Finally, a little good news from the housing market:

Washington Post: Stocks Gain on Surprise Rise in New Home Sales

Sales of new single-family homes rose by 2.7 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 464,000 homes. Economists had expected sales would drop from the August level.

New home sales are a leading indicator for the country’s economy. While one month does not make a trend, hopefully the August sales figures will be the start of one.

September 27’s Washington Post’s “Where We Live” section provided some real estate trends for condos.  The data compared the first three months of 2007 to the first three months of 2008.

As one would expect, metro-wide sales were down from 4,556 condos to 2,864 condos during the January to March period. Pricing held up well, however, with the median purchase price of $277,222 in 2007 compared to $274,175 in 2008, or a 1 percent decline in value.

But the District itself saw a much brighter picture.  Sales increased from 208 to 312 when comparing the two periods, and pricing went from $330,000 in 2007 to $379,500 in 2008 – a 15 percent increase!

Now, keep in mind that this is only a small snippet of the market, and one cannot draw meaningful conclusions from the data.  That being said, it is just another data point that supports the notion that living in the District has its advantages!

The Washington Post’s real estate editor, Maryann Haggerty, and the Local Address columnist for the paper, Elizabeth Razzi, recently had a live chat on The Post’s website. Here’s the transcript:

Live discussion with Post editor Maryann Haggerty and columnist Elizabeth Razzi

Most pieces in the media cover the overall market condition, so it’s interesting getting the press’s take on some individual’s situations.

It’d be great if they included an agent in one of their chats—I’d love to weigh in on the discussion.

Late last year I was quoted in a Washington Post article about the need for buyers to carefully read the condo association documents before closing:

Read Them or Weep: Condo Association Documents Give Buyers a Glimpse of the Future

Life can be hectic when you’re moving. And after finding your dream condo the last thing you probably want to do is read through a hundred or more pages of fine print. But buyers and their agents need to make sure that the condo’s rules don’t conflict with the buyer’s future plans (like getting a pet or renting out the condo).

From The Washington Post: “U.S. home construction last year plummeted at a rate not seen since 1980…”

This is great news for sellers. Think about it. Since the supply of new home construction has gone down and will probably continue, there is an increased likelihood of more people inquiring about existing homes for sale. In other words, when there is less supply, demand for that supply is increased. Additionally, an increase in demand creates an increase in price.

It will probably take some time to see this increase in some markets, so buyers, take advantage of the market now!

From The Washington Post: Home Sales Plunge, Feed Recession Fears: “The housing market plunged deeper into despair last month, with sales of new homes plummeting to their lowest level in more than 12 years.”

With headlines and stories like this one, it’s no wonder new home buyers are hesitating to entering the market. Based on these reports, the situation sounds bleak and you’d think buying a house is the last thing you should do.

The scary part to me is that nowhere above does the article say “nationally.” The author has forgotten the adage that all markets are local and when buying in real estate the only criteria you should remember is “location location location.”

The November 2007 real estate trend report for Washington, DC, shows overall sales down 12 percent but prices up more than 7 percent. But if you drill down even further to particular zip codes you’ll see 20002 had in increase in sales of 11 percent with a decrease in sales price of 4 percent, while zip code 20005 saw an increase in sales of 7.5 percent and a sales price increase of 19.5 percent.

Is the upshot not to believe the media? No, but we need to have an eye for how the media can parse statements. Know your numbers for where you want to live. Of course that’s my job to give you the information you need.

“Hi, I’m a reporter from The Washington Post” was the beginning of the voice mail. My heart rate rose as I thought about all the negative articles that seem to appear week after week in its Real Estate Section. The sky is not falling down and homes are selling. This is a normal market and I thought perhaps I’d have an opportunity to explain that.

I called the reporter, Nancy Trejos, back and we met for coffee recently on a cold windy afternoon. I feel I have an obligation to voice my observations and knew this would be a good opportunity to do so. I enjoyed our conversation and she did quote me.

Hopefully I’ll have more opportunities to voice the sound of reason in what seems like a chorus of pessimistic news.