The Price of Staying: How Housing Affordability Has Changed Across the DMV
The outline for a phased DMV research series: Washington, DC first, with Northern Virginia and suburban Maryland to follow in later phases.
- Author
- Azmera Abraham
- Publication date
Forthcoming research. This page outlines planned scope, sources, and approach. It contains no findings or statistics of its own.
Abstract
This series examines how the cost of remaining in one's home and neighborhood has shifted across the DMV region, in phases. The first working paper covers Washington, DC sales only. Northern Virginia and suburban Maryland are future phases; no findings for those areas have been published.
Key findings
Key findings will be published with the first installment. None have been released yet.
Interactive chart
Chart embed slotAn interactive visualization will appear here when the analysis is published.
The Price of Staying is a multi-part research series. Each installment publishes its data sources, code availability, and limitations so that readers can evaluate and reproduce the work.
The first installment, Working Paper 01: The Price of Staying — Washington, DC, analyzes District of Columbia sales only. Northern Virginia and suburban Maryland are planned for later phases and have not yet been analyzed.
Methods
Planned approach: combine public housing-cost, income, and price-index data at consistent geographies; adjust for inflation; and compare renter and owner cost burdens over time. Full methodology will be published alongside the first installment.
Data sources
- Source (opens in a new tab)
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates
U.S. Census Bureau — Household income, housing costs, tenure, and demographic characteristics.
Planned for later phases; not used in Phase 1.
- Source (opens in a new tab)
FHFA House Price Index
Federal Housing Finance Agency — Repeat-sales index tracking single-family house price changes.
Repeat-sales index used as context only; not used to compute Phase 1 results.
- Source (opens in a new tab)
Fair Market Rents
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development — Annual rent estimates used for federal housing programs.
Planned source; geographic and year coverage to be documented.
- Source (opens in a new tab)
Consumer Price Index
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Price change measures used for inflation adjustment.
Annual CPI used for 2015–2024 real comparisons; annual 2025 CPI was incomplete in the extracted research data.
Limitations
Limitations will be documented with each installment, including survey margins of error, geographic boundary changes, and differences between asking and contract prices.
Sources & citations
- U.S. Census Bureau. American Community Survey (ACS). Planned data source. https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs
- Federal Housing Finance Agency. House Price Index. Planned data source. https://www.fhfa.gov/data/hpi
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Fair Market Rents. Planned data source. https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/fmr.html