Home prices continued to slide in the Washington region last month, according to data from Metropolitan Regional Information Systems, with the biggest drop — nearly 50 percent from December 2007 — in Prince William County.
The median house price in the region, which includes Manassas and Manassas Park, fell from nearly $310,000 in December 2007 to $165,000 in December 2008, according to the statistics.
Meanwhile, the District of Columbia posted a modest 12.5 percent drop, with the median price falling to $350,000 last month from $400,000 the previous year.
“When the real estate market slows, it’s people who had to go to Prince William, along [Interstate] 66 to afford something — they don’t have to go as far out [anymore],” said Fred Kendrick, an associate broker at Sothebys Realty.
Kendrick, in a recent housing report, said the Washington area’s real estate market is faring better than its national counterpart.
“It’s definitely down, but compared to the rest of the country, it’s actually in pretty good shape,” he said. “The real estate market is generally in good shape — it’s consumer confidence that’s the issue.”
He added that there were fewer foreclosure problems inside the Capital Beltway than in the outer suburbs, which have seen thousands in the last several years.
Nationally, December sales fell to their lowest level in 11 years in December, and 2008 sales dropped to their lowest point since 1998, Kendrick reported.
Anthony Yezer, professor of economics at George Washington University, agreed that the Washington area’s housing market has generally been better than it has nationally.
“If we look longer-term — past 10 years [ago] — the increase in housing prices has been greater here than in the rest of the country,” he said. “We certainly didn’t have the wild market booms” that occurred in places like Phoenix, Florida and California.
