Monday, November 07, 2005

Falling Leaves, Falling Prices

Falling leaves and falling prices are now occurring in many of the bubble markets. The days of double digit price appreciation are long gone.

Even David Lereah, the cheerleading chief economist of the National Association of Realtors, said that "the market has him 'as nervous as a two-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs"

Today, the leaves were busy falling in the Washington, DC area. There were leaves everywhere. The housing inventory continues to increase. Price declines are occurring.


Condo prices are particularly vulnerable as there has been a huge amount of condo construction in the past few years in the DC area. Prices for new 1br condos in nice inside the Beltway neighborhoods are updwards of 300K ( many costing over 400k).


The chart on the right is provided by a poster on this blog who took the time to take data from the Maryland Association of Realtors. It shows stagnating and declining prices in the last two months in parts of Maryland.