Map of the Month: Condominium Development (2012-2015)
Between 2007 and 2013, the Washington, DC metro area’s population grew by a total of 574,000 individuals, or in other words, a little more than the population of the city of Portland, Oregon. In 2013, the Washington, DC MSA claimed the nation’s 3rd largest net migration with 40,910 residents – 27% of which chose residence in the District of Columbia, proper. [i] With the rapid growth of population over the last 15 years, Washington’s residential market has similarly boomed with new construction, residential conversions and rehabilitations to existing housing stock.
Since 2007 however, residential development of condominiums (a multi-family residential building which sells units rather than rents) severely dropped. At the peak of condo development in 2006, WDCEP recorded the delivery of 2,335 condo units. In contrast, only 146 condo units were delivered in 2010 while ground was broken on just 195 additional units.
Although Washington’s apartment market has been quick to rebound from the recession (eclipsing its peak pre-recession deliveries in both 2013 and 2014), condominium development has been slow to turn around.
The condo market began to make its rebound in 2013. In that year, ground was broken on 467 condo units, a 113% increase from 2012, and 463 units were delivered, a 177% increase from 2012. With 1,414 condo units currently under construction and an additional 1,082 units expected to break ground in the next 18 months, the market for condos is beginning to catch up to DC’s rental market.
In this month’s Map of the Month, we are showcasing the recent and future growth of condominium development in Washington, DC. For the purposes of narrowing the scope of this map, it includes condominium projects costing a minimum of $10,000,000 that have been completed since January 2012 and those scheduled to deliver by December 2015.
[i] Cassidy Turley, Washington, DC Multifamily Market Overview (November 2014)