National housing prices may be experiencing what Karl Case, co-founder of the Standard and Poor’s/Case-Shiller home-price index, is calling a double dip. But for those in the Washington, D.C. region, national headlines just don’t apply.
According to the same S&P/Case-Shiller index, our region was the only one of the 20 major metropolitan areas to post an increase in prices during February. As the Washington Post reported, the average home price in the “inner ring” (defined as Fairfax, Montgomery and Prince George’s counties) rose 1.3 percent while at least 10 other major housing markets remain at the same or lower price point since the housing bubble burst in 2008.
In another study of the Washington real estate market by Delta Associates, home prices in the greater metropolitan region rose 3.2 percent, making for the sixth consecutive quarterly gain.
I can’t say I’m surprised. In a post written earlier this year, I projected that new home prices would rise in our area once the inventory of previously owned homes started to decline. That, as well as a few other factors discussed in a Fortune cover story, is exactly what is happening.
While the article concedes the housing market is like the weather report, “exact conditions are different in every city,” there are some general trends. One of the prime reasons Fortune is convinced “housing is back” has to do with the shift in the price advantage renting to home owners. “Higher rents will encourage buyers to cross the street from an apartment to a home of their own,” says Mark Zandi of Moody’s Analytics.
At Mid-Atlantic Builders we are seeing this increased demand in all of our communities. At Woodmore North, we are six homesites away from being sold out. Fairwood, just down the road, has only two homesites left. Stop by our model homes at Beechtree in Upper Marlboro or The Villages of Savannah in Brandywine to see why now is the best time to buy your new Mid-Atlantic Builders home.






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