Price Pick of the Week:

9818 Hedin Drive, Silver Spring
Original listing price: $484,900 (March 20, 2007)
Current listing price: $349,900 (March 17, 2008)
Slash rate: 28 percent

This “large, quaint, all brick 4 bedroom home is tucked away in a quiet section of Oakview” with “excellent access to schools, public transportation, 495, and New Hampshire Ave,” according to the real estate listing. For close to a year and a half, interest in this property and the neighborhood have been equally quiet. There aren’t too many foreclosures in the immediate area, says listing agent Jeff Pilot of RE/MAX All Pro in Kensington; instead, sales have just steadily slowed. Despite a $135,000 price drop, no buyers have made offers on 9818 Hedin Drive. Pilot says he believes the original price was a “little high,” but not terribly unreasonable. “It was on the backend of the market being good, and it just started to get soft,” he says. Since then, he’s had a tough time convincing the current owners, an elderly couple in their 80s, to lower the numbers, though they finally relented in the spring. “The husband is in pretty bad shape, medically,” says Pilot, and they’d like to move into an elderly community. As for the house itself: “It’s older, there’s old stuff in it. It needs to be updated without a doubt,” says Pilot.

Got something for Buyer’s Market. Send tips to pick@washingtoncitypaper.com.