Donna Evers in Mark Bisnow's

AND NOW A WORD FROM THE RESIDENTIAL SIDE...

Local real estate maven, Donna Evers of Evers & Co., has been in the DC market for 33 years and seen a lot of trends come and go. But the biggest change she’s seen has been in the last 10: "Everyone wants to be near commercial right now—stores, restaurants, and of course, Metro." We paid a visit to her Chevy Chase office to talk with the gal who started the largest independent woman-owned-and-run residential real estate company in the Metro area.

As far as DC goes, Donna says the city "used to be grey but is now very young." And, of course, the young people want to be where the action is. "Ten years ago, if people could look out a window in the house they were thinking of buying, and see a commercial building or a store, they wouldn't want it. Now it's just the opposite, a "more European-city concept."

Despite growing popularity of books like The Not-So-Big House, Donna hasn’t seen that translate to real buyers yet. "People don’t want to give up size." And, contrary to media reports, Donna said housing prices haven’t gone down, but actually risen 2% in DC, Montgomery County, Falls Church, Arlington, and Alexandria. The Michigan-native started Evers & Co in 1985 and now has 60 agents between her Chevy Chase, Bluemont, and Dupont Circle offices. When she’s not working, you’ll find her and her husband of 43 years, Bob , at their country home in Bluemont "among grapevines and sweeping views of the Shenandoah Valley." She says when they bought the place, she thought, "Wouldn’t a vineyard look nice here?" so they planted in ’99 and had their first vintage of cabernet franc and chardonnay in 2002.