McEnearney Market in a Minute — Northern Virginia (November 2019): “Lather – rinse – repeat. We’ll say close to the same thing we did last month: almost every key market metric in Northern Virginia is positive. Absorption rates are sky-high, with almost every price category for all three property types registering in the “sellers’ market” category. The only real headwind is the lack of available inventory, down 35% from this time last year. And that low inventory depressed contract activity in October. The demand is there, but the inventory isn’t.”
McEnearney Market in a Minute — Washington, D.C. (November 2019):
“Washington, D.C.’s real estate market heated up a bit in October as the weather cooled down. After a bit of a lull in late summer and early fall, D.C. had a solid, across-the board rebound in October. Contract activity improved in all but the lowest price category, and supply is right around two months for all but the most expensive category. Absorption rates remain in the ‘seller’s market’ range for all three property types – condo/co-op, detached and attached.”
Homeownership/Buying Trends
- How to buy your first place if you’ve been living in your parents’ basement (Washington Post)
- Rent vs. Buy: Suburban Edition (New York Times)
- From roommates to nuclear families, a look at housing composition in the D.C. area (UrbanTurf DC)
- Nearly half of D.C.-area renter households ‘cost-burdened,’ report says (CurbedDC)
- A new report estimates how long it takes to save for a down payment in D.C. (Curbed DC)
- Low credit scores cost home buyers real money (Washington Post)
- To buy or to rent: The great homeownership debate (Curbed)
- Their estimates may be off base … but why Zillow addicts can’t look away (New York Times)
- The American Starter Home: Expensive, small, broken down and hard to find (Trulia)
- Report: 8.3M first-time buyers are coming (REALTOR magazine)
- D.C. area homeownership gap going opposite direction than rest of the country (UrbanTurf DC)
- Untangling the housing shortage and gentrification — Untangling these related but different problems is important, because the tactics for solving one won’t work for the other (CityLab)
Exterior/Interior Trends
- Find out the color of the year predictions for 2020 (Real Simple)
- 10 design trends coming to a home near you (Houzz)
- Study: High-end showers are key in home remodels (REALTOR magazine)
- Split-level homes are becoming popular again (Apartment Therapy)
- Homeowners are increasingly using their wine collections as a design element. But doing so comes with challenges and some big costs (Wall Street Journal)
- The quest for the perfect closet — What today’s idealized closets and pantries say about our inner lives (Curbed)
- Home-improvement boom is forecast to fizzle (Wall Street Journal)
Updated Nov. 22, 2019
