A couple in their 40s -- an ophthalmologist married to a pediatrician -- were so preoccupied with their careers that they scarcely noticed how their four kids had outgrown the family's compact bungalo... more

For many Americans, this is a puzzling time for the economy. On the one hand, unemployment is low and people are shopping their hearts out. On the other, the stock market is volatile and even economis... more

Government leaders and academics all over America are fretting about an emerging social problem: loneliness.... more

For years, a retired home improvement contractor considered selling his house in a leafy Baltimore suburb served by a top-rated elementary school.... more

Under heavy pressure from her grown daughters, a Baltimore woman in her early 70s suddenly sold her huge Tudor house. Once widowed, living alone in the property wasn’t a viable long-term option.... more

A federal employee in his early 30s just signed a year-long lease for an upscale apartment near the National Mall in Washington, D.C. For a two-bedroom, two-bath apartment, rent on the place tops a ha... more

For several years, homebuyers in popular neighborhoods have been plagued with the problem of tight inventories. Especially in starter-home communities, there have been more buyers than sellers. The re... more

A real estate agent cherishes the one-story ranch house she’s owned and babied for 14 years. To enhance her place, she recently painted the entire interior. She also sanded and polished her hardwood f... more

A newly married couple are finally expecting to move in together this month. But they’ve decided to rent for a brief period, advancing slowly and methodically toward a home purchase sometime next year... more

A married couple in their 30s -- two IT professionals who work from their laptops -- have just put their colonial house in a leafy Baltimore neighborhood up for sale. Their plan: to hit the road in th... more

A divorced man in his late 60s was already struggling with medical issues when he was also diagnosed with bladder cancer. He was compelled to put his 1960s-era bungalow up for sale. He needed the mone... more

For months, Daren Blomquist and his wife have hankered to buy a much bigger house in the same middle-income suburb where they now reside. The couple’s two young daughters are tired of sharing a bedroo... more

Once retirees hit their late 60s, many start hearing a chorus of voices from friends and associates urging them to sell their big family house and downsize to a much smaller place, ideally close to th... more

Millennials -- young adults born between the early 1980s and mid-1990s -- are famously urban. Give them a city apartment near trendy restaurants, pubs and a Pilates studio and they’ll be content for y... more

Stacy Berman has sold homes in the Washington, D.C., area since 2002. These days, she’s surprised by how many buyers of all ages are bailing on the suburbs. Instead, many aspire to ownership of a cond... more

A decade ago, after the residential real estate market tanked, bargains were rife and qualified buyers had their pick of properties at reasonable prices. But now the picture is vastly different.... more

When it comes to housing trends, two are in near-perfect sync right now. Homebuyers suffering from sticker shock are increasingly interested in the price-per-square-foot advantage of choosing a townho... more

A couple in their 60s -- a psychiatrist married to an attorney -- began daydreaming about retirement the day their youngest child graduated from high school. They wished for the freedom to travel abro... more

The house was a bland, 1980s McMansion in the suburbs with nothing special to make it stand out. Even so, its owners, both senior-level financial consultants in their early 60s, wanted to sell quickly... more

After her husband died three years ago, an engineer vowed to hang on to the lakeside house the couple had custom-built two decades earlier. But since then, the costs in money and energy for upkeep hav... more

It’s a time of conflicting signals for homebuyers. A decade after the nation’s real estate crash, property prices in popular areas are still rising and home loan rates are ascendant.... more

A couple in their early 30s have pondered homeownership since moving in together three years ago. In the past, they’d scour websites for listings and occasionally stop by open houses. But so far, risi... more

In many neighborhoods, baby boomers are hanging onto their properties into their elder years, adding to the frustrations of millennials struggling to step onto the first rung of the housing ladder. Th... more

After divorce ended her very brief but unhappy marriage, a filmmaker felt more celebratory than sad. Without a spouse to challenge her plans, she could finally fulfill her dream of owning a small cott... more

A couple in their early 30s -- a writer engaged to a federal employee -- spent months preparing to buy their first jointly owned property. They both clocked hours at second jobs to help build a substa... more

To fund their retirement and move to a cheaper neighborhood, a couple in their 60s had to liquidate their 1912 colonial. Acting on a professional stager's instructions, the couple cleared away every p... more

With the onset of summer, housing inventories are tight as a drum in many popular neighborhoods. Indeed, it now takes a typical home seller less than a month to capture a deal, according to a new repo... more

This spring has been a traumatic season for many homebuyers trying to move to popular neighborhoods. And with inventories continuing to shrink and prices continuing to soar, the summer season looks no... more