Interior design is about more than just style. The way a home looks often reflects cultural shifts, technological advances and evolving ideas about beauty.

Throughout U.S. history, design trends have offered clues about how Americans lived and what they valued.

Early Colonial homes in America were practical and orderly. Furniture was handcrafted, built to last and often simple or sparse. Wood was abundant, and pigments for muted earth tones such as soft browns were readily available. Wealthier families could purchase imported woven materials for curtains, bed hangings and tablecloths.

Early settlers were also influenced by European traditions. The Queen Anne style, popular in early 18th-century Britain, crossed the Atlantic and shaped the look of American homes.

As industrialization accelerated in the late 19th century, the shift from handcrafted to manufactured goods transformed interior design. Furniture and decorative items became more affordable through mass production, and a growing middle class embraced home design as a sign of prosperity.

The luxurious Art Deco movement captured the spirit of the “Roaring 20s” with geometric patterns, jewel tones and metallic accents.

Amanda Ivy Pearson, founder of Washington-based Ink and Ivy Design, said the 1920s remain one of her favorite eras for inspiration.

“The richness of the colors and all of the different textures and the opulence of it,” Pearson said. “It’s just so over the top, but in such a beautiful way.”

During the Great Depression, design trends shifted again as families focused on necessity rather than luxury. Homes became simpler and more practical, with people repairing or repurposing furniture and household items. Leftover fabric was often patched together to create curtains or quilts, and many decorative items were homemade.

After World War II, the mid-century modern movement gained momentum and lasted well into the 1960s. The style was defined by clean lines, minimal ornamentation and innovative materials.

Postwar optimism and advances in manufacturing allowed designers to experiment with materials such as fiberglass and molded plywood. Furniture featured sleek shapes and new wood finishes, while large windows, open layouts and natural materials helped connect indoor spaces with nature.

Pearson said incorporating nature into home design is now known as biophilic design and remains popular today.

“There’s some research that really shows it improves people’s lives,” she said. “It makes people feel happier and calmer in their spaces.”

Design took a bold turn in the 1970s as cultural experimentation and environmental awareness reshaped American homes. Avocado green, mustard yellow and burnt orange became common color choices. Wood paneling, modular sofas, shag carpeting and velvet upholstery created relaxed, textured spaces.

The 1980s continued the spirit of experimentation but introduced brighter, saturated colors such as hot pink and electric blue. The Memphis design movement known for clashing colors, geometric shapes and playful lines influenced pop culture and furniture design. Mirrored walls and lacquered surfaces also contributed to the decade’s glamorous aesthetic.

By the 1990s, design trends shifted again toward neutral palettes and traditional furniture shapes, reflecting a cultural emphasis on family-centered living. Living rooms often revolved around entertainment centers, with sofas and recliners positioned around the television.

Homeowners also experimented with DIY-friendly techniques such as sponge painting to add personality to walls. The “shabby chic” style gained popularity, though Pearson cautions against buying pre-distressed furniture.

“You lose the personality that can make a space unique,” she said.

In the 2000s, open-concept layouts became common as walls were removed to create large, shared living spaces. Minimalism emphasized uncluttered rooms and soft color palettes of beige, white, gray and light blue.

Technology also began influencing home design, increasing the demand for organization and multifunctional spaces. At the same time, the modern farmhouse style emerged, blending rustic elements such as reclaimed wood with contemporary finishes.

Pearson said today’s homeowners can benefit from looking to the past for inspiration. She recommends browsing antique or vintage stores to find quality pieces that can serve as a foundation for a room.

“You can find quality that you really can’t get anymore, or you can’t get without spending an exorbitant amount of money,” she said.

Repurposing or refinishing those pieces can give them new life and create a strong base for future design changes.

“When you’ve got these pieces that really can stand the test of time, then you can build around that,” Pearson said.

She also encourages mixing materials and styles that might not traditionally go together, such as tile and wood, to create a distinctive look.

“Design is supposed to be fun,” Pearson said. “It’s supposed to be an opportunity for you to be creative and tell your story and surround yourself with things that make you feel happy [and] healthy.”

Her advice is to be intentional. Before redecorating, she suggests taking inventory of what you already own and considering how you actually live day to day.

Chasing trends can quickly lead to clutter, Pearson said, but embracing personal style can create a home that lasts beyond changing fads.

“Trends fade,” she said. “You are unique and you will always be unique, and that is a trend that doesn’t ever go out of style.”

