Washington D.C. and the surrounding areas in Maryland and Virginia saw something in September that not many places across the country have seen; an increase in home prices. Unfortunately, while the prices increased, the median sale price did fall a bit.

Sales were up almost 19% in September in the area from just a year ago; with the median sale price declining almost 5% to $371,568.

Houses in D.C. are also selling for most of what the owner is asking. The average sale price in the area was 92% of the asking price.

Seeing any area, particularly a large metro area gaining in sales of homes is a pretty good (and not outrageous) sign that the economy is doing a bit better than it was a year ago. Then again, a year ago, credit had completely frozen as the subprime crisis really took off.

As banks have begun to lend again, more homes have started to sell. As the homes start to sell, prices will gradually begin to rise again. The rise will be in areas where there are jobs and every list that I’ve read says the jobs are in Washington D.C. due to the amount of government jobs as well as all of the large companies that are headquartered there.

When I was in Maryland over the summer, it didn’t seem like the recession had hit there as bad as it looked in other parts of the country I have seen in the last year. For example, while Chris and I were in St. Louis in August, restaurants were basically empty at dinner time. It’s not like we were going to obscure places either. The only restaurant I noticed was busy the entire time we were there was a Cheesecake Factory in one of the larger malls in the area. In Maryland, everything was always busy it seemed. Shopping centers were full of cars usually and there weren’t a lot of empty businesses making it look like a ghost town.

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Recently, Chris and I have gone to the mall and done a little bit of clothes shopping (it’s nice to feel like I’m stimulating the economy). Everywhere we went, it seemed like there was some kind of clearance sale going on or another form of sale just to clear out inventory. There were buy one get one specials among other pricing schemes.

It is barely July and it seems like all the retailers are trying their best to clear out summer inventory. This is fine in my opinion because clearance sales means that we all save money.

Chris went to Dillards and bought clothes that would have cost him more than 3 times what he paid if he were to have paid what the tag said. I found the same things to be true at the stores I visited around the mall and in shopping centers.

I believe that the deep discounts offered by retailers are a sign that they are unable to peddle their wares to the public; the public that is so stretched financially that some are still losing their homes and not worrying about buying clothes. However, this is the same public that needs new clothes to go to job interviews and hopefully get those new jobs that will put food on their tables.

Not to sound long-winded this is just something that I noticed while trying to do just that; buy clothes for job interviews.

These retailers are also having to clear out shelf space for fall and winter items in hopes that their winter sales are higher than sales during this summer.

So, if you are needing clothes for the summer season, I would suggest making it to a sale or two because it seems as though if you wait until August, there may be nothing left (and in the Southern summers I’m accustomed to, summer can last until October).

Today’s reports were, not surprisingly, dismal, and accompanied by at least a dozen profit warnings, including Macy’s and Target.

Overall same-store sales dropped 1.7 percent in December and 2.2 percent for the whole November-December season, the International Council of Shopping Centers reported, marking the worst holiday since at least 1969, when the ICSC started keeping track. – CNBC.com

It goes on to say:

The biggest surprise came from Wal-Mart, which reported its same-store sales rose 1.7 percent last month, well shy of the expected 2.8-percent increase, and slashed its forecast. – CNBC.com

So, you’d think because of these problems, prices would fall, but I’m seeing the opposite at my local Wal-Mart. About a month ago, prices were falling, but now they’re on their way back up…

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