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Where do you think the housing market is going for close-in neighborhoods?
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Meconbear
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| We're looking in Chevy Chase, close-in Bethesda and Arlington. The market still seems pretty hot in these areas (some multiple offers, houses don't seem to stay on the market more than a couple of months if priced right). However, interest rates are going up and we have noticed a drop in price in these neighborhoods. We're also looking to sell our house in Friendship Heights DC. Hoping to price right this spring and sell it quickly. What do folks think the real estate market is going to go this spring/summer? |
Anonymous
| My rec is not to do anything until the beginning of 2009, at least. DH works in this industry and continues to preach how terrible it's going to be for a while. Truly things are going to get worse before the get better. Depending on your financial situation you might be able to swing it. We could but have decided to hold out until things bottom out. |
Anonymous
| Good question. I'd thought AU Park of upper NW DC were holding up well, but have seen several recent listings that I thought were really reasonably priced (read much less that I thought we were going to have to pay). However, now I'm getting nervous about buying first and then putting our place on the market. |
Anonymous
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I live in CC DC, close to metro, and I have noticed that well-tended houses are still selling inside of a month, often 2 weeks. These houses just don't come on the market that often. The prices, for now, seem steady. And in fact the Wash Post stats that just came out a couple of weeks ago bear that out -- I think prices dropped .03 percent in this little area from 2006 to 2007.
Don't know about Arl. or Bethesda. |
Anonymous
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My part of Arlington (Metro Corridor) has dropped a bit, but a nice house still goes fast for a fair amount of money.
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Anonymous
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I'd say that close in neighborhoods have dropped, but they have not plummeted by any means. I am looking to move to relatively close (and some not quite as close) neighborhoods and I think that the really beautiful homes are still the same as they would have been a few years ago, although they have not really increased by much. The homes that are really good buys are the ones that are solid and in good shape (good roof, windows.....structurally good), but need cosmetic updates (paint, carpet). The great thing is that I have noticed that realtors seem to be making people take down their wall paper and re-finish their floors! When we bought our home in 2005, there was wallpaper all over the place!
If you are not handy and want something move-in ready, it will still cost you, but you should look into the price differences. We looked at a nice house in further-out Bethesda on 1/3rd acre that was 100K less than others because it needed a lot of cosmetic updates that would cost maybe $10K and maybe a new kitchen that would run from 10K if you did it from Ikea with a granite countertop. I would agree though that in general, prices are seemingly steady, but you can get a great deal if you're not in a hurry. We went into two homes already that were listed for over $630K and the realtors immediately said "The price on this home is negotiable". One of them went down to 600K the next week and quickly sold for probably in the 500s. Another really nice home was $650K and the realtor tried to get us to put a contract on it with a contigency for the sale of our not-on-the-market home for $550K and insisted the price was negotiable. Some people really need to get out of their homes. I think it was really unprofessional for the realtors to do that, but they need money probably. I also think homes have dropped more in VA than in MD, but when we went to look in N. Arlington a month ago, homes were almost all over 600K and many were super fixers. I see many in the 500s now that are pretty nice. I do think homes there are dropping more than in Bethesda but that could change tomorrow if more/less inventory is in either location. |
Anonymous
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The problem is lack of inventory. People with houses in good ( but still may need updating condition) and in "hot" areas (Cleveland park, AU Park, CC DC, certain neighborhoods in Bethesda) the houses are selling. We live in AU Park and are searching for a house- for the number of houses packed into this area there's hardly anything on the market. It will be interesting to see how things sell once there's more on the market to compete with this spring. |
Anonymous
| I would like to know from someone out there that can explain it in laymens terms why? Why are people not jumping on the real estate market now. houses are less than 2 yrs ago and interest rates are great. What are people waiting on? are they afraid they will loose their job? I get annoyed to hear people say they want to see what the market will do. DO WHAT? |
Anonymous
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Here is my situation on waiting on the market -- We moved to the area and are looking to buy but don't really feel rushed to jump in and buy someting. Sure, prices overall are down, but if they keep going down, it's really not much of a bargain. We're also still getting to know neighborhoods and while we've narrowed it down to a few we like, we just haven't found very much in our price range that we want to buy. (In truth, we're also learning to stomach the housing prices here -- we moved from a city where you could get a beautiful old victorian or craftsman with original detailing for $250k... hard to look at a flimsy, outdated cape cod for $600k and up. Honestly, many of those just need to be knocked down and rebuilt... but most of those being done right now are going for $1M - way over our price range.)
Since rents are generally running much cheaper than mortgage payment on the same house that is what we are doing for now. If we find something, we'll go for it. Given how transient the DC market it, I think many folks are in the same boat. i also think that a few years ago you had many people trading up -- selling their house quickly for a huge profit and buying up a level or two. As many people above noted, they are unsure how much they will actually get for their place so they would rather stay put for now. |
Anonymous
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To the 21:41 posters - we're one of those couples who are waiting so I can tell you our reasons.
Like the pp, our rent for a 2 BR is less than what we'd pay on a mortgage for the same place, so it's worth renting for now. Sure, we're not building equity, but the $800/month we're saving by not having a mortgage can go into savings/investments or be put towards a future down payment. Also, we don't think prices have gone down enough. Some sellers still seem to be holding on to the idea that my house "should" be worth this much money, even if that's not the case. I truly believe that housing prices will go down before they go back up/stabilize again, so I'd rather wait. Also, I can't say the interest rate is a huge factor for us. I'd rather buy a place at a higher interest rate, but a lower selling price. You can always refinance later. |
Anonymous
| I agree with the pp about 2009. There are many people still out there that have not figured out that they can't afford these homes. |
Anonymous
Aren't you getting killed on taxes though? |
Anonymous
I'm not the PP you're referring to. But I would think I was still ahead of the game by paying only $800 in rent (9,600 a year), even without the interest deduction, than paying my mortagage and getting the interest deduction. I pay about 19,000 in interest a year on my mortgage ($350,000 - I know my mortgage is likely much lower than a first-time home-buyer's would be, so this wouldn't necessarily apply to everyone.) But it reduces my taxable income by 19,000. I don't pay 50% in taxes, so it doesn't save me more than $9,400 a year, which it would have to do to make it worthwhile to buy. I would wait under those circumstances too, especially with prices likely to continue going down. |
Anonymous
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I think that if you have something to sell, it's good to sell now BEFORE things go down in price but while interest rates are still low. If you can sell now, you will maximize your profit and have time to look for things. If you fall in love with something and buy it now it doesn't matter if it goes down in price because your property would have also. We are in an area that hasn't bottomed out yet, but I think that it will just like everywhere else, so if we sell then we'll be able to buy in a bottomed-out market before ours does the same. In any case once you're in the market, the fluctuations aren't as important as when you first purchase.
For those who are still renting: obviously buying is a good financial decision, but you have time to wait now and find something you love at a price you can afford. That wasn't the case for us when we were looking. Keep an eye out and get in on something if you think it's great but you shouldn't feel pressured. I figure that even if we buy and things drop, we have a very low interest rate now so if the rates go up, we may not even be able to move into a house priced the same as ours! A lot of people on this board bought in the boom so it's foreign to us to wait (at least it is to me!). But, we also made a lot of money on a condo we sold in 2005, so we have some money in our house still to put down that we didn't "save" and that is a lot easier to part with than something you've been socking away. |