We have toured homes in Arlington extensively this year. Between 900 and 1.2, garbage is a good description for a lot of the inventory.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Meh. There is plenty of overpriced garbage in N Arlington just sitting right now.

Anonymous wrote:Buyer here, looking in N. Arlington and Falls Church - it's still a seller's market, for sure.

Honestly. It's not all just garbage - that's way too harsh. But plenty that need to come down substantially in price. And not just by $25k, which seems to be a popular adjustment amount.

Anonymous wrote:Meh. There is plenty of overpriced garbage in N Arlington just sitting right now.

Anonymous wrote:Buyer here, looking in N. Arlington and Falls Church - it's still a seller's market, for sure.

Honestly. It's not all just garbage - that's way too harsh. But plenty that need to come down substantially in price. And not just by $25k, which seems to be a popular adjustment amount.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This article doesn't make sense. The things that caused uncertainty and fear this past winter have disappeared.

exactly that's the point. so the market should've recovered because of these things disappearing but the author is stating that it didn't.

How can you say the market and reference the entire USA.

Things inside the beltway and in DC are still hot.

Everyone things *their* neighborhood is special, the world over...

+1000000


Especially the knock downs, who will end up selling for land, if they ever can sell, that is.....

Just wait long enough, those homes will all fall down and I'm sure that you'll be able to pick up lots in prime locations for FREE. Why would anyone want a dumb old lot like that any way....

I'm in DC in Colonial Village and it's really hot. The stuff that's sitting is just way overpriced.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This article doesn't make sense. The things that caused uncertainty and fear this past winter have disappeared.

exactly that's the point. so the market should've recovered because of these things disappearing but the author is stating that it didn't.

How can you say the market and reference the entire USA.

Things inside the beltway and in DC are still hot.

Everyone things *their* neighborhood is special, the world over...

+1000000


Especially the knock downs, who will end up selling for land, if they ever can sell, that is.....

Meh. There is plenty of overpriced garbage in N Arlington just sitting right now.

Anonymous wrote:Buyer here, looking in N. Arlington and Falls Church - it's still a seller's market, for sure.

Buyer here, looking in N. Arlington and Falls Church - it's still a seller's market, for sure.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Still selling well in 20878

Uh, Gaithersburg? Seriously?

apparently you don't know the difference between 20878 and 20879. not that 20878 is "all that" but its a nice area even though its a little far from DC. it includes the kentlands, darnestown and "north potomac" (not that I would call it potomac.... but that is what some folks do).

Crazy out here in fairfax and Arlington. Multiple bids all contingencies waived bidding 105% over. Fairfax city and west is slower but who wants to be out that far.

OK - to the realtors out there who agree that things are heading in the direction of a cooling of the market or at least a slight downward adjustment of prices, what is your advice to someone who has the luxury of a year to find and buy a house? Just watch the market patiently for many months or even all the way until next Spring? And on the flip side, if someone knows they're going to want to sell within the next year or so and is relatively indifferent to exactly when, would you recommend they get it on the market now or wait until early next Spring?

I keep hearing things like this but houses in my neighborhood (and the surrounding ones) are flying off the shelves.

Interest rates go up and people tend to hang onto their homes, it gets harder to buy, rents go up...

There is a limit to how far home prices are going to adjust downward. People don't want to hear that. But this has never been a cheap area to live in and it never will be.

Metro, museums, government jobs, trails, shopping, VRE, public transportation, excellent schools....there is a reason it is expensive.

VArealtor wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Realtor here. The market starting slowing in the last couple of weeks. As it always does the day school lets out. There will be some pickup in late July with listings for school-sensitive shoppers who want to settle before Labor Day.

This happens every year. Nothing seems abnormal this summer, other than the spring was incredibly active with a lot of pent up demand. I still hear about pent up buyer demand but inventory is thin for quality product.

Absolutely this regarding the current market. It's no where slower than it was last year and yes, spring was unusually hot. Houses that sat on the market were usually priced too highly or had some other undesirable quality.

BUT I read the article OP sited when it first appeared on naked capitalism and I do agree with its assessment. Feds kept interest rates artificially low for too long and it's just not a sustainable model. Eventually, the rates will normalize and that, coupled with inflation and un/underemployment will result in housing prices shifting back to an appropriate pricing zone.

For this reason, I *never* market home ownership as an investment opportunity to clients (unless it actually is but those situations are rare nowadays). 10-15 years ago you could expect a generous appreciation but today you'll be lucky if you keep up with inflation. At least until we get through this economic slump but who knows how long that will take.

Another agent. I don't agree with your first bolded statement - but that's because I was working mostly in big bubble areas like the Hill, Brookland, generally all downtown. It was nuts last summer. It's nothing like that now.

For the other statement I bolded - yes, yes and yes. I've said those words on this board many times, but got lambasted by the "this will never slow down" contingent.

Anonymous wrote:Realtor here. The market starting slowing in the last couple of weeks. As it always does the day school lets out. There will be some pickup in late July with listings for school-sensitive shoppers who want to settle before Labor Day.

This happens every year. Nothing seems abnormal this summer, other than the spring was incredibly active with a lot of pent up demand. I still hear about pent up buyer demand but inventory is thin for quality product.

Absolutely this regarding the current market. It's no where slower than it was last year and yes, spring was unusually hot. Houses that sat on the market were usually priced too highly or had some other undesirable quality.

BUT I read the article OP sited when it first appeared on naked capitalism and I do agree with its assessment. Feds kept interest rates artificially low for too long and it's just not a sustainable model. Eventually, the rates will normalize and that, coupled with inflation and un/underemployment will result in housing prices shifting back to an appropriate pricing zone.

For this reason, I *never* market home ownership as an investment opportunity to clients (unless it actually is but those situations are rare nowadays). 10-15 years ago you could expect a generous appreciation but today you'll be lucky if you keep up with inflation. At least until we get through this economic slump but who knows how long that will take.

We have so many listings around. They popped up a few weeks ago. I don't think I've ever seen this many at one time.