Washington DC Real Estate - The January Question

And every year, at least for me, it’s the same answer. And that is, “We need to wait a couple of weeks and see.” That probably sounds like a weather forecast, I know – but it’s true. Because the market in the Washington, DC Metropolitan area always slows right before Thanksgiving and doesn’t pick up again until after the first of the year, we always find ourselves in a “wait and see” position as the calendar turns. For sellers who have waited thru the holidays to list their homes, it’s a tough time to price. In this market, you find yourself competing with properties that have been sitting for quite a while and have been subject to price “adjustments” (a nice way to say “reduced”). New sellers have to decide whether to position themselves in line with those properties or to decide that they have something to offer to the market which will allow for a higher price. It’s a tough call. Although the average number of days on the market in all our local jurisdictions (Washington, DC, Montgomery County, MD and Northern Virginia) has increased dramatically in the past few months (from less than 30 days to over 90), one still has to realize that a home’s greatest potential value is in the early days/weeks of a listing.

 

In the Washington, D.C. area our “best” market (i.e., the most sales at the highest price) is between Super Bowl Sunday and Mother’s Day. This has proved true in “good”   years and in “bad”, so it seems safe to assume that it will continue in 2008. The only question is how much, if any, the market will pick up in the Spring and how much inventory we will end up with after Mother’s Day. 

 

With interest rates predicted to continue to fall, and with a lot of inventory, it appears that it’s a great time to be a buyer. We just need the buyers to figure that out.