Like most couples embarking on a house hunt, my husband and I frequently discussed both the needs and wants that would shape our search.

Continuing my hunt for a nice, cheap, convenient place to live in Washington has not been the easiest endeavor. It doesn’t help being a college grad looking for an entry-level job.

I got the electricity shut off. I got the water shut off. And I am trying to get the gas shut off. My problems dealing with Washington Gas will fill up an entire blog.

From Chinese consulate to church and finally, the home of one of the stars of “The Real Housewives of D.C.,” this week’s featured home has had an illustrious 86 years.

Stacie Turner, a real estate agent who was featured in the Bravo television show, is selling the16th Street Heights house she bought in 1999.

Congratulations! Here’s when the tough work begins.

“Pricing in the D.C. metro area continued recent positive trends with a year-over-year median sale price gain of 11.2 percent, the highest annual gain in more than six years,” the firm reported. RBI suggests this might mean all the talk of a shadow inventory of to-be-foreclosed homes didn’t impact home prices much.

The 30-year fixed rate average dropped to an all-time low for the second consecutive week, falling ever so slightly from 3.84 percent last week to 3.83 percent, according to the latest data released Thursday by Freddie Mac. The average stood at 4.63 percent this time last year.

In this week’s House Calls, designer Sharon Kleinman consolidates furniture and emphasizes texture over patterns to make the room feel less cluttered.

Back in the spring of 2005—in the crazy days of the housing market—the average house took just 15 to 19 days to sell in Fairfax County. In fact, in all jurisdictions in the region, the average days on the market was under a month. (The average days on the market is calculated by MRIS as the difference between the current date (sold, expired, or withdrawn date) and the list date, excluding any off-market time.) The rapid pace of sales activity was a departure from long-term norms.

Now that the moving process is behind us, it’s obvious that the reality of it was a far cry from my expectations.

A decision is considered rational if the returns justify the investment. But decisions can be rational in the short term and not so rational in the long term, or they can be rational in the long term but not so rational in the short term. This is the same distinction that made my decision to tear down and rebuild my house a long-term rational one, despite my reservations.

A home in Falls Church with its own private beach? It exists, says Roy Melloni of TTR Sotheby’s International Realty.

“Not a lot of people know this lake even exists,” said Roy Melloni of TTR Sotheby’s International Realty. “But to come home and sit in your boat or jump in the lake — you really can’t beat that.”