Commentary, opinion & news on real estate-related topics by Washington DC real estate expert Susan Isaacs.
September 27, 2026
Condo markets nationwide are in peril. It's time for an intervention. Fewer owners are finding buyers. Inventory has climbed, marketing times have lengthened, and a growing number of sellers are competing for a shrinking pool of purchasers.
September 24, 2026
I gave market data to one of OpenAI's highest-level reasoning models and asked it to build a 12-month probabilistic DC real estate market forecast.
September 21, 2026
A 5.9% 30-year mortgage rate is looking considerably more like a pipedream now than it did this spring. Fannie Mae’s September 2026 forecast now puts the average 30-year rate at 6.8% in the fourth quarter, followed by 6.7% throughout 2027.
September 20, 2026
Condo associations and HOAs are being told to save more money. But a 1980 tax is making that more difficult than it should be in 2026.
September 18, 2026
The country's largest financial institutions have become so enormous and connected that allowing one to collapse could threaten the entire system.
September 9, 2026
You're a condo buyer. You have excellent credit, plenty of income and a solid down payment. But you still can't get a conventional mortgage on the unit you want to purchase. It's not you, it's them.
September 8, 2026
Rocket Co. chose a new CEO for online real estate brokerage Redfin Corp. and he has no real estate experience. He's a Meta data guy.
September 5, 2026
The DC Council is considering a pied-à-terre tax similar to New York's. Let's get into it.
September 4, 2026
Before Deciding Americans Prefer Renting, Maybe We Should Find Out If They Can Afford to Buy Zillow says something interesting is happening to the American renter. Once viewed largely as a temporary stop on the way to homeownership, renting is increasingly becoming a deliberate long-term choice, Zillow claims. It calls the people making it “lifestyle renters.” Renting Is A Legitimate Long-Term Option, Not A Fallback So says Zillow Chief Economist Mischa Fisher. For some people, it absolutely is. But Zillow points to another statistic as evidence of this changing attitude: Only 42% of renters say they would be very or
August 15, 2026
As of July, residential use is permitted on some DC alley lots where it previously wasn't. But don't get too excited...
Boomers are accused of hoarding America’s housing stock. Buying houses cheap, massive equity gains, locked-in mortgages and refusal to sell.
The claim: Boomers not only own nearly double the number of family-sized homes owned by millennials, they're keeping them longer, locking out younger generations.
SusanIsaacs
SusanIsaacs
September 21, 2026
SusanIsaacs