Are you ready to put your Danforth home for sale and move to the land of lower taxes? Some people may think that finding a house with an Alexandria zip means getting a great deal. They base this opinion on the perception that the entire real estate market in the United States has suffered, as reported daily in the news and elsewhere.

While it is true that many states and cities have seen a drastic drop in house prices over the last two years, this does not necessarily mean that every home is cheap, or that any home is a great deal in every area. People looking to sell Acton homes in order to live mortgage free in Alexandria need to understand that real estate prices are not static over an entire country, and Alexandria certainly proves this.

Alexandria Virginia has, on average, one of the highest costs when it comes to homes of any city in the United States. Those who think that Arlington Texas real estate has weathered the economic storm well will be amazed to see what houses in Alexandria are going for. The average home in our city sells for $330,000, well above the national average.

Any Guelph realty expert can tell you that some areas will remain prosperous in any economy, and that certainly is true of Alexandria. The reason for home prices staying this high even today is that the city is located very close to Washington DC, the capital of the nation. Any country's capital is a virtual economic island, where business will continue no matter what is going on with the economy of the rest of the country. That means people are still finding lots of work, and well paying work, in DC, and that means houses are still selling in Alexandria.

Of course, even our city has not escaped entirely unscathed in this rough real estate market. That average housing sale may look high now, but it has fallen by almost $200,000 in the last five years, difficult as that may be to believe!

In that kind of situation, a buyer has to beware of paying too much for a new home. The average listing price for an Alexandria home is well above the average sale price, as home owners continue to try and make more money on a sale than the market will allow. If you can't get them to come down, it might be worth it to keep renting one of those Oakville homes or some other complex until you can buy at the right price.