By Kelly A. Shue
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE

After living 45 years in the Barnaby Woods neighborhood of northwest Washington, D.C., Thomas Jabine hoped that dreary real estate forecasts would have little to do with him.

“I really didn’t know what to expect,” says Jabine. “However, I was very hopeful. From what I could see, the market was still holding up well in this area.”

And he’s right. Despite the gloom and doom predicted in the papers and on the nightly news, home sales in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area have experienced modest gains compared to a year earlier, according to the latest quarterly survey by the National Association of Realtors

.Knowledge is key
“I did everything I read you were supposed to do before you put your house on the market,” says Jabine. “I interviewed three different Realtors, and I picked one—agent Kimberly Cestari—who lived in the area and worked very hard to sell my house. She was wonderful, and in less than two weeks I had an offer.”

Jabine’s personal story highlights an important factor in today’s housing market. Rather than worrying about national housing statistics, sellers need to concentrate on their own towns—and more importantly, their own neighborhoods.

According to Richard Gaylord, president of the National Association of Realtors, “There is no such thing as a national housing market—it doesn’t perform like the equities markets. What’s really important for consumers is to make informed decisions based on individual needs, desires, and timelines in a given area.”

Ready to move
In Jabine’s case, he was ready to move to Riderwood and was unwilling to let housing market horror stories stand in his way. “I’d been to Riderwood many  times,” says Jabine. “I knew lots of people here even before moving, and I knew this is where I wanted to live.”