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Tudor Place was the ancestral home of Martha Peter, the granddaughter of America’s inaugural first lady Martha Washington. Martha Peter was married to Thomas Peter and their descendants lived in Tudor Place until 1983. They were stewards of a remarkable collection of Washington family artifacts and heirlooms. The historic estate, a model of federal-period architecture set on five-and-a-half acres, became a museum in 1988. The stories preserved here span six generations of one family.

Now for the first time, visitors can see rare treasures tied to the Washington legacy, including art, fine china, furniture, soap, a piece of Martha’s wedding dress and locks of George’s hair. Many of these items have been too fragile or too small to display to the public, but were brought out of the vault to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary.

“You start to understand how objects have a value that goes beyond monetary value,” said curator Rob DeHart. “For these objects, there was a societal and a cultural value.”

The special exhibit, called “Founding Fortunes,” is about the 1802 estate sale of Martha Washington. In her will, she designated that anything not bequeathed to family members be sold to fund the education of her nephews. The estate sale was held at Mount Vernon a few months after she died.

“As you can imagine, it was one of the estate sales of the century,” said DeHart. “There’s always been so much interest in the worldly belongings of America’s most famous first family, George and Martha Washington.”

Martha and Thomas Peter were big spenders at the estate sale and brought the items they purchased from Mount Vernon to Tudor Place, where the collection was preserved and continued to grow.

“George Washington embodied the virtues of the early United States more than probably anybody,” DeHart said. “Seeing these objects that were treasured by family members, that were touched by the Washingtons, used by them at Mount Vernon and at the presidential houses in Philadelphia [and] in New York City, it is very special. It feels [like you’re] very close to history.”

A very rare artifact now on display is one of the camp stools that George used during the Revolutionary War.

“Thomas Peter bought six of these at the estate sale for $1.50,” DeHart said. “There’s only two known left to exist — one here and there’s one at the Smithsonian.”

Very little correspondence between George and Martha Washington exists. DeHart said she burned all their letters so no one else could read them. However, Martha did not realize that two letters had fallen under a drawer in her desk. The museum displays a facsimile of one of those letters and will bring out the original for special events this year.

“The letter was very significant because it was written on June 18, 1775. And in that letter, George is telling Martha that he’s just been asked to command the Continental Army, and he’s accepted that command,” DeHart said.

A theme throughout the exhibit is how deeply the early United States was tied to the institution of slavery and how generational wealth was created. Mount Vernon’s enslaved community was divided among Washington’s four grandchildren and about 48 people came to Tudor Place. The museum has worked to trace and preserve their stories through oral history and DNA evidence. One woman, Hannah Cole Pope, continued working at Tudor Place after gaining her freedom.

“She and her husband, Alfred Pope, were very prominent members of the Georgetown Black community and their children were teachers,” DeHart said. “They were civil rights activists, and we work with their descendants today to even create this exhibit.”

“Founding Fortunes” is open through the end of the year. You can reserve a spot on .

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The National Housing Act of 1934 was a critical part of efforts to recover from the Great Depression. It created the Federal Housing Administration, which insured mortgages to stabilize the housing market.

By getting federal insurance, lenders knew that if buyers defaulted on the loan, the government would cover the loss. “And it made it a lot easier [and] financially feasible for far more lenders to make far more home loans,” Squires said.

This program expanded mortgage lending, but FHA underwriting guidelines discouraged lending in racially mixed or Black neighborhoods, making it nearly impossible for many people of color to qualify for a federally insured loan. This helped institutionalize redlining, the practice of denying credit or insurance to people because they live in areas labeled as a poor financial risk.

FHA policies shaped private lending norms for decades and reinforced segregation.

“The federal government itself was one of the key, if not the key, redliner in the United States,” Squires said. “(The FHA) did open up homeownership opportunities for a lot of people, but it clearly set the tone for what followed, which was decades of racially discriminatory mortgage lending practices.”

In 1968, the Fair Housing Act was a landmark civil rights law that changed the dynamics of the housing market, making it illegal for lenders to discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, and national origin — later expanded to include sex, familial status, and disability. “This has been the key statute aimed at housing discrimination,” Squires said.

The act also gave the Department of Housing and Urban Development major enforcement responsibilities. HUD was created in 1965 to administer housing and community development programs, working to ensure fair and equal housing opportunities.

The Equal Credit Opportunity Act was passed in 1974, prohibiting discrimination in all credit markets, not just housing. It has been widely used in mortgage discrimination cases.

The Home Mortgage Disclosure Act was passed the following year, requiring most mortgage lenders to disclose detailed information about where they make loans, who applies, and who gets approved or denied.

