Journalist Jason DeParle and wife Nancy-Ann bought this newly built six-bedroom, six-bath Colonial (pictured above) in Chevy Chase for its list price of $2.95 million. A reporter for the New York Times, DeParle covers welfare and wrote The American Dream, published in 2004. Nancy-Ann DeParle was director of the federal Health Care Financing Administration from 1997 to 2000. She is now director of Boston Scientific Corporation, which makes medical devices, and an adviser to the financial-services company JP Morgan.

Photograph by David Pipkin

Trade-association executive Mark Merritt and wife Jayne bought this six-bedroom Colonial in McLean for $2.5 million. The custom house has a two-story foyer, a bar, and a wine cellar. Merritt is president of Pharmaceutical Care Management Association.

In DC: Interior designer Mary Douglas Drysdale bought a six-bedroom, four-bath Federal-style rowhouse on R Street in Kalorama for $2 million. The house was built in 1900 and renovated in 2001.

Beer heir Gary F. Heurich sold a four-bedroom, four-bath brick Victorian on Potomac Street in Georgetown for $1.05 million. Heurich’s family company, Olde Heurich Brewing, was founded in Washington in 1873 and now brews Foggy Bottom Lager.

American Red Cross executive D. Eric Pogue paid $1.3 million for a two-bedroom, three-bath condo on Belmont Street in Columbia Heights. Pogue is a senior vice president and chief diversity officer for the Red Cross.