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Real Estate Prices in Arlington
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Anonymous
| Are real estate prices in Arlington decreasing or is it just wishful thinking from my part? It seems that prices in most of the neighborhoods we looked at this year are less than what they were last year. we could ask a real estate agent for a comparative market analysis but we wanted to look on our own at first. |
Anonymous
| in general that's what we're seeing too. of course each house is different, and each buyer has a different price that makes sense on the same house. arlington is relatively strong in the region but lets not kid ourselves, right now, prices have nowhere to go but down. |
Anonymous
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We're looking to move to Arlington or Chevy Chase (from DC) and it seems as though prices ARE going down, although not by much. Houses in desirable neighborhoods (ie Lyon Village in VA or Somerset in CC) are still going pretty fast, but it seems as though people are dropping prices and are able to bid down for a house. We live in a little house in DC in a desirable neighborhood and close to the metro and the comps on it last year were in the mid-700's. We'll be happy to sell it for the high 600's this year. That said, we still made lots of money on it and think that it's a good time to buy (especially with the impedning jumbo loan relief around the corner!) Would love to hear other people's thoughts who are also on the market.
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Anonymous
| I would say they are going down slightly, but not much. We paid $590,000 for a place in Sept. 2006 and the place next door to us which was pretty much the same, but with one more bath sold for $630,000 this past summer. Another place very similar is on the market for $649,000 and has only been on the market since 2/7, and is already under contract. So depending on where you are, the prices are remaining pretty stable and places go fast. We are in Waverly Hills. |
Anonymous
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I think I read in the Post that prices in Arlington County only dropped 2% last year, whereas in Fairfax County the average house sold for 91% of its asking price.
Now is the time for bargaining, however, our experience (selling in Arlington and moving to inner Fairfax County in Dec.) was that the good properties still go fast and for close to asking price. There are still multiple bids and escalations, too, but it's much less common now. |
Anonymous
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I'm looking there now too and I do think they're decreasing.
Anyone who lives there will tell you they're not, but I know that when we looked a few years ago nothing was even remotely affordable for us and now it's gotten better. It's not dropped out totally though and things are still expensive, but you can get a deal if you look. |
Anonymous
Is this the one you're referring to? 2011 Utah St N Arlington, VA 22207 (AR6657496) It's a beautiful house (check out the pictures!) of decent size in a good neighborhood. If your home is very similar to this one in terms of size and conditions and updates, but with one bath, I think you got a very good deal at $590K back in Sep 06. |
Anonymous
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We were looking in Waverly Hills! It's so pretty there.
We just want a place with a friggin' Master Bathroom....we didn't even realize how hard that would be to get in Arlington. I guess you just pay for a lifestyle there, not really the house. |
Anonymous
Yup, that's the one. I drive by it all the time and think it is so cute! Our house is very similar to this one, but we have 1.5 baths and their kitchen looks bigger (ours is TINY). We do miss having another full bath, but we are paying for location and figure we can always built out someday (hopefully). I think we got a pretty good deal, too, and we love the neighborhood. Full of kids, we can walk to a playground and shops and restaurants. And close to Clarendon, COurthouse and Ballston. As for a master bathroom, I don't think any of the places we looked in at our price range had one. Many of these houses (including ours) have their master bedroom in the converted attic. Actually, the house next door that sold last summer does have a master bath. Unfortunately, a developer bought it and is supposed to be ripping off the roof and making it into a monstrosity! |
Meconbear
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| Master bath in Arlington (esp. N. Arlington)? We're in the 800-900K range and haven't found a one. Small, dated bathroom off the master bedroom yes. Nice master bath with tubs, double sinks, etc, in our price range, no. However, we occasionally go into open houses in the 1.5 mil range (just to torture ourselves) and you usually get a nice master bath there. It's usually those McMansions that have those kinds of upgrades. I agree that most people live in Arlington for the lifestyle, not for the big honkin' house (unless you're in that 1.5 mil and up price range, of course). Bush just passed the stimulus package today and rumor has it there's some jumbo loan relief in there. Hope those interest rates keep dropping! |
Anonymous
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I'm the poster who wrote about the Master Baths.
If I were in your range I'd be irritated too. We're more around the $620K range, so we're looking at things listed for around $650K. We saw a beautiful house in Terra-Larchmont that was around $800K (we were driving past and just wanted to look inside when we went to open houses) and had a small, but nice, Master Bath. It was tiny, though. We don't need anything more than that (We have an enormous 100sq/ft bath here!). That one house in Terra-Larchmont also had no back yard practically. All front sloping yard. Also, there was no bath on the first floor. That's another thing. I think we're going to venture into Falls Church and McLean to see what we can get there, but if I can ever get into that higher range, I definitely think that N. Arlington is worth it. We're also interested in the stimulus package, it would save us over $100/mth if we were to move and could increase the range we'd look at. Of course, it would increase everyone's range. Do you think it would change the home prices then? Hm. I just thought of that this second. |
Anonymous
Personally I couldn't care less about interest rates dropping, what I WANT is the house prices dropping. Because you can always refinance later but you're not going to have another chance to reduce what you owe. |
Anonymous
| To the poster looking in the $650,000 range. There is another house in Waverly Hills that has a coming soon sign next to it that if I had to guess would be in that price range. It is on N. Vermont St. and is a colonial. It is also right across from the playground which would be a plus. Probably no master bath, but a great location! |
Anonymous
Well, this really depends on how you look at it. Both the price and the rate make your payment whatever it is. If the home price goes down, but the interest rate goes up, you will owe more either way. So, if you have a good, solid, fixed jumbo loan and the rates go up again, you're good to go even if the home prices drop. I don't think N. Arlington is going to "bottom out", so you need to look for a deal while getting a good rate. That said, ideally the rate would go down AND the prices would as well 
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Anonymous
| A lot of homes in desirable areas of Arlington and NW DC are staying on the market longer- a buyer has more options, a good 30 year fixed rate, and can negotiate for items impossible a few years ago- such as getting the seller to pay for the home inspection, paying for repairs or upgrades, buying a home warranty on appliances, paying closing costs, etc. Also, if a home is on the market for a relatively long time- the seller will probably agree to a lower price. I am an attorney and real estate agent with a lot of negotiating experience. If anyone is interested in finding great buys on property in NW DC - (I have limited my practice to DC), e-mail me at slbrealty@yahoo.com. Sara (also a DC Urban Mom). |