Several months ago Karl Case of the Case-Shiller Report said, “If you have a realistic version of the American dream, buying a house now can make a lot of sense.” Case is considered the guru on real estate pricing. If you don’t believe him, how about the Gallup Poll in January that says 67% of Americans say now is a good time to buy. Why? Like we said in our last article, interest rates are still at historic lows (even though they are inching up) and prices of homes are still below prices seen since 2006.  We have seen an increase in buyers since January, the prices of homes in our area are …

In the housing market there is always good news and bad news. Usually, the determination of good and bad depends on which side of the transaction you’re on. If you are a Seller right now or will be soon, the news is good. A report from the National Association of Realtors on February 10 tells us that just over half of the metropolitan areas in the U.S. experienced price gains from a year ago.  With our stable economic environment here in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, we are always one of those areas that recover quickly and we have seen price increases of about 5 percent. So, good …

Note: Today is the debut of the bi-monthly real estate column in Lorton Patch.  It will be published on Saturdays. The column will addresses real estate issues in Lorton and beyond. Don't hesitate to provide feedback at shawn@patch.com. There’s been good news over the last few months about real estate, much better than we’ve had in the last few years.  In Lorton, the number of days on market it takes a property to sell has decreased from 2009.   The average Sold Price in 2010 is up from the same time in 2009 (Real Estate Business Intelligence; MRIS).   The pending sales numbers (properties …