HMDA has been modified and expanded several times over the years. “Now we know we can report what’s happened to loan applications submitted by people of different colors and races, genders and income levels,” Squires said.

The Community Reinvestment Act, enacted in 1977, requires federal banking regulators, including the Federal Reserve, to ensure banks are serving the credit needs of the neighborhoods they’re part of, particularly low and moderate‑income communities.

”[It’s] a federal statute that basically prohibits redlining,” Squires said. “The statute actually says that lenders are required to ascertain and be responsive to the credit needs of their entire service areas, including low and moderate income areas.”

CRA has been used in conjunction with HMDA to challenge discriminatory mortgage lending practices and to support community reinvestment programs in neighborhoods that have historically been underserved by lenders.

Squires said there is still significant work to be done, and he believes there needs to be a shift in how society views housing at a foundational level.

“We need to begin to think about housing as a human right, rather than as a commodity that consumers win by being successful in the marketplace,” he said, noting how some communities have done a better job maintaining public housing or creating land trusts that take some of the profit pressure out of housing.

Many advocacy groups are also negotiating community benefits agreements, often using the CRA as leverage to push mortgage lenders to serve communities that have historically been underserved. “Remove the market and make housing a right, so that all families have access to affordable and decent housing in decent neighborhoods.”

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Jon Grishpul is the co-owner of — a free resource and helpful guide for anyone looking to build their own ADU, or accessory dwelling unit.

An ADU is sometimes referred to as a tiny home and the term refers to a smaller, secondary home located on the same lot as a primary residence.

“It’s a fully independent living space, so it has a kitchen, a full bathroom and a bedroom,” Grishpul said.

The idea of a granny flat, carriage home, or backyard cottage has existed for decades in many parts of the country. But over time they’ve developed and gotten more progressive. Over the last decade, especially on the West Coast — in Washington state, Oregon, and California — the concept of an ADU has evolved rapidly and is now gaining more momentum.

“This concept has been spreading like wildfire throughout the rest of the country,” Grishpul said. “We’re seeing more than half the states throughout the country, I believe, are now allowing some form of this.”

According to Grishpul, the main benefit of an ADU is flexibility. Adding square footage to an existing home can make it larger, but building a separate unit opens the door to more possibilities.

In California, the most common type of ADU is a garage conversion because it’s typically faster and more cost‑effective than building from scratch.

“I’ve helped homeowners build ADUs for a workout gym space or a yoga studio. They’ve done it for work from home offices,” he said.

Grishpul added that many people build an ADU for extra space for family members, whether it’s elderly parents or adult children coming back from college. Another popular use is rental income. He said many homeowners rent out their ADU as a side hustle, but he stressed the importance of understanding local rules and regulations before moving forward.

“There are restrictions on where you can build, how big you can build, what kind (of ADU) you can build, so make sure you do your homework, (and) verify the details,” he said.

Maxable Space recently hosted its “Best ADU of the Year Competition” to highlight standout projects across the country. One of the finalists was a tiny home in D.C. created by transforming an abandoned garage and storage space into a one‑bedroom ADU.

According to Maxable Space: “The ADU meets Washington D.C.’s strict environmental standards while maintaining year-round comfort. Restoring the building’s existing openings allowed natural light to flood the interior, creating a warm and inviting space that feels much larger than its footprint. The result is a thoughtful blend of preservation, sustainability, and smart design, breathing new life into what was once an overlooked structure.”

Grishpul said he is seeing a growing emphasis on design and innovation.

“Making them (ADUs) feel so much larger with the use of windows and reducing walls and different design elements; that is honestly one of the most exciting things for me to see,” he said.

Grishpul said tiny homes are continuing to gain popularity, and he believes the trend will accelerate as technology improves, and costs come down. Prefabricated ADUs, for example, are built entirely in a factory and then assembled on-site, reducing construction time and complexity.

“It’s a versatile space. It’s a dynamic space. It can be a rental in the short term, but in the future, it can be a man cave,” he said. “You’re also adding value to your property as well.”

For anyone interested in building an ADU, Grishpul’s advice is simple: Start with research. Understand the regulations for your property before speaking with contractors or architects so you can make informed decisions from the beginning.

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A permanent exhibit at the in D.C. called “House & Home” invites visitors to explore how American domestic life has evolved over the centuries and to reconsider what the idea of “home” really means.

Cathy Frankel, Deputy Director for Interpretive Content at the National Building Museum explained how the exhibit captures both the physical and emotional dimensions of home.

