Real Estate

(Pat Wellenbach - AP) Sales of new single-family houses increased 3.3 percent in April from a 332,000-unit pace in March, according to estimates released jointly Wednesday by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The April rate was a seasonally adjusted 343,000, which is 9.9 percent higher than the April 2011 estimate of 312,000.

The median sales price of new houses sold in April 2012 was $235,700, which is 4.9 percent higher than the $224,700 level this time last year. The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of April was 146,000, which represents a supply of 5.1 months at the current sales rate.

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In connection with our story on strategies for home-sellers, real estate broker Morgan Knull took reader questions on ways sellers can better position themselves to get a fair offer on their homes. An edited transcript follows.
(Jim R. Bounds - BLOOMBERG)

(Jim R. Bounds - BLOOMBERG) Existing-home sales picked up in April and home prices continued to rise, according to data released Thursday by the National Association of Realtors.

Home prices in the Washington metropolitan area have been up for 26 out of the past 30 months. 

While local markets vary significantly from neighborhood to neighborhood, almost all of the 22 jurisdictions in the Washington region have seen some price growth over the past year. The notable exception has been Prince George’s County. 

But in April — for the first time since they started to plummet in early 2007 — home prices in Prince George’s County are up. In April 2012, the average sales price in Prince George’s was 8 percent higher than the average price in April 2011. (Regionwide, prices were up 6.1 percent in April.)
Percent change in average home sales price month-over-the-year. (MRIS/RBIntel, GMU Center for Regional Analysis)

There are several reasons why home prices in Prince George’s County languished while other local markets across the region recovered.  Suburban Maryland tended to lag behind Northern Virginia both in the run up in home prices in 2002 to 2006 and then in the depreciation. As a result, the recovery also came a little later in suburban Maryland. Also, the foreclosure problem was felt very acutely in Prince George’s County and the process for working through foreclosures was slower in Maryland than Virginia. 

My name is Mary. I’m an aging person with an aging house. I’m going to tell the story of transforming my house from something I don’t want into something I do...

Since the first of this year, Arlington has a new requirement for home builders: Either A: Take measures to control runoff from roofs and pavement or B: Pay a fee. I don’t like paying fees and, besides, I am upset by the amount of debris and volume of water that erodes the stream beds on its torrential way to the Potomac after a big storm. So I’m going along with plan A.