A 2003 Northern VA Housing Flashback

February 25th, 2008 categories: Real Estate News

Northern VA Housing Market Do you remember when Marty Mcfly went to the future being the year 2015 in the great trilogy, “Back To The Future?” Now that we are only 7 years away from 2015 it is cool to see what they assumed the future would look like in 1985. We are still not riding around on hover-boards and having automatic lace up shoes.

Yesterday, I was reading through an article written at the beginning of 2003 by David Harrison at the Connections Newspaper. The article quotes predictions of what would happen in the Northern VA real estate market of 2003. This is interesting:

“A TOTAL of 29,514 homes were sold last year in Northern Virginia, a 4 percent increase from 2001. The average sales price was $316,901, an increase of 10.6 percent over 2001. The average price for a detached home was $449,364 and $275,956 for an attached home. Total home listings also grew by 1.7 percent in 2001, reflecting a steady increase in the inventory of homes for sale.
But the average number of days on the market jumped from 18 to 25. And it has become more difficult to sell some of the more expensive homes, signaling, Jablonski said, “that the housing market now is more rational.” A couple years ago, he said, sellers were making outrageous demands on potential buyers and getting away with it. That is not the case anymore.”

Stephen Fuller “What we’re going from is a seller’s market to a neutral market pretty much. Everybody will be happy in 2003.”

I have great respect for each of the men quoted. It is just interesting to note that things didn’t actually begin to shift until 2 years later.

I wonder what we will know 4 years from now in 2012? Do things ever end up as we predict? Does time play out according to charts and graphs? Will the economy be stronger in 4 years or worse? What will the prices of homes be?

I rarely meet a buyer who doesn’t want to think like an investor when they buy. However, since few of us end up looking like experts at the end of the day, I thought I would share some wisdom from one guy who obviously knows how to invest.

“I never attempt to make money on the stock market. I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for five years.” Warrren Buffet.