A row of porched brick rowhouses with dormer windows on Quincy Street NW, Washington, D.C.

DC market data

What DC homes cost per square foot

Every DC neighborhood, split by condition — a renovated rowhouse and one that needs everything are not the same market.

Across Washington DC, a house the assessor rates as recently renovated sold for a median of $813 per square foot over the last 3 years, while one the assessor rates Average or below sold for $489. Between neighborhoods the range is wider still — from $326 to $1,097 per square foot.

Where renovation pays the most

The six neighborhoods where a renovated house earns the widest premium.

Mayfair & Hillbrook
+83%
$229 more per square foot for a renovated house
Deanwood & Lincoln Heights
+79%
$224 more per square foot for a renovated house
Deanwood & Lincoln Heights guide
Marshall Heights & Capitol View
+77%
$232 more per square foot for a renovated house
Douglass & Shipley Terrace
+77%
$222 more per square foot for a renovated house
Congress Heights & Washington Highlands
+77%
$173 more per square foot for a renovated house
Congress Heights & Washington Highlands guide
Shaw & Logan Circle
+72%
$394 more per square foot for a renovated house
Shaw & Logan Circle guide
See the renovation premium, neighborhood by neighborhood →

Common questions

What is the average price per square foot in Washington DC?
Across DC, the median house sold for $617 per square foot over the last 3 years, and the median condominium for $612. Those medians hide an enormous range: neighborhood medians run from roughly $326 to over $1,097 per square foot.
How much more does a renovated DC house cost?
Citywide, houses the assessor rates as recently renovated sold for a median of $813 per square foot, against $489 for houses the assessor rates Average, Fair or Poor. That is a difference of about 66%. The gap varies widely by neighborhood, which is why the tool reports it separately for each one.
Where does this data come from?
The District's Office of the Chief Financial Officer publishes its property assessment and sales records through Open Data DC. This tool uses residential sales the assessor treated as valid comparables, joined to the assessor's record of each property's square footage, condition rating and most recent recorded remodel. It is not listing data and does not come from an MLS.
Is price per square foot a good way to value a DC home?
It is a useful comparison, not a valuation. Square footage in the assessment record is gross building area, which treats a finished basement differently from an appraiser. Lot size, condition, parking, historic-district status and exact block all move price independently. Use these figures to orient yourself between neighborhoods, then rely on an appraisal for any specific property.
Does a fixer-upper in DC actually pencil out?
Sometimes, and the spread on this page is where that conversation starts — it tells you roughly what buyers pay for move-in condition in that specific neighborhood. Whether it pencils depends on what the renovation costs, whether the house sits in a historic district, and how the work is financed. Renovation loans exist for exactly this, and we are happy to walk through the numbers.

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Thinking about a specific house?

These are city-wide patterns. What matters is whether the one you're looking at works for you — and if it needs work, whether the renovation can be financed. That's a conversation, not a calculator.

Get pre-qualifiedWhat can I afford?

How this was built

Figures come from the District of Columbia’s property assessment and sales records, published through Open Data DC by the Office of the Chief Financial Officer. Data current through 2026-08-12; this page was generated on 2026-08-21.

Only sales the District flags as qualified are counted — meaning the assessor used them as comparables when setting values. That excludes nominal transfers and deed corrections, and also excludes genuine open-market sales the assessor chose not to let anchor nearby assessments, most often because the property needed work. All figures are medians, never averages, so a single extraordinary sale cannot move a neighborhood’s number. Medians cover the last 3 years; where a segment had too few sales in that window, 5 years are used and the panel says so. Nothing is published from fewer than 8 sales.

Condition segments. A house counts as renovated when the District has a remodel recorded within the last 10 years and the assessor rates the structure Excellent or Very Good. Requiring both matters: condition alone would label roughly two-thirds of the city renovated, which would tell you nothing. “Average or below” is the assessor’s own scale — Good is its most common rating, so an Average house already sits below the middle of the market. Condominium records carry no condition rating at all, so the condo view is segmented by bedroom count instead.

Square footage is the assessor’s gross building area, which may treat finished basements and additions differently from an appraiser. Neighborhoods are the District’s official neighborhood clusters, labeled here with the names people actually use.

These are recorded sales and assessment records. They are not appraisals, not listings, and not an estimate of the value of any particular property. Source: DC Office of the Chief Financial Officer, via Open Data DC (CC BY 4.0).