House prices in Washington, D.C., and its suburbs — one of the wealthiest areas of the nation — have taken a major hit since President Donald Trump first was elected, then fired 10,000 federal workers and offered buyouts to almost 70,000.
According to global capital-market watcher The Kobeissi Letter, since election day, almost 5,000 homes have landed on the market. The median home price has tanked almost $150,000 from about $700,000, they reported, and almost 10,000 homes are now up for sale.
They further noted that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has found that less than 15 percent of federal office space is occupied.
Meanwhile, DOGE chief Elon Musk reported that the Social Security Administration counts more than 20 million people greater than 100 years old as being alive, with one individual being almost 400 years old.
Home Prices Tank
Calling the dip in the market and the massive sell-off “insane,” Kobeissi reported that the median home price in Washington, D.C., “has fallen by $139,000” since DOGE announced massive layoffs.
And “in 30 days, nearly 4,000 homes have been listed for sale in and around Washington DC,” the letter continued.
With charts and graphs, the letter explained that an average home in the area was worth about $699,000 on election day. Now, in just 90 days, the price has tanked 20 percent to about $560,000.
“Mass selling is an understatement,” Kobeissi reported:
There are now nearly 8,000 homes for sale in the Washington, DC metro area.
Nearly HALF of these homes have been listed for sale over the last 30 days.
Since November 2024, nearly 5,000 homes have been listed for sale, well above average.
Layoffs
The layoffs began with an offer to pay employees through September “if they quit, with 5%-10% of employees expected [to] agree,” Kobeissi explained.
Citing The Wall Street Journal, the letter reported that 65,000 employees have accepted.
Meanwhile, Fox News reported that DOGE pink-slipped 3,600 probationary workers at the Department of Health and Human Services.
“This is expected to save $600 MILLION in taxpayer dollars annually,” the letter reported, with the 65,000 buyouts saving $38 billion.
On January 28, just eight days after Trump took office, DOGE reported saving taxpayers $1 billion per day, with a goal of $3 billion.
“This means DOGE could reduce US deficit spending by 20% in YEAR 1,” Kobeissi reported, and “more layoffs are coming as workforce reduction has been a primary DOGE goal.”
Commercial Real Estate
But the thread also suggested a shock to the commercial real estate market.
“Just wait until we see the effects on commercial real estate in Washington, DC,” Kobeissi reported:
DOGE announced plans to eliminate up to TWO-THIRDS of US government office buildings, per WSJ.
Not a single major US government agency is currently occupying even 50% of their office space. …
DOGE has specifically noted that Washington, DC federal government buildings are particularly empty.
On average, they are just 12% occupied.
The Department of Agriculture saw just ~456 of 7,400 employees use their office.
The DC real estate market is just getting started.
The thread also reported that a wider look at the housing market shows that 15,000 homes around the city are for sale. Indeed, “there are so many homes for sale in the downtown area that Zillow is grouping 280 homes together,” Kobeissi reported.
20M People Over 100 Collecting Social Security?
Meanwhile, DOGE chief Musk has continued finding waste, fraud, and abuse. Just after midnight, he posted a graphic that showed how many people older than 100 years that the Social Security Administration says are alive and well.
“According to the Social Security database, these are the numbers of people in each age bucket with the death field set to FALSE!” he wrote. “Maybe Twilight is real and there are a lot of vampires collecting Social Security.”
Some 20 million centenarians are alive and well. The chart shows that 3.63 million are between 110 and 119, 3.8 million are ages 120 through 129, almost 4 million are 130 through 139, and about 3.5 million are 140 through 149.
Another 1.3 million are ages 150 through 159, and 448 are older than 190.
Musk wrote that one person listed as alive in the database is between 360 and 369 years old.
“Yes, there are FAR more ‘eligible’ social security numbers than there are citizens in the USA,” Musk continued. “This might be the biggest fraud in history.”
The 2023 Profile of Older Americans reported that 88,988 people were 100 and older in 2022. That means that the Social Security database is slightly inaccurate.
Musk also reported that 310 million Americans are eligible for Social Security. The U.S. population is about 335 million.
Last year, Social Security employed almost 60,000 people.
H/T: Daily Mail, Fox News
