It’s official: DOGE cuts are impacting the DC housing market

When Elon Musk was given control over much of the federal government staffing levels at the start of President Donald Trump’s second term, real estate professionals in Washington, D.C., wondered if the sweeping layoffs would impact the housing market.

While everyone has taken a wait-and-see approach, it’s getting hard to deny that people are moving because of the actions of the U.S. DOGE Service.

A new survey conducted by Bright MLS reveals that agents on the ground in the nation’s capital are seeing firsthand the effects of job loss on a higher scale.

“This spring marked a turning point for the Washington housing market,” Bright MLS chief economist Lisa Sturtevant said in a statement. “Federal buyouts provided older, often higher-income homeowners a chance to cash out and relocate, but the ripple effects are just beginning.

“As more impacted families list homes post-school year, we could see further price pressure across the region this summer and fall.”

When asked if they’ve represented someone who said their decision to move was related to reductions in the federal workforce, almost 40% of agents said yes, and one-third of those polled said that layoffs were causing home prices to fall.

Data from Altos supports weakness in the D.C. market. While the trend in the capital is in line with the general trend in the nation — rising inventory, muted sales, flat prices — it’s playing out in greater degrees in Washington.

When Trump took office in January, inventory in Washington was up 25.2% year over year — similar to the 26.5% increase for the U.S. as a whole. Today, however, inventory is up 50.2% in D.C., well above the 30.7% growth at the national level.

Heading into 2025, new listings in D.C. were down on a yearly basis, but they’ve since risen by 23.8%.

Diving deeper into Bright’s survey shows why people in Washington have decided to move. While agents say clients were moving most frequently due to “family reasons” — marriage, divorce, kids, etc. — retirement (15%) and job change (13%) were also common reasons cited.

Bright notes that the trend could accelerate through this summer as young families may have waited until school ends before moving.