“Everybody understands home and understands house,” Frankel said. “This is what’s most familiar. This is what children understand from the moment they’re born. They’re in their little room, they’re in their home, they’re in their neighborhood.”

That sense of familiarity is immediately apparent in the first gallery, where the walls are covered in photographs. Some images show the exteriors of homes — everything from apartment buildings to a lighthouse — while others offer intimate glimpses of daily life inside them: Families gathering around dinner tables, children watching television and people moving through their everyday routines. The photos span decades, mixing black‑and‑white images with vivid color.

“Home isn’t just about the structure, it’s about the people that are inside it and what they create in the community,” Frankel said. “It’s the people and it’s the things and it’s the activities that make it home.”

Moving into the main gallery, visitors encounter more than a dozen scale models of iconic American houses. These include detailed recreations of Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello and George Washington’s Mount Vernon, offering a look at how architectural styles have evolved across centuries.

The exhibit also highlights different construction styles — featuring materials like brick, wood, and glass — with walls that visitors are allowed to touch.

Frankel said one of the most popular parts is the display of hundreds of household objects, some dating back nearly 200 years. The collection ranges from nostalgic to quirky: an American flag, a piñata, a pink George Foreman grill, antique furniture, and Farrah Fawcett’s famous red swimsuit poster are just some examples.

“(This) is really how you make a home. It’s with the objects. It’s with the traditions. It’s with the family,” she said.

Frankel said curators had fun assembling the collection, which includes items lent from museums and staff members.

“(We) came up with this wonderful display, which I think really delights everybody and makes them think about what they’ve done in their own homes to make it their own,” Frankel said. “It’s great fun to watch our visitors come in here, especially the intergenerational groups, and be like, ‘Oh, my grandma had one of these. I remember this.’”

A timeline traces the development of the modern mortgage system and highlights key moments in the history of homeownership. The final section of the exhibit shifts from individual houses to the broader idea of community.

Displays explore different types of neighborhoods — from public housing to master‑planned developments — and emphasize how where we live shapes our daily experiences. The goal is to help visitors see their homes as parts of larger neighborhoods and networks.

“It’s a multi-generational audience,” Frankel said. “Everybody understands it and understands the importance of home.”

The National Building Museum is open Thursday through Monday from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. and is located at 401 F Street NW.

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3D-printing technology continues reshaping how homes are built, making the process more efficient and less expensive. These 3D‑printed houses are more durable and can be easily customized.

Virginia Tech is becoming a national leader in 3D‑printed housing research. The university has helped build four homes in Virginia and is currently producing five more.

“We can basically deploy a robotic arm now to build structures, and we can make it mobile and bring the technology out to the site,” said Andrew McCoy, the Interim Managing Director of the Coalition for Smart Construction at Virginia Tech, as well as the Director of the Virginia Center for Housing Research.

He said the robot works like an inkjet printer, but with concrete instead of ink, layering material to build up the walls. The 3D‑printed homes are around 1,400 square feet, and the team has been working closely with Habitat for Humanity.

“We’ve been printing three-bedroom, two bath homes with a nice, big kitchen,” he said. “Dining room, living room kind of combo. And they’ve been very well received.”

The robotic arm is a major advancement from the previous method, called the gantry system, which required four posts for the printer to move along the X and Y axis. That system couldn’t easily go from one location to another. The robotic arm they use now sits on a base with crawler treads, making it more mobile and flexible.

“It can go on a construction site and move all around the site,” he said. “It’s very independent and very customizable. And we could print much larger homes.”

McCoy said the traditional way of framing a house can take a couple of weeks, with multiple trades working together. In comparison, they can 3D‑print a wall in about half an hour and potentially build five walls in a single day.

One of the biggest advantages of 3D-printing is how easily a home can be customized. Unusual shapes and design features that are typically expensive or labor‑intensive become far easier to achieve, without added cost or the need for a specialized crew. McCoy said one home they’re printing now had a specific request for the façade.

“They wanted a brick facade,” he said. “This thing basically preprints all the facades, and then we ship them out and we attach them, and they’re done.”

He also described 3D‑printed homes built with reinforced corners for durability because of their location in a flood‑prone area.

“They have these thicker areas that make them stronger to basically divert water,” McCoy said.

The technology is a way to combat the labor shortage and rising cost of materials. The state of Virginia is investing in innovation to bring more housing into the market, creating a series of grants through Virginia Housing, the state’s housing finance agency.

“The whole purpose of these grants is to basically introduce technology into the market, bring builders in and show them how to use it, and take the financial risk off the builder so that they’re willing to try it,” McCoy said. “[With] these grants, that’s how we’re able to create this system. They helped us fund the process of figuring it all out.”

