built the streetcar lines to reach it. His history, and what his housing stock means for financing today.
How the Anacostia's four boat clubs, the swimming holes, Langston Golf Course, and Anacostia Park came to be between 1898 and 1945, and who is cleaning the river now.
Housing stock, price tiers, and loan considerations for Capitol Hill, Navy Yard, Logan Circle, Dupont Circle, Shaw, Columbia Heights, and Brookland, plus FHA, DC's recordation tax and first-time buyer rate, Tax Abatement, the homestead deduction, and the 2026 conforming limit.
How to finance a Navy Yard condo: FHA and conventional building approval, HOA dues, rental caps, down payment options, and DC first-time buyer tax benefits.
Financing a Capitol Hill rowhouse: DC's $1,249,125 high-balance ceiling, jumbo requirements, appraisal issues on 1850s–1900s construction, English basement rental income rules, and the first-time buyer rules on conventional loans.
How to finance a Logan Circle condo in a small Victorian conversion or a 14th Street mid-rise: warrantability, FHA approval, HOA review and DC's $1,249,125 conforming limit.
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