DC Condo Prices Fall in August

I just ran an MRIS report for August housing sales in DC; it shows that YoY transaction volumes and prices for condos sold in DC have fallen.

• Volume: down 32.9% (332 units in 2006, 495 in 2005)
  
• Average price: down 12.74% ($391.6K vice $448.7K)

The August transaction volume is in line with what my analysis of DC data for July showed. Since MRIS reported a 6.5% decline in average price for July's sales, the fact that the decline accelerated - almost doubled - in August must be worrying to sellers.

MRIS doesn't break out median prices by type of housing unit, but "eyeballing" the report shows that the median August sales price for condos was approximately $350K. The report also shows that the aggregrate transaction volume (all types of housing units) declined 34.4%.

Note: MRIS reports only sales of existing units. It'll be interesting to see what the data show once DC posts all August sales records next month. I suspect that, as in the past, including the sale of new units will improve the aggregate average price, if not the median.