Some right-wingers are flagging the number of real estate listings in Washington, D.C. and surrounding areas, attributing the alleged massive increase to the amount of federal workers fired under the Trump administration.
More than 10,000 federal workers across different agencies have been fired as part of President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency’s dramatic downsizing efforts.
Another 75,000 workers opted to take buyouts, and more firings are expected within the Internal Revenue Service and beyond.
“The rats are dispersing,” wrote one person on X, along with a screenshot from Zillow. “Homes put up for sale in just the last 14 days in DC.”
“PANIC IN DC – The real estate market in Washington DC is flooded with inventory as people flee,” stated another conservative commentator.
That commentator attributed home sales going up to Trump’s push to end the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
“Since DOGE and President Trump have uncovered USAID, which is a slush fund—and they’ve cut it off, there have been thousands of homes come on the market in Washington D.C. because they simply are not going to be able to afford these homes,” she concluded in a video.
“Inventory flooding the market like this is going to cause all the prices to go down,” she continued. “I don’t know how they’re going to find enough people that are going to buy all these houses. The market surge for homes in D.C. shows how many people were benefitting from the USAID fund.”
“The @Doge team is causing a very real exodus from Washington DC,” echoed another right-wing commenter. “Housing listings are surging—over 14,825 in this snapshot alone. It’s less of a market shift and more of a mass evacuation, like rats fleeing a sinking ship.”
According to Zillow, there are 2,072 homes of any size and price available for sale within D.C. Of those listings, the vast majority have been on Zillow since before Trump took office.
Roughly 32%—over 657 of those homes—have come on Zillow in the past 30 days, with 347 of those coming on the market in the last two weeks.
Real estate agents say the picture painted by the right is not accurate.
“Facts do not support these ‘reports,’” countered the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors in a Facebook post on Monday. “Based on Bright MLS data through yesterday, we are not seeing a significantly different pattern in the DC area that would suggest listing activity associated with changes within the federal government workforce.”
“Listing activity in the first two weeks of February is virtually unchanged from a year ago,” NVAR added. “In Arlington, Virginia, there were 110 new listings in the first part of February this year compared to 112 new listings during the same period in 2024. The pattern is similar in the broader DC region, and throughout the Mid-Atlantic.”
Another commenter added that real estate sales would not yet reflect federal worker firings.
“I’m a real estate guy and felt this DC is for sale narrative was off,” he said. “I was right, these visuals are digitally altered. Real estate, especially residential, doesn’t move this fast. Here’s the actual inventory, historically low.”
Another D.C.-based realtor, Brittany Dixon, posted in one Facebook group, stating that the viral photos of real estate listings depicted an inaccurate narrative.
“Data pulled today shows that there has been a 10% increase year over year in homes listed in the MLS,” she wrote. “That is not abnormal, and we are still low on inventory compared to the last several Februarys.”
She added that there has been neither a massive increase in listings nor plummeting prices, and that “people don’t immediately put their homes up for sale the moment they get laid off.”
And Cameron Griffith, owner of Griffith Property Group at Compass Real Estate, told CBS-affiliate WUSA that “this is typical for a spring market.”
“I think all the posts we’re seeing that are talking about the collapse and imminent fall of D.C., we’re just not there,” he said.
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