D.C.'s market bucks national housing trends

The national home-buying binge is finally winding down, but D.C.’s market is still hot.

What’s happening: Wealthy D.C. buyers haven't been impacted by rising interest rates as much as buyers in other parts of the country. And data from the Greater Capital Area Association of Realtors shows that the current market is still outperforming the pre-pandemic market.

• The median sold price for D.C. homes was $699,000 in April. That’s an almost $40,000 increase compared to March 2022 and April 2021 (the median was $660,000 for both months).
• Homes spent an average of 28 days on the market last month, which is almost a week less than the national average of 34 days.
• Closed sales in April were up 2.5% compared to March, but down 11.9% compared to last April.

Zoom out: Nationally, new home sales plunged in April, falling 16.6% from March to 591,000, well below economists' forecast of 750,000, according to data out Tuesday, Axios’ Emily Peck writes.

It's the slowest pace since April 2020 — when the economy froze briefly before the boom began.

• Existing national home sales — perhaps a better measure of the U.S. market because it's a much larger segment — are also trending down, falling for three straight months, according to the National Association of Realtors.