Wall Street Journal: Northern Virginia Home Prices Near Bottom

• February 16th 2009

by Will Smith

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The Wall Street Journal’s Developments blog took a look at real estate in the DC metropolitan region this weekend and highlighted a few notable trends. The first is that certain markets in Northern Virginia may be nearing the bottom of their precipitous three-year decline. Article author Thomas Lawler, a 22-year veteran of Fannie Mae, points to dramatically increased sales in Prince William County as evidence: PWC saw the number of home sales double in January 2009 versus January 2008.

Here are a few of Lawler’s other assertions:

• Generally speaking the real estate markets in DC proper and Maryland lag those of Northern Virginia, which means the worst is not yet over for them. “Northern Virginia’s home price ‘correction’ to date has been more severe than Maryland’s, but it’s now much closer to being over, and home sales are recovering and unsold inventories are dropping sharply. In Maryland, in contrast, reported home price drops have not as yet been as dramatic, but home sales continue to languish and unsold inventories remain bloated.”
• DC proper and Maryland are starting to see housing prices decline “at an accelerated pace.” Sales velocity is slowing, and inventory is growing.
• Virginia is a “non-judicial” foreclosure state, while Maryland is “judicial”. Translation: “The typical timeline from when a borrower stops payment to when the home is actually foreclosed on is longer in Maryland than in Virginia. As a result, the Maryland suburbs have a much larger overhang of loans that are currently in some stage of foreclosure than is the case in Northern Virginia.”

See the full post here. Be sure to also scan the comments, which offer plenty of counterpoints to Lawler’s findings.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.production.logicbrush.com/articles/blog/wall_street_journal_northern_virginia_home_prices_near_bottom/545.