All that wealth and opulence – bought and paid for by the rest of the country, so our rulers can live in a style and fashion that the rest of us can only imagine. Is this a great country or what?Sequester is a no-quester when it comes to housing and real estate in the federal government based economy in the Washington, DC area. Feds throughout continue to grow the financial divide with middle America as the real estate they occupy appreciates by leaps and bounds and federal largess makes housing affordable for contractors and employees.
Demand is soaring, but supply is not keeping up. The region’s supply of homes is the tightest it’s been since well before the financial crisis, according to recent data.
The result? It takes only nine days for most homes to be snapped up by hungry Washington home buyers. The region’s entire inventory of homes for sale could be consumed in as little as two months.
This tight inventory is pushing up home prices, setting up bidding wars and pricing new home buyers out of a market that is still enjoying historically low mortgage rates.
Homes in the $300,000 to $600,000 price range are selling the most quickly — usually in a week, according to June data — making the market particularly hard to navigate for first-time home buyers who want to live close to the District. Just a year ago, those homes sat around for at least three weeks.
Even homes at the higher end of the spectrum — from $600,000 to just shy of the $1 million mark — are on the market for eight days. On the other side of the scale, homes priced lower than $300,000 are available for just over two weeks.
Washington’s strong labor market and relative immunity from the housing crisis meant that demand never really dried up here, analysts say. But supply hasn’t kept pace.
Here are the numbers. It pays to be in Club Fed.
For all home types in the Washington area:
MEDIAN SALE PRICE
In thousands
$400,000
$400
300
200
100
0
2012
2013
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
J
F
M
A
M
J
ACTIVE LISTINGS
In thousands
10,374
10
8
6
4
2
0
8,281
2012
2013
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
J
F
M
A
M
J
MEDIAN DAYS ON THE MARKET
For all home types
For all home types
June 2013
June 2012
Washington metro area
9
19
Alexandria
12
22
Arlington County
7
13
Fairfax County
7
14
Loudoun County
9
22
Montgomery County
11
25
Prince George‘s County
17
37
Prince William County
12
20
Washington, D.C.
9
17
SOURCE: RealEstate Business Intelligence. GRAPHIC: By Tobey - The Washington Post. Published July 24, 2013.
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