Arlington info for a west coast transplant?

[ACWhite]

Guccirush, I don't mean to discourage you, but if your husband is still in the military, does it make sense to consider buying? It's not clear that housing prices have stabilized here, and different areas may be going up or down, or staying the same. If you aren't here for the long haul, that would make buying more of a risk. Also, as you've found, I would agree $300K won't get you a single family house in Arlington and may not get a condo or townhouse that would meet your standards; my guess is that this would be true for most places within an hour of Arlington, but there may be townhouses in Loudoun County that you might find ok. But you may want to consider renting, which seems to still be cheaper (on a monthly basis) than buying a similar place around here.

[guccirush]

Originally Posted by ACWhite

Guccirush, I don't mean to discourage you, but if your husband is still in the military, does it make sense to consider buying? It's not clear that housing prices have stabilized here, and different areas may be going up or down, or staying the same. If you aren't here for the long haul, that would make buying more of a risk. Also, as you've found, I would agree $300K won't get you a single family house in Arlington and may not get a condo or townhouse that would meet your standards; my guess is that this would be true for most places within an hour of Arlington, but there may be townhouses in Loudoun County that you might find ok. But you may want to consider renting, which seems to still be cheaper (on a monthly basis) than buying a similar place around here.

That is what I was afraid of..... but it would be for long term. If he took this job he would be getting out of the military. Thanks--Ann

[Guamanians]

You could always rent for 1 year... that way you would have a better feel of the real estate market, and what areas you like. Right now the rental properties are down, but home prices are still (relatively) high. There are some homes that are cheaper now, but I don't think it has bottomed out. Good luck with the move!

[liloulou]

As someone who recently purchased a home, I can tell you competition of buyers is still out there. We lost contracts on three homes prior to getting ours. The prices are much lower than a few years ago. I don't know if they'll go lower or not. Most industry professionals I've spoken with think prices will drop still a little, but we've almost seen the bottom. Our experience, competitive and lower prices.

[JfromReston]

From what I see in Reston's 20191 zip code the bottom of the market was about 6 months ago. Prices have started to rise and there is almost nothing on the market for detatched homes. Well not exactly nothing but from doing a search this morning on FranklyMLS there are 16 SFH actively on the market - if you subtract the houses that for one reason or another are just not selling and have been on the market for more than 200 days - you are down to only 11 houses. 3 houses each in the $400K's, $500K's, and $600K's and two more at $800K and $1.2M. In anyone price range that is just not many houses to choose from and that along with the 14 houses that are currently under contract is a good indication that the housing market is picking up in Reston's 20191 zip code.

[KirillNOVA]

It all goes to your expectations. Individuals that relocate from the South have very different expectations than folk from NY. So, again it all depends on what you are used to. Moderator Cut
Regards,
K.

[Badger21]

OP,

If the Husband's job is in DC, you're not going to want to look much further than Reston if you want to keep it under/near an hour commute time (even then you're gonna have hour + commute days). Unfortunately, this will kill your dream of a great SFH, in a great neighborhood, with "good" schools for under 300K. You will either have to look at sacrificing commute time or trying to up your budget by taking a second job, or perhaps look at getting a townhome.