Neighborhood Pulse: Inventory Builds 20% for a Second Straight Week, Mount Vernon Square Jumps 8.5%, a Capitol Hill Rowhouse Sits 188 Days
Active listings jumped 20% for a second straight week, 689 to 830. Mount Vernon Square's median rose 8.5% to $927,500 on a newly six-sale sample. A Dupont Circle rowhouse sold in two days at 7.7% over ask; a Capitol Hill rowhouse took 188 days for a 19% cut.
This Week's Pulse
Active listings climbed from 689 to 830 this week, a gain of 141 homes and 20.5%, the second straight week of double-digit growth after the 19% build recorded on September 21. Petworth added 17 listings. Trinidad added 12. Dupont Circle and Near Northeast/NoMa/H Street each added 10. Two weeks running, the fall market has done exactly what fall markets are supposed to do: sellers who held through summer are listing now, all at once.
Mount Vernon Square supplied the week's clearest price move. The median rose from $855,000 to $927,500, up 8.5%, on a sample that crossed from five sales to six, the line between a flagged thin-sample neighborhood and one the data can speak about directly. Days on market came in from 35 to 31. The annual comparison is still deep in negative territory at -28.7%, narrowed from -34.2% the week before, against a base year that priced a different mix of units entirely. One sale entering the trailing window moved every figure on the page. Read the direction here, not the size of the move.
The extremes told two different stories from opposite ends of the city. 1541 T St NW in Dupont Circle listed at $1,950,000 on September 9, was under contract in two days, and settled at $2,100,000: 7.7% over ask, $873 a foot against a neighborhood median of $805. 712 4th St SE in Capitol Hill did the opposite. Listed at $990,000 in March, it took 188 days and multiple price cuts before it sold, closing at $800,000, 19.2% under its original number. Capitol Hill's own trailing median clears in nine days. This house needed six months to find the number the market would pay. Crestwood also moved this week, 22.8% on three sales, and three sales is not a foundation the page copy should be built on. It stays out of this column for that reason.
Twenty percent more competition arrived on the market this week, and the sales that closed this week were priced before that competition existed. The next round of closings will say whether pricing held. For now the data points to one instruction: list at the number the neighborhood is paying today, not the number it paid eight months ago, and the house sells in two days instead of six months.
Top Movers
Dupont Circle $1.83M, +1.7% YoY, flat MoM. DOM 18, L2S 98.1%. 57 trailing sales. Core rotation, least recently featured among the Core Four. The aggregate barely moved this week, and the story is in one transaction instead of the median. 1541 T St NW listed at $1,950,000 on September 9 and was under contract in two days, settling at $2,100,000, 7.7% over ask and $873 a foot against the neighborhood's $805 median. Fifty-seven trailing sales is the deepest sample among this week's five movers behind Capitol Hill's. Active listings jumped from 23 to 33 this week, the third-largest gain in the city. Inventory is building here as fast as anywhere, and the market is still paying a premium for the right house.
Logan Circle $1.44M, -17.8% YoY, +0.1% MoM. DOM 20, L2S 98.2%. 49 trailing sales. Core rotation. Nothing distinctive happened here this week, and the honest thing to report is that nothing happened. The median moved a tenth of a percent against three weeks ago and sits essentially where it started. The annual figure remains deeply negative at -17.8%, measured against a base year that closed at $1,755,000, a comparison this column has flagged before. Forty-nine trailing sales is a real sample. It says Logan Circle has been repricing for over a year, not that this week added anything new to that story.
Southwest Waterfront $805K, -18.1% YoY, -3.2% MoM. DOM 26, L2S 100.0%. 25 trailing sales. The clock lengthened five days in a week, 21 to 26, and the annual decline is the steepest of any neighborhood in this week's slate. 712 6th St SW closed this week at $775,000 against an $860,000 original ask, 90.1% of that number, after 47 days on market. That sale sits below the neighborhood median and took nearly twice the median time to find a buyer. The trailing sample slipped from 26 sales to 25 as an older closing rolled out of the twelve-month window. List-to-sale still reads 100.0%, which means the houses that do sell here are clearing at exactly their final list price. The number is just getting set lower before it clears.
