Real Estate

The National Civic Art Society appreciates Roger K. Lewis’s column [“Why classical architecture makes little sense for today’s Washington,” May 19] arguing that we are wrong to think that classical architecture continues to be the proper style for Washington’s civic architecture. This is a debate the public — the victims of contemporary architecture — needs to know about.

For too long, modernists have avoided publicly engaging with their opponents, just as political dictators know better than to ask the people what they want. Professor Lewis noted that today “almost all practicing architects in the United States are, in the broadest sense, modernists.” Yes, and in the Middle Ages all astronomers were astrologers.
(AP)

While the debate between humanistic and anti-humanistic architecture is an important one, it is not necessary to settle it when looking to the specific case of Washington so long as one accepts that harmony, civility, and indigenous tradition are of the utmost importance to our urban fabric. Also consider that with few or no exceptions, all official U.S. iconography, symbols, music, mottos and ceremonies are traditional or classical in substance and style. Why should our most important civic buildings and monuments be any different?

Suppose the American people passed a constitutional amendment creating a fourth branch of government, and Congress needed to decide what style the headquarters of that new branch should be. Should it blend in with the Capitol, White House, and the “modern-era” Supreme Court (1935)? Or should it be a modernist structure that clashes with those fusty old piles, so stinking of ideas and ideals whose time has passed?

Should the new edifice be white in color and clad in noble materials such as marble and limestone? Or should it be skinned in black steel, gray concrete, and other technologically “advanced” materials, which better capture our disenchanted times? Modernists contend that our age is radically different from the past; they refuse to acknowledge that we are still in our First Republic: the American era began with the Declaration of Independence and continues unabated today.

Mortgage rates held fairly steady this week, with the 30-year fixed rate average creeping slightly lower to yet another all-time record, according to the latest data released Thursday by Freddie Mac.

The 30-year slipped to yet another all-time low of 3.78 percent. (Ty Wright - BLOOMBERG) The 30-year slid down from 3.79 percent last week to 3.78 percent, marking its fourth record low in as many weeks. This time last year, the average was much higher at 4.60 percent.

The 15-year average remained unchanged from its newly-set historic low of 3.04 percent, well off the pace from a year ago when it averaged 3.78 percent.

Adjustable-rate mortgages followed suit, with the 1-year ARM dropping from 2.78 percent to 2.75 percent and the 5-year ARM holding steady at 2.83 percent.

“Mortgage rates were virtually unchanged this week with fixed-rate loans remaining at record lows and helping to drive homebuyer affordability,” Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist, said in a statement. “The National Association of Realtor’s Housing Affordability Index reached an all-time record high in the first quarter of this year since records began in 1970.”

(Pat Wellenbach - AP) Sales of new single-family houses increased 3.3 percent in April from a 332,000-unit pace in March, according to estimates released jointly Wednesday by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The April rate was a seasonally adjusted 343,000, which is 9.9 percent higher than the April 2011 estimate of 312,000.

The median sales price of new houses sold in April 2012 was $235,700, which is 4.9 percent higher than the $224,700 level this time last year. The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of April was 146,000, which represents a supply of 5.1 months at the current sales rate.

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In connection with our story on strategies for home-sellers, real estate broker Morgan Knull took reader questions on ways sellers can better position themselves to get a fair offer on their homes. An edited transcript follows.
(Jim R. Bounds - BLOOMBERG)

(Jim R. Bounds - BLOOMBERG) Existing-home sales picked up in April and home prices continued to rise, according to data released Thursday by the National Association of Realtors.