Their goal is to continue improving 3D‑printing research — investigating what works and what doesn’t, lowering costs, and speeding up the process.

“I feel like if other states would try to do some of this, that’s how we’re going to make some good inroads into the housing crisis.”

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Karishma Sharma, 16, used to struggle with confidence. She was scared to speak up in class and worried about what other people might think.

But Sharma was able to build her confidence through acting and modeling classes, and now she’s passionate about helping young girls learn the same skills.

“By the age of 8, girls’ confidence drops 30% in comparison to boys,” Sharma said. “And this only gets worse as they continue throughout their adolescence and teen years.”

The River Hill High School sophomore founded her own nonprofit organization called “,” aimed at eliminating the gender confidence gap between girls and boys through free leadership workshops.

“I want girls to not fear who they are, be their authentic selves and be empowered to be future leaders,” Sharma said.

Her next event Saturday in Rockville is focused on women leading the way in different fields.

Girls get to participate in a fireside chat and panel discussion with Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller, the President of National Geographic Content Courteney Monroe and the Chief Research Officer of Children’s National Hospital Dr. Catherine Bollard.

The event is free, but participants need to.

“Let girls see that they can be trailblazers,” Sharma said. “They have the power to dream big.”

A previous workshop focused on speaking with confidence, and girls got to learn from Miss Maryland and Miss Maryland Teen.

“It was really inspiring,” Sharma said. “We ended the event with each girl confidently going up to the front of the room and introducing themselves, sharing a little bit about themselves and what they’re most proud of.”

Sharma plans to launch the BoldHER Future mentorship program, and she dreams about expanding her nonprofit nationwide.

“This is something that I truly am devoted to and passionate about,” Sharma said. “I want to be a social entrepreneur to make meaningful impact around the world.”

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“Their families became our families, and their homes became our homes,” said TV critic Matt Roush with TVInsider.com. “These aren’t just cultural icons. They really are part of our history.”

Sometimes, the homes felt comfortable and familiar. In “All in The Family,” Archie and Edith Bunker lived in a modest home in working‑class Queens.

“Not a very fancy house, but it looks so lived in,” Roush said. “And it was also one of the first times you ever heard a toilet flush on television.”

The Bunkers’ living room was the heart of the show, and its famous orange‑yellow armchair was donated to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History after the final season for its collection of iconic American artifacts.

Another example of an intentionally imperfect home is the Conners’ slightly chaotic Midwestern house in “Roseanne,” which was staged to look and feel real with its mismatched furniture and clutter. These homes resonated because they reflected the everyday lives of the people watching.

Other times, the homes sparked a sense of fantasy or wish fulfillment. These aspirational spaces offered a glimpse into lifestyles far beyond most viewers’ realities.

For example, “The Jeffersons” let us experience life in a luxurious high‑rise when the family “moved on up” to Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Will Smith moved from West Philadelphia to his aunt and uncle’s lavish California mansion in “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.”

“You think, ‘Wow, now there’s the kind of home I’d love to live in,’” Roush said.

Monica and Rachel’s improbably spacious New York apartment in “Friends” is still a pop‑culture landmark. The Friends Experience in New York City lets fans sit in the living room and also see Joey and Chandler’s place across the hall.

Similarly, the Victorian‑style San Francisco house featured in “Full House” continues to draw tourists eager to snap photos of the famous exterior.

In the 2019 HGTV reality miniseries “A Very Brady Renovation,” a star‑studded team that included former cast members renovated the real Studio City house so the interior perfectly matched the sets we saw on our screens. The massive undertaking tapped directly into viewers’ affection for the show.

“It just lives large in our memory,” Roush said. “There’s this nostalgia factor when we think about the homes we grew up watching on television.”

The emotional connection to these fictional homes doesn’t fade much over the years. Roush recalled “The Dick Van Dyke Show’s” stylish suburban house in New Rochelle.

“I can just picture every closet, every part about the kitchen, and the bathroom, (and) the bedroom, which of course, had separate beds back then,” Roush said with a laugh.

Roush said he often gets messages from readers asking where to buy a piece of furniture they spotted on a show. These television homes can reflect who we are or who we wish we could be. Whether simple or extravagant, the spaces remind us of characters we loved and eras we lived through.

“It really is about … the comfort level of watching people in their homes, in their living rooms, while we’re watching in our living rooms,” he said. “There’s something really powerful about that.”

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“The launch of Zillow revolutionized real estate,” said Amanda Pendleton, Zillow’s home trends expert.

