menu






Real Estate Prices & Overview

Penn Quarter median real estate price is $852,057, which is more expensive than 52.7% of the neighborhoods in the District Of Columbia and 88.6% of the neighborhoods in the U.S.

The average rental price in Penn Quarter is currently $4,082, based on NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis. The average rental cost in this neighborhood is higher than 94.0% of the neighborhoods in the District Of Columbia.

Penn Quarter is an urban neighborhood (based on population density) located in Washington, District Of Columbia.

Penn Quarter real estate is primarily made up of small (studio to two bedroom) to medium sized (three or four bedroom) apartment complexes/high-rise apartments and townhomes. Most of the residential real estate is occupied by a mixture of owners and renters. Many of the residences in the Penn Quarter neighborhood are newer, built in 2000 or more recently. A number of residences were also built between 1970 and 1999.

Penn Quarter has a 13.5% vacancy rate, which is well above average compared to other U.S. neighborhoods (higher than 74.1% of American neighborhoods). Most vacant housing here is vacant year round. This could either signal that there is a weak demand for real estate in the neighborhood or that large amount of new housing has been built and not yet occupied. Either way, if you live here, you may find many of the homes or apartments are empty.

Notable & Unique Neighborhood Characteristics

The way a neighborhood looks and feels when you walk or drive around it, from its setting, its buildings, and its flavor, can make all the difference. This neighborhood has some really cool things about the way it looks and feels as revealed by NeighborhoodScout's exclusive research. This might include anything from the housing stock to the types of households living here to how people get around.

People

Wealth makes most things in life easier, and a few things harder. If you are wealthy and enjoy keeping up with the Jones', this neighborhood will interest you. In fact, according to NeighborhoodScout's research, the Penn Quarter neighborhood is wealthier than 97.2% of the neighborhoods in the United States. Residents here are truly in a unique situation even when compared to other Americans, based on the sheer amount of wealth concentrated here. Even in times of economic downturn, residents of this neighborhood, as a group, suffered less and recovered more quickly. This is indeed a stand-out characteristic of this neighborhood. As one would expect in a considerably wealthy neighborhood such as this, Penn Quarter also has one of the lowest ratings of child poverty in the nation.

In addition, if knowledge is power, then imagine the cumulative power of one neighborhood where many of the adults have earned an advanced degree, such as a Masters, law degree, medical degree, or even a Ph.D. This is certainly the case in the Penn Quarter neighborhood, where 60.6% have earned an advanced degree. Compare that to the average neighborhood in America, where just 13.4% of adults have completed a post-graduate degree, and you can see why this neighborhood is a stand out. In fact, this neighborhood has a higher rate of adults with an advanced degree than 99.8% of the neighborhoods in America.

Also, one of the most interesting things about the Penn Quarter neighborhood is that it has a greater concentration of residents who live alone than most all neighborhoods in America. With 66.1% of the households here made up of people living alone, NeighborhoodScout's research reveals that this is a larger proportion of people living alone than in 99.5% of the neighborhoods in America.

Finally, if you're a regular supporter of the arts and enjoy outings to the theatre, weekend boutique-ing, or even a finely aged wine with dinner, than you're in good company with the people of the Penn Quarter neighborhood. This neighborhood is uniquely immersed with more "urban sophisticates" than 96.9% of neighborhoods across the country. The people here truly stand out as a class among their own. They are an exclusive community characterized by refined tastes, cultural inclinations, and the means to live well. Urban sophisticates live a big city lifestyle, whether or not they live in or near a big city. They are educated executives or managers by week, and serial patrons of the arts by weekend. If this lifestyle pertains to you, than you'll certainly feel right at home in the Penn Quarter neighborhood. In addition to being an excellent choice for urban sophisticates, this neighborhood is also a very good choice for young, single professionals.

Occupations

The Penn Quarter neighborhood has a higher proportion of its residents employed as executives, managers and professionals than 99.9% of the neighborhoods in America. In fact, 89.9% of the employed people here make a living as an executive, a manager, or other professional. With such a high concentration, this truly shapes the character of this neighborhood, and to a large degree defines what this neighborhood is about.

Furthermore, the government often provides some of the more stable jobs in the economy. From local, to state, to federal government workers, the government can also be a major employer. What NeighborhoodScout's analysis revealed, is that the Penn Quarter neighborhood in particular stands out when compared nationally for the proportion of its working residents who are employed by the government. At 30.6% of its workforce, this neighborhood has a greater concentration of government workers than 99.9% of U.S. neighborhoods.

In addition, with 4.3% of employed workers living in the Penn Quarter neighborhood active in the military, this neighborhood has the distinction of having a higher proportion of people in the military than 98.5% of American neighborhoods. This is a major shaper of the neighborhood's culture and character.

Modes of Transportation

In the Penn Quarter neighborhood, walking to work is a real option for many. In fact, NeighborhoodScout's exclusive research reveals walking to and from work is the chosen way to commute for 42.4% of residents here. This is a higher proportion of walking commuters than we found in 99.7% of American neighborhoods. Get ready to put on your walking shoes if you move here!

