DC facing a Recession??? Not Likely!

On Tuesday, 1/14/07, Steve Fuller, economist from George Mason University (our area's foremost economist focusing on OUR area) gave a speech and said that there will not be a recession in the DC area. He said the "R" word for our area was "resilience," not "recession." Also, while he says there is a 40% chance for a national recession, the chance of having one in our area is (and I quote) "zero." He points out that of the last three national recessions (82-83, '91, and '01) the DC area only participated in the middle one. He says we will have a construction slowdown because of some overbuilding, which we all know is true, but expects residential real estate to pick up in mid-year '08)

Remember, he is talking about the whole region. This solidifies are predictions that we will have a very good spring in the close-in areas, and that starting now, buyers need to be aggressive when bidding in a competitive offer situation. I have personally seen this happening with a few situations over the last two months with properties going into multiple offer scenarios. This is also evident in the open house attendance going up, at least in our office, with one having over 400 attendees in one weekend (yes, that is NOT a typo...400 people through ONE open house over 2 days). This is not to say a bargain can't be found, but for properties in higher demand, the days on market are shrinking (and quickly) and prices are steady.