Bright Mls Debunks Dc Housing Market Social Media Posts

A viral Instagram post this week claims that a wave of new inventory is hitting the Washington, D.C., housing market after large numbers of federal employee layoffs were announced. Bright MLS has addressed these claims this week with relevant data.

Social media posts suggest that more than 4,000 homes recently hit the housing market in and around the nation’s capital. Home prices for these listings ranged from less than $100,000 up to several million, depending on the area.

One such post belongs to Instagram user Darth Powell, a social media personality with a history of strong opinions on the U.S. housing market. Powell shared an image that shows an exorbitant number of homes for sale in the Washington, D.C., area. Many observers attributed the increased inventory to the recent layoffs pushed by the Elon Musk-led “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE).

Bright MLS countered this post by saying that, “We’re not seeing any evidence of a surge of listing activity in the Washington, D.C., region.” According to Bright MLS, there were 2,829 new listings that hit the market between Feb. 3 and Feb. 16. That’s no different from the same two-week period in 2024, the report said.

Among the key counties in the D.C. metro area, Spotsylvania County, Virginia, saw the largest increase in available inventory (up 27%), according to Bright MLS. A few other markets also had double-digit increases, but they were balanced out by double-digit decreases in other areas.

Bright MLS indicated that “nothing about the geographic pattern of listing activity suggests that it is related to homeowners who are or were Federal government employees.”

Data from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management shows that federal employees account for 9% of the region’s workforce. USAJobs.com claims that only 15% of the federal workforce lives in the D.C. area.

Some industry experts caution against taking housing market doomsday posts seriously.

HousingWire Lead Analyst Logan Mohtashami recently reported on the job cuts in the D.C. area and their impacts on housing.

“Before you jump to conclusions, let me share a word of wisdom: be cautious with those doomsday posts floating around on X,” he wrote. Altos Research debunked the social media claims with data showing that inventory in D.C. isn’t much higher than its post-pandemic low points.