Before Zillow existed, finding out which homes were for sale or how much a property was worth required digging through public records at city hall or relying entirely on a real estate agent. Information was more difficult to access and often outdated.

“Zillow changed that entirely 20 years ago, really turning on the lights for people, providing them with insights into a market that had really been in the shadows for decades,” Pendleton said. “The day that Zillow launched, so many people went online to check their Zestimate, the whole site crashed. So Zillow broke the internet on day one.”

In the years since, browsing Zillow has evolved into a national pastime — Pendleton said that’s especially true among millennials. Many are settling down, starting families or simply dreaming about what their next chapter could look like.

“You’ve got this huge generational group thinking about real estate because of their life stage,” she said. “(Zillow) makes it a lot easier for you to imagine, and sort of envision yourself and all the possibilities that a move could bring.”

Transparency has always been at the core of Zillow’s mission, she said. The company believes that when people have more information, they make better decisions — and the numbers show just how many consumers rely on the platform.

“More people Google ‘Zillow’ than Google ‘real estate,’ which is wild,” Pendleton said. “We’ve got more than 220 million unique monthly users who are on Zillow every single month.”

One of Zillow’s newest tools is its “natural language search,” which lets users type the way they speak.

In the D.C. area, some of the most common search terms used last year include “luxury,” “modern lofts,” and “penthouses.” On the opposite end of the spectrum, D.C. users were also very interested in “cabins,” “lakes,” and “fireplaces.”

“I think people come to Zillow to dream, but also to shop too,” Pendleton said. “Maybe in your regular life, you’re looking for a loft [or] a condo, but in your Zillow surfing life, you’re looking for that cabin by the lake.”

National trends show search behavior has shifted since the pandemic. Instead of prioritizing large square footage, buyers are now looking for homes that support their lifestyles — walkable neighborhoods, access to transit and flexible layouts that fit evolving family needs.

Affordability is driving what people want right now. Small comforts like a cozy reading nook are often more important than big-ticket amenities like a pool.

Looking ahead, Zillow aims to become a true one‑stop shop for real estate — a place where users can buy, rent, sell and finance a home in one seamless experience. Pendleton said the goal is to make the entire process easier to navigate from start to finish.

“Zillow is continuing to evolve to make the whole home buying and selling process a lot more transparent, less stressful and more joyful,” she said. “You love being able to search and look at all your options, but the hard part comes when you want to take that next step. So we’re working really hard to build products and technology, and to partner with experts, to make that next step as joyful as that first step.”

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“The first three months, you couldn’t show a property at all. We didn’t know whether or not we’d be working again,” he said. “And then after that, once rates came down, it led to probably one of the greatest real estate periods over the next two to three years.”

Once mortgage rates plunged — hitting a historic low of 2.65% for a 30‑year fixed-rate mortgage in January 2021 — the market shifted almost overnight. Cheap borrowing dramatically expanded what buyers could afford, and many felt an urgency to act before the opportunity disappeared.

“The mentality that was expressed to me by those buyer clients was, you know, money is so cheap to borrow right now, if I don’t do it now, I may never be able to buy a home again, right?” Cashin said. “So they saw those 2 to 3% interest rates, and they figured they needed to jump on it.”

At the same time, the rapid transition to hybrid and remote work reshaped where people wanted — and were able — to live. With offices closed and commutes eliminated, families began reevaluating their priorities. Space, privacy and distance from crowded city centers were more desirable than ever.

“This is how the new world is going to be. I need all the space I can get, and I want to be as far away from people as possible,” Cashin said, referring to the mind state of homebuyers. “That’s really what was driving that search — was land, space, a pool, a nice big living area for my family, and I kind of don’t want to be near my neighbors.”

But even as demand surged, the logistics of buying and selling homes became more complicated. Strict safety protocols — masks, distancing and limits on in‑person interactions — forced real estate agents to adapt quickly.

“We learned how to show property over FaceTime,” Cashin said. “We actually had classes on that, which was funny, how to do a tour over your phone.”

Meanwhile, the supply of available homes could not keep up. The U.S. was already facing a housing shortage before the pandemic, and builders struggled to ramp up construction amid labor shortages, supply‑chain disruptions and soaring material costs. The imbalance between supply and demand created intense competition. Cashin recalled open houses where lines stretched around the block.

“We were seeing as many homes as we could, but a lot of times before we even walked in the door, it was under contract, because it had an insane amount of offers that went well above list.”

