A fair amount of building continues. A high rise apartment was just finished in downtown Bethesda, although most of the recent building, apart from renovations and the occasion tear- down- to- replace, is on the edge of the older sections.
I am in a modest bungalow, two bedroom, small lot (about a 5th of an acre, maybe a 4th, I forget. We are in a very good location, however, next to the Beltway, ten minutes by car from downtown Bethesda and 20 minutes from the Washington border, a Metro station very close, lots of upscale shopping, major roads on either side. Houses comparable to ours have recently gone for over $300k. Before the sharp drop in interest rates, I would say they would have gone for at least a thousand less, maybe more, and it took some time to bid them up. But they continue to rise, although it is slowing.
Funnily enough, the sudden attractiveness of buying has hurt rentals, and the pricey high rises spent most of last year discounting, as vacancies mounted. A two bedroom we looked at in Silver Spring, in a very nice high rise in the downtown area, dropped by $200 a month, last time I checked, and may be lower now.......... |
