D.C. Area Housing Market Cools Off (Bubble bursting?)

[spinbaby]

Washington area temperatures may be sizzling, but the once-torrid real estate market seems to be cooling off as houses stay on the market longer and the number of homes for sale rises.

Home sales tend to slow in the summer, but the number of houses for sale in the Washington area has climbed by 50 percent in recent months. The available inventory has risen to about 35,300 homes, up from an average of about 23,000 in the past three years, according to Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc., which runs the local multiple-listing service.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/washpost/20050725/ts_washpost/d_c__area_housing_market_cools_off

[Missy M]

1. The bubble had to burst at sometime and I think it is now....

I'm sure it will start happening all around the country because it is pure insanity. The banks aren't helping the situation with some of the crazy mortgages they are offering (interest only and 80/20) to allow people to buy the outrageously priced houses.

[progressivebydesign]

9. A few weeks of slow sales in a heat wave is not a bubble bursting.

The true measure is over several months, not a few weeks.

[havocmom]

2. Might be due to Cunningham & Wade's cozy dealings being outed

Perhaps lobbyists are now avoiding paying too much for Congressmen's homes and enabling them to get new digs and places in DC?

[displacedtexan]

3. I have never seen houses NOT sell in Summer!

Families always buy between school years... whenever possible.

[progressivebydesign]

8. Early summer and late spring are the selling times.

I have several years experience affiliated with the industry, and deep summer is always a bad time to sell. Not as bad as winter or early spring, but worse than early fall.

I don't know about everyone in your town, but in my town it is deserted right. EVERYONE is on vacation here, and the only people I see in town are tourists.

[Walt Starr]

4. I don't think we are looking at a full blown bursting of the bubble

The regional bubbles are deflating, bot bursting.

Still not a good situation, but not a dire situation, either.

[theboss]

5. People might be trying to turn their paper profits into reality

In one year, the value of my home is up nearly 40 percent. I've been tempted to see what I could get for it, but I don't want to move yet.

[progressivebydesign]

6. Nope. Just typical slowdown for late July when there's a heat wave.

I mean I read this story carefully. No bubble bursting. July is when the market traditionally slows after a frantic June. People want to get their house sold before vacation, and in time to close escrow before school starts. Also, there has been a nasty heat wave, anyone here want to look for a house in 100+ temps? The article also mentions that it compared the sales NOW to sales of June last year, big difference. A few weeks of slow sales during a massive heat wave is NOT a bubble bursting... they said that in June things were hopping. Now.. a full year of bad numbers might indicated a bubble burst, but a few weeks? Get real.

Frankly, all this talk of a bubble seems to be wishful thinking on the part of apartment dwellers. I know from experience in the media that a lazy editor wants a certain story and sends a reporter out to get it, rather than researching and seeing if it's true. They simply find people to support they're theory.

Unless you're someone who seems to relish the idea of people losing their homes and savings because of a so-called Bubble, then I don't understand why this thing is pushed so much around here. The bubble is a self fulfilling prophesy, Greenspan is shoving this idea out there because he doesn't want to take the heat for collapsling the home market through his giveaways to the credit industry by raising interest rates on a bogus economy.

[DancingBear]

7. Folks are merely moving farther out

I live an hour or so west of D.C. (VA) - houses are appreciating at 30% per year.

I recently bought a home and am renovating it for re-sale. If I sold it today, I would make back every dime I put into it, and STILL make a profit even after a real estate commission is paid.

People here are tiring of the McMansions on 1/3 acre lots, and are looking for "country living", although I must say it is hilarious to watch them try and play Oliver Wendell Douglas.

We just sold a home on 61 acres - the new owner bought a really nice Kubota tractor, then promptly destroyed the septic tank cover (which is 2 feet in diameter, and hard to miss) when he ran it over with his new bush hog attachment. Why he was using a bush hog on the lawn is anyone's guess...

[ultraist]

10. There is no bubble in DC!

Granted, there had been an upswing in that market but DC does not have a bubble. Apparently, they are seeing a bit of a slowdown in the market. This is not a "burst."

The real estate market is not static, it fluctuates. DC is merely seeing some normal movememnt.

There has been a bit of a slowdown in the market in my area as well, but we don't have a bubble. Our appreciation rates and prices never hit the ultra highs that some regions saw.

[theboss]

11. Why the enthusiasm here for a collapse of the housing market?

I don't know why there are a) so many of these threads and b) so many gleeful replies to these threads.

[michaelwb]

13. Affordable housing

Crazily enough, I think the idea of sale prices and rents in large metropolitan areas declining enough to be affordable again for working folks to be a good thing.

But hey I'm not a rich yuppie or real estate speculator that forces up the prices.

[MountainLaurel]

14. That's a great point

And one of the reasons I personally think that we're seeing this slowdown in sales: The majority of people out there just can't afford to buy anything in DC. When you've got one-bedroom condos in older communities outside the Beltway and far from Metro going for $300K, something is wrong.

[MountainLaurel]

12. Does this mean

My fiancee will be able to afford to buy a house closer in that Harpers Ferry on our education/nonprofit salaries now?