How we research our Georgetown and Washington, DC guides

At a glance

What goes into each guide

A guide to buying a $2 million house in Georgetown has to get the details right: the tax rate above DC's $2.558 million threshold, the year's conforming loan limit, what the Old Georgetown Board will approve and how long it takes. Getting those details right takes far more reading than writing.

That is the work we want you to see, because it is why the figures on these pages can be checked.

Step 1: Find the questions people ask

Before a guide is planned, we look at what people search for about Georgetown and Washington, DC real estate and how often, using keyword data from Ahrefs. A topic earns a page only when enough people are asking about it.

Studying the search results

For each guide we pull the top results Google shows for its main search, along with the questions in Google's "People also ask" box, and compare the pages that rank highest: what they cover, how they're organized and where they leave readers without an answer.

Finding what the other pages miss

Each guide then has to argue something the ranking pages don't, found in the data. The DC housing market guide, for example, is built on the split between DC's house neighborhoods, which rose in the past year, and its condo-heavy neighborhoods, which fell.

Step 2: Gather the data from the source

Every number on this site comes from a source that was opened and read, and that source is listed at the bottom of the page.

Government and official records

Tax rates come from the DC Office of Tax and Revenue and the DC Code, loan limits from the Federal Housing Finance Agency, historic district rules from the DC Historic Preservation Office and the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, and crime figures from the Metropolitan Police Department's published incident data.

Market data

Home values come from the Zillow Home Value Index, downloaded as monthly data back to 2016. Mortgage rates come from Freddie Mac's weekly survey. We use these figures exactly as published and name the month.

Buildings, schools and places

Facts about a condo building, a school or a museum come from that organization's own website. Where a building doesn't publish its fees, we say so and tell you what to ask rather than guess.

Step 3: How we use AI in our research

We use AI-assisted research tools to search for sources, read official documents and data files, pull out the figures that matter and compare them across sources. For a site like this one, that means hundreds of documents and data files.

Why we use it

Reading and cross-checking that much material by hand would take weeks for every guide. AI lets us go deeper: more sources per page, more figures checked against each other, and faster corrections when an official number changes.

What it doesn't decide

AI tools don't decide what is true. Every figure has to trace back to a source that was opened and is listed on the page. When a figure can't be confirmed, it's left out, or the page tells you exactly who to ask, such as the condo association, the school or the settlement attorney.

Step 4: Check every figure

Research turns up disagreements between sources, and some of the most widely repeated figures online are wrong. Before a guide goes live, its key numbers are checked against the primary source.

Examples of what that checking caught

• DC's property tax rate. Many pages still use a flat $0.85 per $100. Since tax year 2025, DC charges $1.00 per $100 on the value of a house or condo above $2.558 million, which the DC property tax guide works through.
• An expired transfer tax rate. A 2.5% commercial transfer and recordation rate that ended on September 30, 2023 is still quoted on ranking pages.
• Why commuters don't pay DC income tax. It's the Home Rule Act, not a reciprocal agreement, as the DC income tax guide explains.
• Georgetown's crime figures. A first reading said theft from cars was the top offense on residential blocks. The incident data showed general theft was higher, and the safety page uses the corrected figures.

Automated checks on every page

Every page is also checked before it's published: that each figure has a listed source, that the language meets Fair Housing standards, that no two pages repeat each other, that every link works, and that the writing passes a check for the stock phrases that make pages read as generic.

Step 5: Daryl reviews every page

Daryl Judy reviews every guide before it goes live, and his review date appears at the top of each page. He has been a Realtor in Washington, DC since 2006 and is an Associate Broker with Washington Fine Properties; his record is on the About Daryl page. When a page changes, the date changes with it.

The standards every page follows

• Fair Housing. Areas are described by their homes, streets, costs and amenities, never by the people who live there. DC's Human Rights Act protects more traits than federal law, and the pages follow it.
• Schools. We never claim a home is zoned for a school. The private schools guide lists each school's own figures.
• Safety. Only official crime data, with the method explained and no verdict.
• Yearly figures. Tax rates, loan limits and exemptions change every year, so each page names the year of the figures it uses.
• Not advice. The guides explain how taxes, loans and contracts work. For your own situation, confirm with a DC CPA, attorney or lender.

Keeping the guides current

Zillow publishes new home values every month, Freddie Mac publishes mortgage rates every week, and DC sets its tax figures every year. We update the pages when those figures change, and the date at the top of a page changes only when its content does. The latest Georgetown figures are in the Georgetown housing market report.

Spotted something wrong?

If a figure on any page looks out of date or wrong, email daryl.judy@wfp.com with the page and the source you're looking at. We check every correction against the original source and update the page if it needs it.

Common questions

Sources

• Zillow Research: Zillow Home Value Index
• Freddie Mac: Primary Mortgage Market Survey
• DC Office of Tax and Revenue
• Ahrefs