D.C. Metro Region has the Most Expensive Housing Market in Nation

Washington metro area residents face one of the nation’s largest gaps between wages and housing prices, according to two recent surveys – and experts are worried it could make the region less attractive to the workforce.

According to the Washington Business Journal, a recent report from ZipRealty, Inc. shows that the D.C. region’s median housing price is about $1.03 million as of Feb. 10, 2013. That’s almost 17 times the region’s median income.

Arlington County had the most expensive housing market in Virginia in 2012, according to research from Coldwell Banker Real Estate.

Washington landed ahead of New York City’s popular Brooklyn borough and the bay area in San Francisco.

ZipRealty came up with their ratio by studying median income and median sales price, the Journal reports. The report considered houses with three to four bedrooms – approximately 2,000 square feet – to be average in size.

Housing prices in the region have continued their upward trend since 2000. In the D.C. metro area, the seasonally adjusted price index (measuring the average sale price for single-family homes) for January 2013 was 190.56—that's up from 179.78 in January 2012.

The numbers are calculated based on the repeat sale of existing single-family homes, where the baseline of 100 is the average price as of January 2000.

The high point in the D.C. metro area was in May 2006, when the index hit 251.19.

In November of last year, the average price of a four-bedroom house was $678,486. Vienna, Alexandria, Ashburn and Fairfax made up the rest of the top 5 priciest places to live in the Commonwealth.