Also, if you like to ride the train to work, this neighborhood may be for you. NeighborhoodScout's research revealed that 20.1% of the Penn Quarter neighborhood's commuters ride the train to and from work each day, which is more than we found in 97.2% of America's neighborhoods.

Real Estate

The Penn Quarter neighborhood is very unique in that it has one of the highest proportions of one, two, or no bedroom real estate of any neighborhood in America. Most neighborhoods have a mixture of home or apartment sizes from small to large, but here the concentration of studios and other small living spaces is at near-record heights. With 95.0% of the real estate here of this small size, this most assuredly is a notable feature that makes this neighborhood unique, along with just a handful of other neighborhoods in the U.S. that share this characteristic.

In addition, one of the really unique and interesting things about the look and setting of the Penn Quarter neighborhood is that it is almost entirely dominated by large apartment buildings, such as apartment complexes or high-rise apartments. 93.6% of the residential real estate here is classified as such. This puts this neighborhood on the map as having a higher proportion of large apartment buildings than 98.7% of all neighborhoods in America.

Car Ownership

We Americans love our cars. Not only are they a necessity for most Americans due to the shape of our neighborhoods and the distances between where we live, work, shop, and go to school, but we also fancy them. As a result, most households in America have one, two, or three cars. But NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis shows that the Penn Quarter neighborhood has a highly unusual pattern of car ownership. 44.9% of the households in this neighborhood don't own a car at all. This is more carless households than NeighborhoodScout found in 98.5% of U.S. neighborhoods.

Diversity

Did you know that the Penn Quarter neighborhood has more South American and Cuban ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 7.6% of this neighborhood's residents have South American ancestry and 2.5% have Cuban ancestry.

Penn Quarter is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 5.4% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Korean at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 99.0% of the neighborhoods in America.

The Neighbors

How wealthy a neighborhood is, from very wealthy, to middle income, to low income is very formative with regard to the personality and character of a neighborhood. Equally important is the rate of people, particularly children, who live below the federal poverty line. In some wealthy gated communities, the areas immediately surrounding can have high rates of childhood poverty, which indicates other social issues. NeighborhoodScout's analysis reveals both aspects of income and poverty for this neighborhood.

The neighbors in the Penn Quarter neighborhood in Washington are wealthy, making it among the 15% highest income neighborhoods in America. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 97.2% of the neighborhoods in America. In addition, 0.0% of the children seventeen and under living in this neighborhood are living below the federal poverty line, which is a lower rate of childhood poverty than is found in 100.0% of America's neighborhoods.

What we choose to do for a living reflects who we are. Each neighborhood has a different mix of occupations represented, and together these tell you about the neighborhood and help you understand if this neighborhood may fit your lifestyle.

In the Penn Quarter neighborhood, 89.9% of the working population is employed in executive, management, and professional occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is government jobs, whether they are in local, state, or federal positions, with 30.6% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants (8.2%), and 4.3% in the military.

Languages

The languages spoken by people in this neighborhood are diverse. These are tabulated as the languages people preferentially speak when they are at home with their families. The most common language spoken in the Penn Quarter neighborhood is English, spoken by 72.3% of households. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish, Korean and French.

Ethnicity / Ancestry

Culture is shared learned behavior. We learn it from our parents, their parents, our houses of worship, and much of our culture – our learned behavior – comes from our ancestors. That is why ancestry and ethnicity can be so interesting and important to understand: places with concentrations of people of one or more ancestries often express those shared learned behaviors and this gives each neighborhood its own culture. Even different neighborhoods in the same city can have drastically different cultures.

In the Penn Quarter neighborhood in Washington, DC, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Asian (14.3%). There are also a number of people of Irish ancestry (13.5%), and residents who report English roots (12.2%), and some of the residents are also of German ancestry (10.8%), along with some Italian ancestry residents (10.1%), among others. In addition, 21.2% of the residents of this neighborhood were born in another country.

Getting to Work

Even if your neighborhood is walkable, you may still have to drive to your place of work. Some neighborhoods are located where many can get to work in just a few minutes, while others are located such that most residents have a long and arduous commute. The greatest number of commuters in Penn Quarter neighborhood spend between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (44.3% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.

Here most residents (42.4%) hop out the door and walk to work to get to work. In addition, quite a number also take the train to get to work (20.1%) and 10.4% of residents also drive alone in a private automobile for their daily commute. This is a special neighborhood for the number of people who walk to work. Combining exercise, low cost, and reduced pollution, plus the chance to see your neighbors, walking to work is fairly uncommon in America but likely to increase as people try to reduce their dependence on automobiles, and this neighborhood offers that opportunity today.


Real Estate includes:
Average Home Values
Rental Market
Housing Market Details
Neighborhood Setting
Economics & Demographics include:
Lifestyle & Special Character
Household Types
Commute To Work
Migration & Mobility
Race & Ethnic Diversity
Employment Industries & Occupations
Income & Unemployment Rate
Higher Education Attainment
Crime includes:
Neighborhood Crime Index
Crimes Per Square Mile
Property Crime Comparison
Violent Crime Comparison
Schools include:
School Ratings
Schools In District
Public School Test Scores
School District Enrollment
Educational Expenditures

comparable neighborhoods nearby