A lawsuit in Silver Spring is focusing fresh light on a growing problem: Real estate agents are failing to disclose whom they represent in transactions -- even where state laws require them to do so in writing at their first substantive meeting with a potential client.
Full Story

The Washington area housing market has softened but is still in relatively decent shape except for what appears to be a glut of condos, according to two studies released yesterday. But the researchers came to different conclusions about the potential for problems stemming from condo overbuilding.

Full Story

It may seem as if Washington area home prices are ultra high, but only 21 properties here made a list of the 1,000 most expensive houses on the market in America that was published this week.

And at $8 million to $25 million, the farmland, estates and mansions here look like absolute bargains compared with the asking prices of hundreds of properties elsewhere, mostly in New York, California and Florida.

Full Story

Sales of previously owned homes slowed for the third straight month in December, while prices continued to slip from the summer's all-time highs, according to figures released yesterday by the National Association of Realtors.

Full Story

In the latest sign that the housing market may be slowing, construction of new homes fell sharply in December, the government reported yesterday.

The annual pace of housing starts last month was 1.93 million, the first time since March that it dropped below 2 million, according to the Commerce Department. The December figure was down 8.9 percent from the previous month and down 5.7 percent from December 2004.

Full Story

Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D), in his first address to the General Assembly, this week proposed controls on growth and development in the commonwealth. To slow urban sprawl and relieve traffic congestion, the new governor intends to introduce legislation that, for the first time in Virginia, would empower county and municipal governments to block residential development if transportation network capacity is deemed inadequate.

Full Story

More than four out of every 10 recent first-time home buyers financed their purchases with no-down-payment loans, according to a study released by the National Association of Realtors this week.

Full Story

Rates on 30-year mortgages dipped for a second week as financial markets responded to signals of lower inflation. Mortgage giant Freddie Mac reported Thursday that rates on 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages averaged 6.26 percent this week, down slightly from 6.30 percent last week. Rates on 30-year mortgages had hit a two-year high of 6.37 on Nov. 17 but have declined in four of the past five weeks.

Full Story

Housing starts rose 5.3 percent in November, and 17.5 percent compared with the same month last year, according to a Commerce Department report, baffling some housing-industry analysts who had predicted that housing starts would level off or decline slightly.

Permits for new construction climbed as well, rising 2.5 percent in the month and 3 percent from the same month in 2004, according to the government report.

Full Story

Greenvest is plotting another large-scale project in Loudoun County, and the latest proposal would bring 1,112 residences to an area off Gum Spring Road. The Vienna-based company is seeking zoning changes that would clear the way for Seven Hills, a 464-acre development with 53,000 square feet of commercial space and a day care center. The residential component has a mix of single-family and multifamily homes, including 139 units reserved as affordable dwellings.

Full Story

Rising home costs have led to speculation recently over when and if housing prices will take a plunge, possibly dealing a blow to the nation's economy. But the majority of respondents to an informal Los Angeles Business poll say that won't happen. Forty-one percent said they believe the housing bubble never will burst. To some, that means there never was a bubble to begin with.

Full Story