Are you one of the buyers who got scared off when you stuck your toe in the water of the DC real estate market a couple of years ago?  You thought it was just nuts, right? 

You’d find a place you liked, then your agent would explain that, in order to get it, you’d have to bid a gazillion dollars over the asking price, forget a home inspection or any of the basic buyer protections in the boilerplate contract.   Get out the pen and straight edge and ex those little suckers right out!

But even if you were willing to pay way too much and give up every contingency that common sense said was minimally prudent, you probably wouldn’t get Dream House.  There would be 50 other people in there, most of whom were willing to be more imprudent than you were. 

Because you were not all that imprudent, you sat things out.   A lot of people did. 

Well, things have finally changed.  The shoe is on the proverbial other foot.

You see things on the evening news and the Washington Post’s business section about how bad the housing market is.  In some parts of the country, even in parts of the DC Metro area (notably Price William County in Virginia) this is the case.  In Washington and the close in suburbs, it’s not even close to being Foreclosure Central, but the market is back to normal.

Houses are taking months to sell, on the average.   And while there are still situations where there are multiple offers on a single house or condo, they are usually two or three instead of twenty or thirty.  And it isn’t unusual for all of the offers to be below the asking price.  And we are no longer suggesting that buyers forgo the inspection, financing or appraisal contingencies. 

And you have other things going for you.

Interest rates are pretty low at the moment, although you will need some of your own funds to make the mortgage work.  Unless you are a major deadbeat, you are likely to find a loan at less than usurious rates.

Prices for houses are fairly stable, and even down a bit from two years ago in some parts of the area.  So, has the market hit bottom?   Nobody really knows.  There is the every-four-year optimism over the upcoming administration change – although there is no strong evidence that it makes a huge difference.

Even if we’re not quite bottomed out, if you plan to own your home for more than a few years, it’s likely that prices will catch up eventually.  And even when prices are stagnant or go down, if you really have to move, Washington has a strong rental market.

So what are you waiting for?