Friday, June 24, 2005

Washington, DC

My townhousemates and I rent a townhouse in one of the inner suburbs of the DC area. An appraiser came out yesterday to make an appraisal. The owners who have owned it since it was built in 1984 (payed 165K) want to refinance. The place is worth about 525K. Our rent is 2,250 ( plusutilities). The place is 1700 sq feet. Ok. I talked to the appraiser has done many appriasals around the area. We talked about the housing issue. He mentioned how properties within the Beltway(inner suburbs) were still hot and selling well. However, further out housing units were selling more slowly and that some properties are being reduced in price. He expected continued weakening in the outer suburban DC market. Also, the amount of housing units available for rent or sale in my zipcode has climbed to 54 from 50 in the last two weeks.

Suggested Discussion Topics: DC housing Market. Geography of price declines.: Urban vs Suburban vs Outer Suburban vs Rural? Housing Style (SFH vs townhouse vs condo)?

3 comments:

  1. In California, cheaper inland areas such as Riverside county, San Bernadino country, Sacramento are still seing strong apreciation. I think it's partly due to investors and new buyers using exotic mortgages. Some areas in coastal San Diego have started to cool off.

    So I wonder if one factor could just be that buyers are getting priced out of established markets that have seen huge price appreciation over the past two years. Would that describe the area you live in?

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  2. >> "So I wonder if one factor could just be that buyers are getting priced out of established markets that have seen huge price appreciation over the past two years."

    I think that is a factor in many areas in the county. My area is an inner suburb of DC so people are getting priced out of the safe, good areas of DC and choosing here. DC is a special case as well due to the tremendous job growth here. Government related work.

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  3. maybe W will do his job and chop some gov workers the (parasite class Jefferson warned of

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