'How Much Prices Will Fall Is The Question' In DC

The Washington Post has this report on the DC market. "Real estate groups in the Washington area have reported declines to varying degrees. The Northern Virginia Association of Realtors, for example, said December sales were down about 24 percent from December 2004 in an area that includes Alexandria, Arlington and Fairfax counties. In Loudoun and Prince William counties, sales were down roughly 14 percent. Prince George's County sales fell about 5 percent." "The 5.7 percent drop in the sale of existing houses, townhouses and condos to an annual pace of 6.6 million units (nationwide) was steeper than many analysts had predicted and was the first time since March that it had fallen below 7 million. Peter Morici, an economist and business professor at the University of Maryland, had predicted the December sales figure would be 6.9 million units." "'Wow,' he said when he was told of the 6.6 million figure. 'Mortgage rates dipped a little in December, so I thought we were going to get a little bit of help from that. The housing bubble is pretty much over. We are in for an adjustment. The question is not will prices fall, because they have been falling, but how much prices will fall.'" "Candy Clanton, an associate broker in Fairfax, has seen just how much the landscape has changed over the past several months. She listed a four-bedroom house in Woodbridge, with new siding, windows and driveway as well as a renovated kitchen, for just under $350,000. It was among the least expensive in the neighborhood, Clanton said, but last week, after three months, her client took it off the market. 'I think the buyers who do have money..are all waiting to see what is going on,' she said. 'My phones are not ringing and my houses are not selling.'" "In a report yesterday, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said the December figures suggest that 'housing market conditions are deteriorating rapidly.' The $7,000 drop in median home price from October to December, Goldman Sachs said, is the largest two-month drop in prices in years and must be taken seriously as a 'potential sign of a sharper-than-expected weakening in the U.S. housing market.'"