Forbes Magazine: D.C. Area Is #2

February 6th, 2009 Categories: Real Estate

Anyone relocating to Crofton or anywhere in the Baltimore-Washington area is seriously looking at renting vs. buying today because of legitimate concerns about falling home values in the near future. That’s understandable, particularly for a relatively short-term relocation such as a 3–year tour of duty at Fort Meade or Andrews AFB. If this is a permanent relocation or if you’re thinking of investing in real estate, however, it’s a different story.

Roller Coaster I can’t tell you WHEN the market will turn, but I can assure you that any home you buy today WILL increase in value in the long-term. That’s what happens in the real estate market… it goes up and down over time, and then back up again.

In an article for Forbes Magazine, Matt Woolsey named the Washington, D.C. area as one of America’s Best Long-Term Housing Bets.

The country’s 40 largest Census-defined metro areas were evaluated using the last 25 years of data from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). New construction and vacancy rates were examined to calculate historical fluctuations in supply and demand against national averages. Moody’s Economy.com provided job-growth forecasts through 2017.

What does this mean to the Greater Crofton area? I think it means you were pretty smart to buy a home rather than rent when you relocated to the D.C. area - in spite of today’s down market. And it means THIS is a good place to invest in real estate for the long-term, whether you’re relocating to the area now or you’re just thinking of picking up a nearby house for investment purposes.

Am I a little prejudiced? Well, maybe.

Hey, we recovered from the recession and 18% mortgage interest rates of the Carter years, so I’m betting we’ll recover from this.