Mount Pleasant’s potluck-dinner hosts and other community altruists can now boast—or maybe shudder—that their neighborhood has been named the fifth-hottest for home sales in 2016 in the United States by the real-estate firm Redfin.
The ranking is based on Redfin’s user searches, the neighborhood’s ratio of homes sold to homes listed, the number of properties sold for more than their asking prices, and other functions on Redfin’s website. But it’s not just Washington’s ever-soaring home prices that put the homey slice of Northwest DC in the company of hip destinations like Chicago’s Ukrainian Village, which Redfin named the hottest neighborhood anywhere in the country.
“If you drive or walk around Mount Pleasant it feels nestled in there with the park around it,” Mike Alderfer, a senior agent with Redfin, says. “I think its proximity to not only the Columbia Heights Metro but the Petworth Metro makes it really popular. But once you really cross over 16th you feel you’re in a neighborhood that’s quiet and peaceful.”
But unlike next-door neighborhoods Columbia Heights and Adams Morgan, which are flush with retail and nightlife, Mount Pleasant also lies within the enviable boundary for Woodrow Wilson High School, further driving up price tags. The median sale price in Mount Pleasant is $760,000, with homes staying on the market for just a week.
“You routinely see homes go over $1 million, and frequently see two or three other offers,” Alderfer says. “You have to be potentially ready to pay more than what they’re asking.”
After Mount Pleasant, Redfin identified 16th Street Heights and Woodridge as DC’s second- and third-hottest neighborhoods for 2016.
Benjamin Freed joined Washingtonian in August 2013 and covers politics, business, and media. He was previously the editor of DCist and has also written for Washington City Paper, the New York Times, the New Republic, Slate, and BuzzFeed. He lives in Adams Morgan.
