The Real Estate Market that Defies the Trends

"While Washington, D.C., proper has a higher unemployment rate than the national average, that rate fell as more jobs were added in November, according to The Wall Street Journal. What's more, many of D.C.'s suburbs in Virginia and Maryland have among the nation's lowest unemployment rates, and a lot of the jobs in the D.C. area are good ones. By one estimate, one out of every eight D.C. workers is tied to the federal government -- and even though their cost-of-living raises were canceled this year, wage growth of 1.3% kept pace with the private sector, reports USA Today. More importantly, those jobs are highly paid (an average of $75,296) and with good benefits -- just the kind of financials that mortgage lenders like"