Losing Is Tough; Selling May Be Tougher

[santamargarita]

November 5, 2008, 4:07 pm
Losing Is Tough; Selling May Be Tougher
By Catherine Rampell

Democrats, don’t put away the celebratory booze just yet. One of the world’s greatest opportunities for schadenfreude is about to present itself, as an exiting army of Republican foot soldiers tries to sell its Washington-area homes in the worst housing bust since the Great Depression.

Think about it: Many of today’s exiting Republican-appointed officials in Washington arrived near the height of the housing bubble, particularly those who came after George W. Bush was re-elected in 2004. Then, it must have seemed as if Republicans had a permanent stranglehold on Washington, and thus it must have also seemed like the appropriate time for conservative migrants to the capital to settle down and buy a home.

Many of these Republican officials nested in northern Virginia, a corner of what had long been a reliable red state. And what a time to buy in northern Virginia it was.

Like Miami and Las Vegas, northern Virginia was frantically built up during the housing bubble. Prices of single-family homes and condos skyrocketed. When I first lived in the area a couple of years ago, I remember hearing the curious term “Fairfaxed.” It referred to Fairfax County, Va., an overbuilt Washington suburb. Despite Fairfax’s perpetual gridlock, builders continued to plant residential high-rises around the county and beyond in anticipation that housing prices would climb ever higher. Residents in nearby Loudoun County lamented that their greatest fears were being realized: They were, after at least a decade of warnings, finally being “Fairfaxed.”

Fast-forward to today. Also like Miami and Las Vegas, northern Virginia’s housing market has cratered. The average housing price in the greater northern Virginia area in September declined 32.11 percent from the previous year, according to the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors.

And this is the market that many Republican officials, with few Washington job prospects during an Obama presidency, will have to sell in.

I thank my colleague Gardiner Harris for the pointer.

Payback is a B$tch