By now you have all heard that the real estate market has been the slowest in recent years.  However, this is not a bad thing.  It means that there are nicer houses for the DC Metropolitan area buyers. 

The area that is pulling down the national economy is Northern Virginia.  The home prices are being affected by the increasing number of foreclosures.  This means that there are homes that are priced well below what they are worth.   It’s been hard for homeowners to sell their home because the foreclosure next door is $80,000 less and is in the same condition or at least close to it.  The median home price around the region in 2007 was $420,000.   DC Metropolitan area home prices were down 11% in a year ago in January according to the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller index. 

Each of the numbers are measured differently.  Case-Shiller and similar indexes use statistical models to determine how the prices of physically similar houses change over time.  However, median price data shows actual sales prices disregarding any physical characteristics. The difference between the two types of price measurements suggests that buyers were likely to be spending about the same amount as they would have in the recent past but were getting more home for the money. The region is still one of the most expensive in the country, even with slow home sales. The priciest jurisdiction last year was Arlington, where the median price of a single-family house or townhouse was $580,000, up 3 percent. Medians in neighboring Alexandria and Fairfax County also remained above $500,000, though they were down from 2006.

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