Elliman plans expansion to DC area
Sotheby's alums to lead three locations
Despite a softening of the residential market, Douglas Elliman Realty continues to expand.
UPDATED, November 23, 9:45 a.m. ET: The firm is opening three locations in the Metro D.C. area: Washington, D.C.; Arlington, Virginia.; and Bethesda, Maryland., to go along with new offices opened earlier this year in Nantucket, Massachusetts.; New Canaan, Connecticut; Las Vegas, Houston, Orange County, California.; and Basalt, Colorado.
Elliman, which spun off last year from parent company Vector Group, tapped Ruth Boyer O’Dea and Evan Lacopo, both formerly of TTR Sotheby’s International Realty, to lead an unspecified number of agents in the new Metro D.C. offices.
In an earnings call in October, Elliman chairman Howard Lorber said the brokerage starts small in new markets with local brokers to “not spend a lot of money in opening or buying offices.”
“We’re opening in markets in a slightly different way than those that just go out and buy other companies,” Lorber said.
Both Boyer O’Dea and Lacopo fit within that strategy, as the duo have more than 40 years of combined real estate experience in the region, the release says.
Boyer O’Dea has both undergraduate and master’s degrees from Georgetown University. She began her real estate career in Arlington in 2003. Prior to her career in real estate, she worked as registrar for Georgetown University School of Law and national sales manager for ExamSoft Worldwide.
And the three new markets have not been immune to the recent residential downturn.
The median home sale price in Bethesda was $1.1 million in October, which is up just over 14% compared with the same period last year, according to Redfin. But the overall number of homes were down from 117 to 68, down 41% compared to last year.
In Washington, D.C., home prices year over year have tumbled 7%, while the number of houses sold fell 31.1%, Redfin reports.
Similarly, in Arlington, home prices dropped 6% to a median sale price of $650,000, according to Redfin, while the number of homes sold in October fell 34.5%.
— Ted Glanzer