Mount Vernon Square $927K, -28.7% YoY, +8.5% MoM. DOM 31, L2S 96.0%. 6 trailing sales. Covered above: the sample crossed from five sales to six this week, and every figure moved because of it. 418 M St NW #2 is one of the six, a condo that closed at $1,200,000, 96.1% of its $1,249,000 ask, after 12 days. That single sale sits well above the new $927,500 median and shows the spread this neighborhood trades across on a six-sale base. Treat the 8.5% weekly move and the -28.7% annual figure as directional. A seventh sale next month could move both again.
Mount Pleasant $1.48M, +1.1% YoY, +1.7% MoM. DOM 6, L2S 100.0%. 57 trailing sales. Fifty-seven trailing sales, a six-day median clock, and a 100.0% list-to-sale ratio. That combination has not moved in months and did not move this week either. The city's largest single sale settled here: 3172 17th St NW closed at $2,200,000, 96.1% of its $2,289,000 ask, in 19 days, on 4,800 square feet above grade. Mount Pleasant's active count rose from 6 to 10, still one of the thinnest supply pictures in the city relative to the size of its sales sample. Discipline and demand are both intact here, at the same time inventory everywhere else in the city is expanding.
Market Snapshot: September 28, 2026
| Neighborhood | Median Price | MoM | DOM | $/sqft | L2S | YoY | Sales |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kalorama Heights | $2.60M | +1.2% | 32 | $721 | 97.0% | -21.6% | 25 |
| Georgetown | $1.86M | -1.7% | 13 | $1018 | 98.3% | -3.2% | 109 |
| Dupont Circle | $1.83M | — | 18 | $805 | 98.1% | +1.7% | 57 |
| Woodley Park | $1.73M | — | 7 | $836 | 100.3% | -8.2% | 15 |
| Kalorama Triangle | $1.63M | — | 65 | $689 | 94.0% | -8.1% | 8 |
| Burleith-Hillandale | $1.61M | -0.9% | 8 | $923 | 97.6% | -10.3% | 41 |
| N Cleveland Park | $1.55M | — | 9 | $815 | 99.4% | +8.8% | 13 |
| Mount Pleasant | $1.48M | +1.7% | 6 | $705 | 100.0% | +1.1% | 57 |
| Logan Circle | $1.44M | +0.1% | 20 | $770 | 98.2% | -17.8% | 49 |
| Cathedral Heights | $1.38M | — | 32 | $706 | 96.0% | -7.8% | 14 |
| Foxhall Village | $1.33M | — | 6 | $807 | 100.2% | -1.5% | 16 |
| Cleveland Park | $1.32M | +3.5% | 17 | $747 | 96.1% | -6.9% | 15 |
| Glover Park | $1.32M | — | 10 | $851 | 99.4% | +1.9% | 33 |
| Chevy Chase | $1.23M | -3.0% | 8 | $699 | 97.5% | +3.4% | 17 |
| Friendship Heights | $1.18M | -4.1% | 7 | $716 | 100.0% | +18.0% | 13 |
| Navy Yard | $1.17M | +0.2% | 18 | $596 | 98.2% | +2.2% | 11 |
| Shaw | $1.11M | -3.0% | 20 | $656 | 99.4% | +1.8% | 58 |
| Capitol Hill | $1.07M | +0.5% | 9 | $717 | 99.0% | -5.3% | 310 |
| 16th St Heights | $1.06M | +0.2% | 18 | $549 | 97.9% | +5.7% | 34 |
| Adams Morgan | $1.02M | — | 27 | $694 | 95.5% | -16.5% | 10 |
| U Street | $1.01M | +1.5% | 20 | $726 | 98.0% | +4.4% | 36 |
| Bloomingdale | $940K | +0.3% | 24 | $549 | 98.6% | -14.2% | 45 |
| Mt Vernon Sq | $927K | +8.5% | 31 | $565 | 96.0% | -28.7% | 6 |
| LeDroit Park | $896K | — | 37 | $541 | 96.0% | -3.9% | 26 |
| Hill East | $875K | -2.3% | 9 | $652 | 100.0% | +1.7% | 43 |
| Columbia Heights | $872K | — | 13 | $530 | 97.3% | -4.2% | 99 |
| Near NE / NoMa / H St | $835K | -1.6% | 17 | $598 | 97.3% | -7.2% | 81 |
| Petworth | $812K | +1.6% | 30 | $527 | 96.5% | -4.3% | 130 |
| Southwest Waterfront | $805K | -3.2% | 26 | $488 | 100.0% | -18.1% | 25 |
