Washington DC luxury homes by neighborhood

At a glance

Where are the luxury homes in Washington DC?

DC's luxury market is a house market in Northwest Washington. In Zillow's August 2026 data, seven DC areas have a typical home value above $1.3 million: Spring Valley, Burleith, Georgetown, Kalorama, Chevy Chase, American University Park and Foxhall. Six of them sit west of Rock Creek Park and the seventh, Kalorama, backs onto it. The next area down, Capitol Hill, drops to $910,683.

Two things follow for a buyer. First, five of those seven aren't historic districts, so most of DC's top end carries no design review of exterior work; only Georgetown and Kalorama do. Second, Zillow's typical value misleads you in mixed neighborhoods. Wesley Heights reads $606,096, yet a Wesley Heights house sold for $5,250,000 in May 2026. The apartment buildings inside Zillow's boundary set the typical value, not the houses. The same is true of Cleveland Park, Woodley Park and Forest Hills.

So read the profiles below by the trade-off you're making: land and no review, a historic house on a walkable street, or a porch house near Connecticut Avenue. DC-wide price trends are on the DC housing market page.

Detached houses with land and no historic review

These are the neighborhoods to tour if you want a yard, a garage and the freedom to change the outside of the house without a preservation hearing. None of them is on the DC Historic Preservation Office's list of neighborhood historic districts.

Spring Valley

If you want the strongest long-run record in the District, start here. Spring Valley is Zillow's most valuable DC area at $1,996,401, about 3.5 times the DC typical value, and it gained 54.66% over 10 years, more than any other area. It is also at an all-time Zillow high.

The catch is the ground under it. Spring Valley sits on the former American University Experiment Station, a World War I research and testing site that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers manages as a Formerly Used Defense Site: about 660 acres with roughly 1,600 private properties inside it. The Corps' January 2026 update says it will begin closing the groundwater monitoring wells installed over the past 20 years, and at the former AU Public Safety Building some debris under at least 15 feet of clean soil may be left in place and managed. Before you're under contract, ask the seller for any Corps soil-sampling records for the lot.

Wesley Heights

Wesley Heights is the clearest case of Zillow understating a neighborhood. Its typical value is $606,096 and fell 3.84% in a year, but the detached house from 1935 that sold there in May 2026 went for $5,250,000. Ignore the area figure and ask for detached-house sales only.

Foxhall

Foxhall posted the biggest one-year gain of the top seven, 3.96%, and 47.94% over 10 years. The catch is a boundary: Foxhall Village is a designated historic district while the rest of Foxhall isn't, so check which side of that line a house falls on before you plan an addition.

Chevy Chase DC

This is the pick if you want a detached house with real land. One of May 2026's top sales was two homes on about one acre for $5,250,000. Values rose a slower 1.37% in the year, and you trade the walk to M Street for a quieter street.

American University Park

AU Park's typical value of $1,327,283 rose only 0.84% in the year, the slowest of the seven, though it gained 39.33% over 10 years. No official source we checked describes lot sizes here, so compare lots house by house.

Forest Hills

Forest Hills reads $677,643 on Zillow, another mixed area where apartments set the figure, yet it gained 35.79% over 10 years. Ask for the detached-house sales before you judge the price of any one house.

Palisades

Zillow publishes no Palisades figure in our data and it isn't a historic district. Price it from recent detached-house sales on the streets you're considering.

Massachusetts Avenue Heights

There's no Zillow figure here either, and the neighborhood isn't on HPO's district list. One check matters: HPO does list a separate Massachusetts Avenue historic district, so confirm whether a lot on the avenue itself falls inside it.

Historic row houses and town houses under design review

Here you buy the street as much as the house. Exterior changes go through preservation review, lots are smaller, and in return the blocks look the way they did a century ago. More on how that works is in our guide to historic homes and row houses in DC.

Georgetown

If you want a historic house you can walk from, make Georgetown your first tour. Three of the six DC top sales reported for May 2026 were Georgetown houses built between 1875 and 1890, at $5,200,888 to $6,525,000, and Zillow's Georgetown area is at an all-time high of $1,515,129. The catch is review: the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, through the Old Georgetown Board, reviews exterior work, explained on our Old Georgetown Board guide. Prices by house type are on the luxury homes in Georgetown, DC overview.