Bidding wars became the norm, and the numbers were staggering. Cashin remembered a $3 million listing that attracted 60 offers and closed at over $4 million. But the frenzy of 2020 through 2022 was never sustainable, and Cashin said the market has since settled into a more typical rhythm. He described the D.C. metro area today as stable and resilient, supported by an educated workforce and higher paying jobs.

“Looking back on it, it does feel like it happened 20 years ago,” he said, “and maybe that’s just because we all aged so quickly because of how crazy it was.”

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Bowser’s proposal would increase the uniform per student funding formula foundation level to 2.55% next year, bringing the new amount to $15,455 per student.

“That’s about $50 million more dollars flowing into our schools,” Deputy Mayor for Education Paul Kihn said.

The money supports nearly 100,000 students in D.C. Public Schools and public charter schools and helps cover teacher pay raises from the most recent union contract.

School funding has doubled over the past decade in D.C., from $1.4 billion to more than $2.8 billion, making it one of the best funded public school systems in the U.S.

“If you look at our track record of success, it is really unparalleled in the country,” Kihn said. “We remain the fastest improving urban school system in the nation. We have recovered from the pandemic, according to our standardized test scores.”

In addition to higher test scores, last year’s graduation rate reached an all-time high — nearly 79%.

Teachers in D.C. have the highest starting salary in the nation, with 78% of teachers staying at their schools.

“The most important people in any school system are our teachers,” Kihn said. “We want to make sure that we attract wonderful people to teach in our schools, that we continue to help them develop and grow and hone their craft. And also we want them to stay.”

Revenue has been modest, while costs are soaring. And if President Donald Trump signs the congressional measure preventing D.C. from opting out of the Trump administration’s tax cuts, the city could lose hundreds of millions more in revenue.

Kihn said it’s a year of “very difficult decisions” and “very hard trade-offs.”

He said they’re carefully looking at every single line item in the budget to see where they can find savings, but he did not specify which programs or services could be paused or cut.

The mayor will deliver her final budget proposal in early April.

The D.C. Students Succeed Coalition said it appreciates Bowser’s plan to raise per‑student school funding and will work with the mayor and D.C. Council to close any remaining funding gaps.

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Gov. Wes Moore signed the law Tuesday in Annapolis, officially ending what are known as 287(g) agreements, which allowed local officers to carry out certain federal civil immigration duties, including checking the immigration status of someone booked into jail and starting the deportation process.

The new law now says that officers are not allowed to carry out those duties in the state of Maryland.

“In Maryland, we will not allow untrained, unqualified and unaccountable agents to deputize our brave local law enforcement officers,” Moore said before signing the bill. “We defend constitutional rights and we defend constitutional policing.”

Moore emphasized that the new law does not authorize the release of criminals, and Maryland will continue working with federal partners to hold violent offenders accountable. He pointed out that ICE is the largest law enforcement agency in the country, and said the state is drawing a clear line between federal and state responsibilities.

“ICE received more funding last year than our entire state budget, and we’ve seen the results of an unaccountable agency with seemingly unlimited resources,” Moore said.

Supporters of the legislation say it’s designed to strengthen trust between local police and the people they serve.

Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller said the bill sends a clear, positive message to the state’s immigrant communities.

“Maryland is stronger because of our immigrant communities,” Miller said. “We value you. We stand with you. And we’re committed, not just in words but in law, to keep every family safe.”

On the local level

Prince George’s County Council members are also considering several emergency acts concerning immigration enforcement, which were presented at Tuesday’s council meeting.

One bill protects libraries and schools from ICE operations. Another bill prohibits ICE officers from becoming local police officers.

There’s also an act prohibiting law enforcement officers in Prince George’s County from wearing masks.

Council Chair Krystal Oriadha said leaders tried to come up with robust policies that address concerns they’ve heard from residents.

“We have a large immigrant population that’s constantly growing. We have experienced firsthand in this county, people being kidnapped off of our streets and deported to countries that they have no connection to,” Oriadha said. “So this is not foreign to us here in Prince George’s County. And the reality is, we have to think about legislation and policies that are going to protect our community.”

She noted there are currently three people on the council who are first-generation American citizens. Her own father has dual citizenship with Kenya.

“The reality is that I’m scared for him to ever carry his Kenyan passport. I’m very conscious about him having his U.S. passport on him at all times,” she said. “That’s why it’s so real to us, and why it was so important for us to do something.”

Council members will take up the six bills and resolutions about immigration enforcement at its March 3 meeting. They will also have conversations with law enforcement and other agencies responsible for moving the legislation forward, but Oriadha is confident they’ll come to a compromise on each one.

