Real estate round-up: October 10

Check in every business day for the latest edition of Real Estate Round-up, where we post a list of our favorite real estate news stories from DC and beyond.

Headlines from the DC Metro Area: What $500,000 buys in DC Area real estate Washington Post To gauge the region's real estate market, we set out to find out what you can buy today for $500,000 � from downtown Washington to farm country in Loudoun County. Builders ratchet up buyer incentives Washington Times Most builders include closing-cost assistance in varying amounts as part of their sales package, acknowledging that most buyers need and want cash to help them become homeowners or to ease a move-up transition. Savvy Realtors use social media to connect with buyers & sellers Washington Examiner Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social media have become significant new communications channels that would-be homebuyers need to tap and potential home sellers need to evaluate. How to buy, renovate, rent and occupy a home in under six months DC Urban Turf After living in a Mount Pleasant group house for about a year, economist Adrian Dungan decided that, if done right, he could own and live in a home and also rent it out.�

National real estate news stories: Sorting through lending costs The New York Times Plenty of people have ideas about what you should be told when you're shopping for a mortgage, but for now, that may not be much help. What's the future of the mortgage interest deduction? Wall Street Journal Despite its popularity among real estate agents, builders and homeowners, talk is building on Capitol Hill and in policy circles of scaling back or eliminating the mortgage-interest tax deduction.

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