Buying a Home Wait or Buy NOW!!!!

[Novamom06]

I bought the house in 2003 and made a very nice profit - the house was listed at around $700K. We ended up moving to Aldie because we wanted more land and that is what we got - a nice .75 acre lot and we are very happy. Loved the conveniences of Cascades but now that i'm not working don't need to be that close in.

Incidentially, we only decided to sell at the end of March and did it because we saw unbelieveable traffic at the two other homes in our neighborhood that were on the market (they are both now under contract) and because interest rates are great and we plan on staying here for a long time, probably around 20 years. For this kind of move, we are very happy with how we made out and the timing. It turned out to be a nice time to both buy and sell for us!

[claremarie]

I think the market is very neighborhood specific right now in the DC area. In some highly desirable neighborhoods homes are starting to move quick.

I agree with that. Two houses just sold in our neighborhood at the asking price, about a week after they went on the market. Houses in this neighborhood range from low 700s to just about a million, and both homes that sold were at the top end of that price range. There was a LOT of traffic at both places.
There are a few other homes still sitting on the market that would have been overpriced two years ago -- the sellers are both original owners in their early 80's with unrealistic price expectations.

[mojo_1979]

Originally Posted by springfieldva

Mojo 1979 - haven't the prices in Arlington actually *increased* over the past few months? I'm not saying that every area, in every price range, has hit bottom yet.
But many areas (especially in the below 500K range) have already suffered substantial corrections and are about as affordable as they are going to get, given the very low interest rates you can get now on 30yr loans.

Arlington seems to be the exception not the rule. Check out the latest year-over-year price trends in our region....


Arlingtion County.................... +3%
Alexandria City....................... -13%
Fairfax County....................... -13%
Loudoun County..................... -20%
Prince William County.............. -30%
Washington D.C..................... -8%

MRIS Statistics

[normie]

This is why they say you buy a house based on location, location, location. No matter what county you like, if you're interested in buying a home in the next year or so look for the communities that easily weathered the storm and are already selling again.

How do you figure out which community is going to end up being a good long term investment? Pay attention to which communities are the first ones to recover. Those are the smart communities to invest in before the prices go up again in a few years. All the counties have neighborhoods that are starting to doing well again...those are the ones that have location, location, location.

County statistics aren't terriby helpful since they cover too diverse of an area. You're better off to determine the good locations and bad locations within the county.

[VEIK]

Arlington was always a hot market.

Its right next to DC.

And with gas approaching 4 $ a gallon, more people are going to buy houses closer to the city.

[vanyali]

Originally Posted by normie

It's good to hear a good experience with all brick, especially since there are a lot of them (and they do look handsome). Maybe it's a matter of intelligent design? When I think about it, my prejudice against all-brick homes is based on one house (my brother's house), not on any overall knowledge of architecture. And that probably isn't fair.

He bought an all-brick house in McLean 6 years ago, and every summer he has to sleep in the basement or outside during the dog days. It's a tiny little cape cod that cost him more than $700,000--and he has to camp out in the back yard.

Sounds like he needs to look at his windows, insulation and/or A/C system rather than his brick walls. A bad A/C installation can really wreak havoc with your climate control. The ducts need to be not too big, not too small, in the right places, and the equipment needs to be continuously updated (modern systems don't really last more than 15 years or so, so if his equipment is older than that, he might just need to replace it). I think those are much more likely culprits than his brick walls.

[springfieldva]

Originally Posted by mojo_1979

Arlington seems to be the exception not the rule. Check out the latest year-over-year price trends in our region....


Arlingtion County.................... +3%
Alexandria City....................... -13%
Fairfax County....................... -13%
Loudoun County..................... -20%
Prince William County.............. -30%
Washington D.C..................... -8%

MRIS Statistics

That Fairfax County statistic may be good for the county as a whole, but when you are talking neighborhoods - some are up, some are down, some are leveling out. You really need to break those numbers down a bit to get a sense of whats really going on around here!