- Active home listings in the Washington, D.C., metro area jumped 25% in April, the largest gain on record, to reach the highest level since 2022. The surge of inventory in the city with the most federal employees follows layoffs initiated by the Department of Government Efficiency.
Amid the fallout from the Department of Government Efficiency’s federal layoffs, home listings in the nation’s capital saw the largest gain on record and have jumped to the highest level since 2022, according to Redfin.
While active listings across the country rose 14.2%—the smallest increase in more than a year—home listings in the Washington, D.C., metro area jumped 25% during the four-week period ending April 27 compared to a year ago. That’s the biggest such surge since Redfin began tracking the statistic in 2015.
The D.C. suburbs were impacted the hardest. In Alexandria, Va.; Montgomery County, Md.; and Loudoun County, Va., active listings soared 40.9%, 38.5%, and 36.8%, respectively. Listings in the D.C. municipality increased 14.9%.
The total volume of active listings in the metro area hit 12,649, the highest since November 2022.
The rise of active listings in Washington, D.C., comes after DOGE has ripped through the federal government, laying off or targeting at least 121,000 employees since President Donald Trump took office, CNN estimates.
According to a study from APM Research Lab, 11.1% of all jobs in D.C. are federal positions, the most among U.S. metros. Between January and March, D.C. lost roughly 7,500 federal jobs, a third of the total amount of federal jobs lost, according to a separate study from APM Research Lab. The two closest municipalities that were impacted by federal layoffs were Baltimore and Virginia Beach metros, losing 1,100 and 900 jobs, respectively.
Those numbers have grown since then as DOGE announced steeper cuts last month. Layoffs after March 12 will be released at the end of May.
“Quite a few people in D.C. are selling their homes because they’re losing their jobs,” D.C.-based Redfin real estate agent Mary Bazargan said. “Many of those people are planning to leave the area because the cost of living is high and they want a new job that allows them to work remotely and be closer to family.
Although inventory is high, she said some sellers are nervous about working with a buyer who plans to finance their purchase. For example, she worked with a buyer whose offer was higher than anyone else’s and waived contingencies, but it wasn’t accepted.
“Still, the seller ended up going with an all-cash offer because all of the layoff news made them nervous about accepting offers from financed buyers,” she said.
Despite the selectiveness of sellers, the D.C. market is outperforming the U.S. as homes sell faster with larger price tags. The median home sale price in Washington, D.C., increased 4.1% to $600,964 during April compared to last year, while nationwide it grew 1.9% to $387,855.
“What’s happening with housing inventory in Washington, D.C. could be a sign of what’s to come in other U.S. housing markets,” Redfin Senior Economist Asad Khan said. “And while strong housing demand is buoying in D.C., the rest of the country isn’t so hot. Other markets may not be able to absorb further inventory growth without prices softening.”