Burleith

Burleith, just north of Georgetown, is the second most valuable Zillow area in DC at $1,582,587 and also at a record high. It sits north of Reservoir Road, outside the Georgetown Historic District, so you get Georgetown's location without its review board. How it compares with the Georgetown villages is on our East Village, West Village and Burleith guide.

Sheridan-Kalorama

This is DC's mansion district inside a historic district, designated in 1989 and bounded by Connecticut Avenue, Rock Creek Park and Florida Avenue. Houses run from 1890s row houses on S Street and Bancroft Place to town houses with a piano nobile, the main floor raised to the second level, and full mansions on Massachusetts Avenue, many of them now used by embassies. The catch: Zillow's Kalorama area gained only 0.63% over five years and is 2.3% below its 2022 peak.

Kalorama Triangle

East of Connecticut Avenue, Kalorama Triangle was designated in 1987 with a period of significance of 1893 to 1939. It shares Zillow's Kalorama figure, so judge a house here by its own block's sales.

Capitol Hill

HPO describes Capitol Hill's blocks as cohesive collections of intact 19th-century row houses, mostly ornate brick Queen Anne, with an 1871 law that let bays, towers and porches project into public space. Its typical value of $910,683 rose 2.39% in the year but is still 7.0% below its 2022 peak.

Logan Circle and Dupont Circle

Both are historic districts of late-19th-century row houses, designated in 1972 and 1976. Their Zillow figures, $565,764 and $439,524, are condo figures, and Dupont gained only 4.68% over 10 years, so a row house here is a house-by-house purchase.

Porch houses and apartments near Connecticut Avenue

Cleveland Park

Cleveland Park's early houses are frame houses with deep front porches, and by 1903 sixty of them had been designed by architects. It's a historic district with a Metro stop on Connecticut Avenue, where apartment buildings went up from 1919. Those apartments are why Zillow puts the area at $646,636. Pick it if you want a detached historic house near Metro; expect review on exterior work.

Woodley Park

Woodley Park, designated in 1990, mixes houses with large apartment buildings, and Zillow's $829,065 fell 1.72% in the year. As in Cleveland Park, price the house from house sales, not from the area figure.

Washington DC luxury home values by neighborhood

Zillow's typical value is the middle of all homes in its boundary, condos included, so it ranks neighborhoods by their housing mix as much as by their best houses. Use the table to see direction and the long-run record, and the next section for what houses sold for.

What are the most expensive homes sold in DC in 2026?

Washingtonian's column on May 2026 sales listed six DC sales between $5.2 million and $6.75 million. Three were in Georgetown, which is the strongest sign that a walkable historic house still commands the top of the market alongside new construction with land.

The top sale was a house completed in 2025, and the two sales with land, in Wesley Heights and Chevy Chase DC, priced level with Georgetown's smallest. If your budget is $5 million, you're choosing between a historic house on a walkable street and a detached house with a pool or an acre.

How to choose a DC neighborhood for a luxury home

Three questions settle most of the shortlist.

1. Do you accept review of exterior work? If not, start with Spring Valley, Chevy Chase DC, Foxhall outside Foxhall Village, Burleith or AU Park.
2. Row house on a walkable street, or detached house with a yard? Walkable and historic points to Georgetown, Sheridan-Kalorama or Capitol Hill; a yard points to Spring Valley, Wesley Heights or Chevy Chase DC.
3. Does the neighborhood have large apartment buildings? If yes, ignore Zillow's typical value and ask for detached-house or row-house sales only.

Then add the cost of holding the house. DC's annual bill on a $3 million house is worked through on the DC property tax page. If you're also selling a house in DC to buy, the order of the two sales and the timing are on selling a luxury home in Georgetown. I can pull recent detached-house sales for any neighborhood on this page.

Common questions

Sources

• Zillow Home Value Index (August 2026)
• Washingtonian: The most expensive home sales in May (Aug 13, 2026)
• U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore District: Spring Valley
• DC Office of Planning (HPO): DC Historic Districts
• DC HPO: Sheridan-Kalorama Historic District brochure
• DC HPO: Kalorama Triangle Historic District
• DC HPO: Cleveland Park Historic District brochure
• DC HPO: Woodley Park Historic District
• DC HPO: Capitol Hill Historic District brochure
• DC HPO: Logan Circle Historic District
• DC HPO: Dupont Circle Historic District
• DC Historic Preservation Office: Georgetown Historic District brochure
• Bright MLS Home Demand Index: Washington DC, August 2026