Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Lereah 'We've seen a little air come out of the D.C. balloon'
David Lereah who is the chief economist for the National Association of Realtors ( NAR) said that "We've seen a little air come out of the D.C. balloon" Lereah is right this time. The air is coming out prices in the DC area are experiencing very small price declines.
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Does anyone have any anecdotal stories about this?
ReplyDeleteI look at prices once in a while in Eastern Montgomery and Northern Prince George's counties. I like the areas, but view them as fraught with potential negatives. PG county has insane levels of crime right now, even as crime is declining nationally and the economy is good (at least in PG county). It could obviously get a lot worse. The leaders there seem more interested in prosecuting cops than criminals. Montgomery seems to have leaders who are equally delusional but have been luckier so far. And traffic is awful in both areas.
The housing stock consists of- older brick houses (50-80 years old) which are nice, but are beginning to show their age and need a lot of work, and new, vinyl-sided houses that don't look very nice. Both types of houses are insanely priced. I would say that houses there may need to drop 60-70% to be where I would buy.
While that sounds severe, that would still put housing prices as more expensive than places like the suburbs of Dallas, Texas, where a new, all brick home with 3,000 square feet and an inground pool can run around $200,000.