| Truxton Circle | $780K | — | 41 | $469 | 94.4% | +6.4% | 27 |
| Brightwood Park | $725K | — | 34 | $518 | 97.1% | +6.7% | 69 |
| Eckington | $725K | +4.9% | 31 | $507 | 97.0% | +17.9% | 63 |
| Park View | $700K | — | 27 | $488 | 96.2% | -10.0% | 48 |
| Brightwood | $647K | +0.8% | 31 | $453 | 95.3% | +0.4% | 70 |
| Wakefield | $639K | — | 9 | $423 | 100.0% | +5.6% | 13 |
| Brookland | $635K | +1.8% | 22 | $490 | 98.6% | +5.8% | 106 |
| Kingman Park | $587K | -0.6% | 21 | $547 | 99.0% | -6.0% | 57 |
| Trinidad | $571K | +0.9% | 42 | $416 | 95.9% | -8.5% | 66 |
| Lanier Heights* | $1.60M | — | 11 | $718 | 100.0% | +6.6% | 3 |
| Crestwood* | $1.57M | +22.8% | 0 | $670 | 100.0% | +12.5% | 3 |
| Forest Hills* | $1.30M | — | 9 | $900 | 100.0% | +0.6% | 1 |
| Foggy Bottom* | $1.12M | +21.3% | 39 | $859 | 95.6% | +7.6% | 4 |
| American Univ Park* | $1.11M | +4.0% | 6 | $673 | 97.9% | +2.8% | 4 |
| West End* | $1.10M | — | 11 | $795 | 95.7% | -43.6% | 3 |
Source: BrightMLS via Compass, closed row home sales trailing 12 months as of 9/28/2026. MoM = change from 9/07/2026. Figures computed under the corrected neighborhood boundaries (245 boundary rulings applied 7/26/2026). Structure type filter: Interior Row/Townhouse, End of Row/Townhouse, Twin/Semi-Detached only. * Small sample (n<5): figures directional only. ** n=5: small sample.
Notable Sales
1541 T St NW (Dupont Circle): $2,100,000, settled 09/25. 5BR, 2,405 sqft above grade, $873 a foot. Listed September 9 at $1,950,000 and under contract within two days at 107.7% of ask. Dupont Circle's median price per square foot is $805, so this closed 8.4% above the neighborhood figure on a listing that lasted less time than it takes to schedule a second showing.
5328 Kansas Ave NW (Brightwood Park): $530,000, settled 09/21. 4BR, 2,058 sqft above grade, $258 a foot. Listed April 13 in major-rehab-needed condition at $799,000, cut to $609,000, and settled at 66.3% of the original number after 59 days. Brightwood Park's median price per square foot is $518. This one closed at exactly half that, a discount that tracks the condition of the house, not the health of the neighborhood.
712 4th St SE (Capitol Hill): $800,000, settled 09/25. 4BR, 1,702 sqft above grade, $470 a foot. Listed March 12 at $990,000, cut once to $950,000, and took 188 days to close at 80.8% of the original ask. Capitol Hill's trailing median clears in 9 days at $717 a foot. This house needed twenty times the neighborhood's typical clock and closed a third below its per-square-foot median. The neighborhood is fast. Individual houses are only fast when the number is right on day one.
Bottom Line
Six months separated the week's fastest sale from its slowest, and $1,300,000 separated their prices, but the mechanism underneath both was identical. The Dupont Circle rowhouse asked $1,950,000 and got $2,100,000 in two days because the number matched what buyers were already paying on that block. The Capitol Hill rowhouse asked $990,000 and eventually got $800,000 after 188 days because it did not. Inventory just grew 20% for the second week running. Every seller entering that market now faces the same choice those two houses already made for them: price at what the neighborhood is paying today, or let six months of price cuts make the correction instead.