Hundreds of thousands of federal worker layoffs have sparked false rumors about the D.C. region’s housing market.
The D.C. region is home to about 20% of the civilian federal workforce and federal employment makes up almost 10% of Montgomery County’s overall employment. Recently, over 100,000 federal employees have been laid off, raising concerns about the potential impact on the region’s housing market.
Despite experts’ claims that there is no evidence of an imminent housing market crash for the region, rumors have circulated online that Montgomery County is experiencing a surge in home listings. However, MLS Bright, a Mid-Atlantic multiple listing service used by most realtors in the area, has released a statement to the contrary and released a weekly updated tool to address housing concerns. MLS Bright reports that listings in the county have not changed in percentage from the first half of February 2024 to the first half of February 2025. Additionally, home prices have also shown resilience. The median sale price in February 2025 was $595,000, a 7.2% increase from the previous year.
Though there has been some concern over a 20% jump in listings in the D.C region for the past two weeks, Harrison Beacher, managing partner and realtor with the Coalition Properties Group, does not think this is necessarily cause for alarm.
“So, where a normal swing we had seen before the election, before DOGE, before federal workforce changes and cuts, was as much as 15%—saying that a 20% drop was a sign of some type of epidemic or big problem, just doesn’t give proper context, or even talk about kind of what we’ve seen recently,” he said in an interview with MCM.
Beacher said that it is not uncommon to see a bump in listings in the spring, and that it is the number of contracts that more people should look at when they are making judgements of the state of the market.
“If the majority of listings are not under contract, then there’s something we need to be concerned about,” he said.
Housing Infrastructure and Zoning Supervisor for the Montgomery County Planning Department Lisa Govoni told MCM percentage shifts may seem concerning, but the numbers they are based on might be small and that listings are not the only indicator of where the market is going.
“If you look at the percent change from February 2024 to February 2025, it’s about a 49% change, which looks really big and sounds really big, but it’s about a 300-unit difference,” she said. “I think it’s still a little early to be making any trends or conclusions about the housing market.”
The median sold price from 2024 to 2025 still increased by nearly 9%, according to Govoni. She said indicators like the median sold price, average days on market and the average sale price to original listing price ratio should be looked at, not just the number of listings.
“Just look at the whole package, and you can see that a lot of these indicators, besides active listings, really haven’t changed over year,” she said. “In fact, they’re indicative of a supply constrained market.”
Beacher explained that while the market has somewhat cooled, this does not indicate a crash but rather a significant adjustment after an extended period of high demand. However, he agrees that “we are still in a kind of hyper-inflated and still had a supply-demand imbalance.”
Govoni, who has family in the federal workforce, acknowledged that the cuts can be anxiety-inducing, but affirmed that a crash is not proven by currently available data.
“There obviously will be ramifications in the housing market if we’re looking at huge potential rifts, but it’s just not a sustained trend, as I’m seeing right now,” she said.
Anxieties for the near future due to federal workforce layoffs have also impacted debate about how best to tackle the affordable housing crisis in the county.
On Tuesday, the county council received testimony for the More Housing N.O.W. package, an initiative to make housing more affordable in the county. Proponents of the legislation argue that economic uncertainty makes affordable housing more crucial than ever. At the same time, some opponents cited uncertainties in the federal workforce as a reason not to move forward with the legislation.
Patricia Johnson, a Kenwood resident, spoke with MCM at the county council meeting on Tuesday and said that the housing market in the region was being affected by a lack of economic opportunities for county residents, not housing availability.
“My two daughters don’t live here, they left,” she said. “They didn’t leave because they couldn’t find a house, they left because they couldn’t find a job.”
Beacher, however, remains optimistic about the options people may have when trying to find a home today, though he understands why people are cautious. Though people are frightened by the current state of the economy and executive orders from the White House, he said he encourages people to “look at the numbers” and see if a higher interest rate but “less cash out of pocket” makes sense for them.
Beacher and most experts agree that Montgomery County’s housing market remains fundamentally stable. Buyers and homeowners alike are urged to focus on long-term strategies rather than reacting to short-term fluctuations.
“For anybody buying in 2025, I think it’s just really important to consider that concept of ownership horizon—how long will I own this piece of real estate?” he said. “Ownership is about the long run.”
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