The New Mantra for the Slowing Market

"The market is soft if you don't price it right." Repeat.

Elaborating Jane Fairweather of Coldwell Banker in Bethesda told the WaPo "You're now seeing probably 10 to 15 percent of the sellers out there who are going to see multiple contracts. Two years ago, it was probably 40 to 50 percent of the market that got multiple contracts. And the year before that and the year before that, 60 percent of the market got multiple contracts."

Some real estate agents say that, despite key statistics that show the slowest housing market in years, they are seeing cases of multiple bids and rising prices concentrated in close-in neighborhoods such as Chevy Chase DC and American University Park.

Peter Morici, an economic professor in the University of Maryland, added "with higher prices of gasoline, the preference of living far away is going to diminish, and that is going to make housing within the Beltway more attractive."