Housing market slump?

[WRXtranceformed]

Well prices in Falls Church and Fairfax County as a whole are already down about 10% this year (according to Zillow) so its probably going to get to 20% easily, if not more. Homes gained about 70-100% in value in about 5 years so naturally that is not sustainable and prices will have to correct themselves as interest rates come back into line and the glut of people buying homes they couldn't afford eases. Judging from recent news and rising rates prices definitely haven't hit bottom yet.

Where did you hear that interest rates are rising? Leading up to an election year, the economy and rates in general tend to stay pretty stable. There has been word of a further drop in rates:

I think he's talking on average from the past 5 years or so. When we bought 3 years ago we got a 30yr fixed @ 4.25, that's not going to happen today.

Gotcha. I just assumed he was talking about the present based on the quote that I put in bold.

.paul is definitely right. It's important for any product you sell to stand out the best it can from every other one it's up against. House "staging" has become very popular and is almost mandatory to move a home quickly (2-3 weeks or less), but it's always been the case that better prepped homes are going to make them more desirable. 8)