If you have been following the news about the U.S. housing market, it’s pretty easy to be discouraged. Reports last week informed us of a 3.3 percent drop in existing-home prices.
That, however, is the aggregate number for millions of homes in all 50 states, in thousands of communities. I would imagine you are a lot more concerned with the one (maybe two) homes you own; am I right? If so, I have better news for you.
The Washington metro area is a very different housing market from the rest of the nation, with more encouraging home-price statistics.
Today’s charts present home prices in eight area jurisdictions from January 2008 through last month.
What’s quite clear in the Virginia chart is that home prices hit bottom at the end of 2008. That came after two years of painful price declines. In Virginia, home prices have been climbing back up for the past 2 1/2 years.
That’s a very different picture from what we are seeing nationally. Why? Maybe you read other news reports last week announcing that Loudoun and Fairfax counties are among the counties with the highest median incomes in the nation.
Secure federal jobs and contracting work, along with a big technology sector, have made the entire Washington region a much more prosperous place to work and live than other metropolitan areas. That means people can afford to buy homes, which props up home values.
Prices in Maryland and the District did not quite bottom out at the end of 2008. They have, however, leveled off recently, which is encouraging.
Prices took longer to find bottom in Prince George’s County because of a very large backlog of unsold homes that limited competition among buyers.
Prices in Prince George’s have stabilized this year, however, and sales there have increased so dramatically that we could see prices inching back up in 2012.
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