Housing.com News, Analysis & Opinion: Buying and Selling: Family Valuations

People are more complex than that, and as difficult as the home buying process is, turning it into an armchair shrink session just adds fuel to the fire. Money quote for you D.C. heads:

To some extent, self-segregation has always gone on among people lucky enough to choose where they live. In the Washington area, it is no secret that liberal-leaning, vegan types tend to pick Takoma Park over McLean.

Of course, that might have nothing to do with the fact that you'd be forking over maybe an extra $200,000 to live in McLean...

If you want a better idea of what your community may really look like, try out Zillow's new 3-D aerial photography of your potential home. Courtesy of the folks at Microsoft, who brought you Windows Vista...except they didn't.

Speaking of D.C., a multi-think tank task force just released a report strongly recommending that D.C. build more affordable housing. The report itself is available here. It looks like a fascinating read....but I wonder if there'll be backlash from mortgage lenders thanks to the sudden increase in FHA mortgage insurance premiums. They SAY "affordable housing" won't be affected, but what the hell is affordable in a market where the median prices are still in the $400 grand range?

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There's a very creepy-yet-compelling article from yesterday's Washington Post about the lengths developers are going to in order to build the "perfect" community. Now, it's human nature to want to gravitate towards communities that share your physical makeup, religious beliefs, social standards, etc., but I'd like to think it's also human nature to want to meet new people and have new experiences, and it's just unsettling to think of developers quizzing potential buyers as to their political persuasions, so as not to match a red-state gun nut with a blue-state nancy boy. People are more complex than that, and as difficult as the home buying process is, turning it into an armchair shrink session just adds fuel to the fire. Money quote for you D.C. heads: To some extent, self-segregation has always gone on among people lucky enough to choose where they live. In the Washington area, it is no secret that liberal-leaning, vegan types tend to pick Takoma Park over McLean. Of course, that might have nothing to do with the fact that you'd be forking over maybe an extra $200,000 to live in McLean... If you want a better idea of what your community may really look like, try out Zillow's new 3-D aerial photography of your potential home. Courtesy of the folks at Microsoft, who brought you Windows Vista...except they didn't. Speaking of D.C., a multi-think tank task force just released a report strongly recommending that D.C. build more affordable housing. The report itself is available here. It looks like a fascinating read....but I wonder if there'll be backlash from mortgage lenders thanks to the sudden increase in FHA mortgage insurance premiums. They SAY "affordable housing" won't be affected, but what the hell is affordable in a market where the median prices are still in the $400 grand range?