The Washington Post

For real estate agent Jenny Chung, home buying at the start of 2025 has mirrored 2024, with strong sales and high prices throughout the Washington region.

While she noted close-in areas like Bethesda, Maryland, and Virginia's Arlington and Falls Church have been particularly popular, she recalled helping a buyer purchase a house in Sterling, Virginia, in which there were 20 offers — even during snowy January.

Still, she said the amalgam of return-to-office orders for federal workers and employees at large corporations such as Amazon, layoffs in the federal government, and an unpredictable stock market mean it's hard to extrapolate too much from 2024 to 2025 to make predictions much farther in the year.

"That could influence where people are making their home-buying decisions. They need to either embrace that long commute or rethink where they're living," said Jessica Lautz, deputy chief economist and vice president of research at the National Association of REALTORS®.

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