High demand, low inventory: Renters face tough housing market in DC area

Demand in D.C region housing market remains high, but inventory is low

Even as the pandemic remains very much present, real estate experts in the D.C region say, the housing market, especially with rentals, is not slowing down.

WASHINGTON (FOX 5 DC) - Even as the pandemic remains very much present, real estate experts in the D.C region say, the housing market, especially with rentals, is not slowing down.

So those who are looking to rent a place to live in the DMV will have to be a little patient, experts say.

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"I have never seen this type of market in my life, but it is hard," explained Samer Kuraishi, President of The ONE Street Company, as he spoke with FOX 5’s Ayesha Khan on Friday. "We used to win deals between one and two offers, now it’s sometimes three to up to five offers from the same person, so that’s from the buyer side. But that also trickles down to the rental market, so rentals now are starting to uptick and a lot of my investor clients and developer clients are turning condos into rentals because they see a value in buying and holding because there’s just so much more traffic."

Kuraishi said that because people are getting vaccinated, going back to work, or are relocating to a desirable city, there is already a ton of pressure.

High demand, low inventory: Renters face tough housing market in DC area

Even as the pandemic remains very much present, real estate experts in the D.C region say, the housing market, especially with rentals, is not slowing down.

Take for example, the area of Arlington, Virginia where the construction of the Amazon HQ2 is currently underway.

Kuraishi said, if house hunters think it’s busy now, it’s going to get even busier because there are companies like Amazon, Google, Microsoft and all kinds of power players that are coming into a very low inventory market because there is just so much pent up demand.

"Also what’s happening is that a lot of buyers are not finding their homes fast enough so they get exhausted with the search and that upticks the rental market even more," said Kuraishi.

Kuraishi also said that during the height of the pandemic, many people in the city portions of the D.C region, moved far away into the suburbs, thinking they could get so much more and may not ever be going back to in-person work.

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"But guess what’s happening now? They are going back to work and are regretting their purchases. And the ones who ran into the city, are the ones who will be the biggest winners," said Kuraishi.

Kuraishi advises to be patient and that sometimes, a renter or a buyer might just have to open up their criteria a little bit and line up with someone who can openly communicate and be honest.