The answer is YES! If you are committed to "living in the past"...now is the time to move forward! Without a doubt!
Interest rates are at historic lows and inventory is at historic highs.  A few years ago, the competition to purchase was extraordinary. It was very unlkely that one could find their dream home. Now with the inventory of historic homes so large, not only can a qualified buyer find a dream home, they can also afford it.



Many sellers are offering closing cost assistance and most lenders will allow up to 3% to 6%, depending on the nature of a buyer's loan. This makes it possible to purchase a historic home with less money out-of-pocket.  The graph below shows that sales are down and that means inventory is up.



As you can see, the DC area is far above the national average in real estate appreciation. Real estate in the DC area continues to be a great long term investment opportunity.




Let's say you found your dream home today. How will you benefit simply from an investment perspective? First of all, only in America can a person use a small amount of money, invest it in something much more valuable and receive the benefit of the appreciation in that larger value. Let's use an example to see how this all works...
Let's say your dream home has been lowered to $400,000 by its motivated seller. It has been my experience that a historic home owner is likely to live in his home for at least 10 years and often quite a lot longer, however, for this example let's use 5 years.

Purchase price: $400,000
Deposit: $40,000 (investment)
Appreciated value in 5 years (historically 6.9% average annually, but let's be conservative @ 4%) $488,000.
   That is 37.7% return on the original $40,000 investment
Now, you will also benefit from the mortgage interest tax deduction @ 28% that is $7,000 in the first year and $33,600 over 5 years
You will also be paying down your loan over the five years by $24,000, so you will owe $336,000.

If we bring all these factors together, mindful that you have invested only $40,000:

Appreciation	$88,000
Tax Deduction	$33,600
Equity	$64,000
Net Benefit	$185,600

Subtract your original investment of $40,000 and you have a net gain of $145,600.

Here, you have purchased a $400,000 house and enhanced your quality of life and security, while at the same time increasing your net worth by $145,600, all on your $40,000 original investment. If you had left that $40,000 in the stock market the value may have increase, but the increase would have been based on your $40,000, not on your leveraged $400,000.

Finally, your mortgage payment (principal & interest) on $360,000 would be $2247.00. If you factor back into that monthly payment your appreciation, tax deduction and increased equity your monthly payments are effectively "$0.00".
If you were paying $2247.00 in rent every month, you would payout $134,820 over 5 years. That is alot of money and it is gone.