Real Estate Roulette

It's expensive to buy a house. Around the Beltway it's not just expensive -- it's hard. Buyers are routinely offering 10 to 15 percent over the seller’s asking price and they're still not getting the deal. Many buyers are even putting escalation clauses in their offers. And, some of those escalation clauses promise to outbid the highest offer. This is what it's come down to.

Regional experts blame a booming job market and housing shortage for the crazed courting of sellers. But buyers need to be careful because many sellers are savvy and demanding. Realtors say about half of them want to walk away from the property without any liability. So, the homes are not being inspected.

In Arlington, buyers are spending an average of $563,000 for a home and that home could need major repairs or pose health risks. Home inspectors urge people to have their house checked-out, even if it's only for their own knowledge and not contingent to the sale.

This pressure cooker market is pushing people out. The sounds of construction are echoing from the cattails of the Eastern Shore to the soft rolling slopes of Culpeper and out to the mountains of Western Maryland, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.

Between 2003 and 2004 eight of the country's fastest growing areas were outside the Beltway in Virginia. They are Loudoun County, Prince William County, Manassas Park City, Spotsylvania County, Stafford County, Culpeper County, King George County and Berkley County, W.Va. In some of these counties home prices have tripled in the past several years.

But that's where people can afford to buy. In Hagerstown, Md., Hancock, Md. and York County, Pa., developers are building homes for Washington-area commuters. How can you tell? The prices -- $300,000 and $400,000 -- are out of reach for the locals. But those prices are a couple of hundred-thousand dollars cheaper than around D.C.