Real estate experts say online posts on DOGE's federal layoffs leading to DC housing selloff false
A real estate agent with Real Broker said the reason so many homes are for sale is because now is the best time of year to sell.
Washington, D.C.-area real estate agents and other industry experts say recent online posts stating thousands of D.C.-area homes are being listed for sale amid the Trump administration's downsizing of the federal workforce appear to be misleading or false.
A TikTok video that had at least 1.7 million views as of Wednesday showed a map of the area with new home listings and text that read a “mass exodus from Washington, D.C., and the neighboring areas” is underway, according to WTOP News.
The news site also reports an X tread with at least 9.2 million views that claims the federal workforce layoffs ordered by the now-one-month-old Trump administration has triggered a $139,000 decline in D.C.’s median home price. And another, with 6.1 million views, connected homes on the market to owners with ties to the Democratic Party or federal agency.
Michelle Zelsman, a real estate agent with Real Broker, said the reason that so many homes are for sale right now is because it is "the best time of year to sell."
However Daniel Heider, a vice president at TTR Sotheby’s International Realty, one of the D.C. region’s top real estate agents for luxury properties, told The Washington Post the listing activity this month is nearly identical to the figures from the same exact period last year.
"There’s so much clickbait that’s floating around," he said.
Bright MLS chief economist Lisa Sturtevant told The Post that it is too early to tell whether the firing of federal workers has impacted the housing market, arguing that changes in the market don't happen overnight.
"You get notice on a Friday you’re fired, and you’re listing your home for sale on Monday?" she said. "I think just from an individual decision-making standpoint, logic would dictate it’s way too early to see the market affected."