“We have to keep our community safe,” she said. “There’s a war on our immigrant population, and I believe every leader in Prince George’s County is on the right side of history on this.”

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“Technically, in a shutdown, we have exempted personnel (and) non-exempted personnel,” said Terry Gerton, host of The Federal Drive on Federal News Network. “But in DHS, most of the work would not stop.”

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) received billions of dollars in funding under the One Big Beautiful Bill passed last summer, meaning immigration enforcement activities will continue.

Gerton noted that many DHS components — including the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), FEMA, the Coast Guard, the Secret Service, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) — will also keep operating because they carry out essential missions.

“Federal workers who are working may not get paid, but the first paychecks they’re likely to miss don’t hit until early to mid-March,” Gerton said. “There may be some administrative and support personnel who may be furloughed, depending on the role and component.”

Because so many DHS functions will continue, Gerton said the shutdown will likely be barely noticeable to most Americans at first. The earliest signs of strain would appear at major airports if TSA agents begin missing paychecks.

“If the DHS shutdown lasts beyond mid-March, spring break travel could be affected. That’s likely when you’d first see it,” she said. “The thought in Congress is that allows them plenty of time to have ongoing negotiations until the average American raises the political temperature enough that it really does force some action.”

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“There’s a truthfulness when you go to these spaces that you can only experience when you’re there,” said Phillip Howard, director of the “I think there’s value in being able to touch history and being able to be in a space where history happens.”

Howard works specifically on preserving iconic civil rights sites across the country. The Conservation Fund helped protect Maryland’s historic Black beaches, where artists such as Duke Ellington, Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin performed like at the

The Elktonia-Carr’s Beach Heritage Park honors that cultural and musical history. The group has also protected land on Maryland’s Eastern Shore connected to Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad.

“I get to work in spaces and work to preserve spaces that are important and tell important stories in American history,” he said. “If there is properties or spaces in Maryland, Virginia, D.C., that are in need of protection, that’s a conversation that we would love to have.”

On Feb. 19, the Conservation Fund is teaming up with the Washington Association of Black Journalists for an event called “.” It will be held from 6-8 p.m. at the Thurgood Marshall Center for Service and Heritage in Northwest D.C.

“This is an opportunity to raise those voices, uplift those spaces, really get the word out that this work is happening and that it needs to be bigger,” Howard said. “If we don’t do something, those spaces are going to be lost.”

The special guest at the event is Jannette Howard-Moore. She was 15 years old when she marched from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965 with her family, and was beaten on the Edmund Pettus Bridge by police. She will talk about being part of a pivotal moment in history.

Howard said it’s a unique opportunity to hear directly from a Civil Rights foot soldier, while celebrating and honoring her.

“Hear from a person who was actually there at a moment that changed the world,” Howard said, calling it a “beautiful story of family, of sacrifice, love, strength, courage, of bravery.”

It’s the first time the Conservation Fund is partnering with the Washington Association of Black Journalists for this event, but Howard hopes it’s not the last.

“We’re all just trying to make sure that this history is not lost,” he said.

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“Nobody looks or feels or sounds like Bad Bunny,” said professor Juan Carlos Quintero-Herencia.

The writer and critic teaches “Contemporary Puerto Rican Musicality: From Plena to Bad Bunny.”

“What he’s doing, I think, goes beyond language,” he said. “What he’s doing musically is quite sophisticated.”

His students study how Bad Bunny experiments with genres — from reggaeton to trap to salsa — and how he weaves Puerto Rican history into his music.

“There something in him about how he presents himself that people immediately believe him. Maybe this is what my students call authenticity,” Quintero-Herencia said.

The class analyzes Bad Bunny’s latest album “DebĂ­ Tirar MĂĄs Fotos,” which just became the first Spanish-language album to win Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards.

“Sometimes, music does something to you that doesn’t require words,” he said. “We say that when the ‘cuando la mĂșsica es sabrosa’ — when music is really tasty or funky — your feet start moving by itself.”

Quintero-Herencia’s students were emotional about Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show, which was the first show performed almost entirely in Spanish and the fourth most watched in history.

“Benito showed that Spanish is not a foreign language in the United States,” he said. “The United States doesn’t make any sense if we don’t take into consideration all the contributions made by people that live and work and dream in Spanish.”

He said Bad Bunny’s global reach is clear in how his music resonates with audiences of all ages, regardless of language.

“A global audience encountering Puerto Rican and Caribbean musical forms. Whether this sparks deeper engagement with Puerto Rican culture and reality beyond the spectacle remains uncertain. We’ll have to see,” Quintero-Herencia said.

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