Community Corner

Real Estate Market Remains Strong in DC Area

Office and apartment vacancy rates are lower than national averages, and the residential real estate market is strong.

 

Office and apartment vacancy rates in the Washington, DC, area are both lower than national averages, Washington Business Journal reported.

Nationwide, the office vacancy rate for the final quarter of 2012 is 15.7 percent, according to the National Association of Realtors, the Business Journal reported:

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The office vacancy rate in the District is 9.4 percent. In both the Virginia and Maryland suburbs it is 14.7 percent.

Apartment vacancy rates in the Washington area remain among the lowest in the nation, at 3.5 percent in Northern Virginia and 3.7 percent in the Maryland suburbs.

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The residential real estate market also is strong, said Donna Evers, broker and president of Evers & Co. Real Estate.

This past October, there was a "28 percent increase in the dollar volume of sales over October 2011," according to an Evers & Co. statement.

"October showed a clear sweep, across-the-board, of very good numbers in the D.C. metro-area housing market," Evers said. "Every indicator shows that we’ve got tremendous momentum in this fall’s residential real estate market, with many motivated buyers in our area."

Evers added that "[one] of the clearest signs of the strength of the market is the number of builders and renovators who are hitting the market hard. ... They are searching the area for land to build on and properties to renovate and sell in this competitive and very popular market."


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