Every election cycle, potential home sellers ask me whether they should hurry and get their houses on the market to meet the housing needs of the new employees coming in to work for the new administration. And every four years, I tell my clients anecdotal tales about how I've never seen an uptick in housing sales because of an election. I quizzed my colleagues about this and they all agree..(read more)
The Greater Capitol Area Association of Realtors has released the October housing statistics for DC and Montgomery County and they tell a tale of two "cities".
Inventory in Montgomery County is way down while it's up in Washington. Sales in both jurisdictions is down to varying degrees.
In Montgomery County, sales were highest for both condos and single family houses in May...(read more)
I continue to be busy, but I continue to have concerns about the market. Let me share with you some of the things that I'm hearing or seeing in the market.
1) Banks are fireezing home equity loans or lines of credit, so if you think you'll need money out of your line of credit for something special in the near future (and the combination of your 1st trust and your line of..(read more)
Sales of single family houses in Montgomery County, MD were actually higher than sales in April of 2007. I credit it to a lot of pint up demand plus favorable new loan limits to $729,000 and continued low interest rates.
Inventory is higher than last year and has been rising steadily since December. December was also the low point of sales in the last year.
As I indicated in last..(read more)
The market has picked up, but buying or selling a house is not a "done deal" until settlement. Lenders are imposing all sorts of new requirements, which change on almost a weekly basis. More buyers are going after FHA loans, and the rains of the last two weeks have left a lot of wet basements requiring repairs before FHA will fund the loan. On short sales, the money for..(read more)
Maryland Realtors will be amassing in Annapolis today to protest a number of proposed taxes being considered in this special session that affect real estate. Because Gov. O'Malley's tax package is so broad, there's been little news coverage on these taxes, but you should know about the proposals and pass the information on to your clients.
The state is looking at adding four luxury taxes..(read more)
In this changing market, many sellers who are unable to sell their properties are deciding to rent them if they must make a move and are unable to sell the property.
In Montgomery County, MD, the odds are better that a property will rent faster than sell, although there are more rentals coming on the market because of the difficulty in selling in this changing mortgage market.
For instance, today..(read more)
The recently released housing statistics for August show that listings for both Washington, DC single family homes and condos are up significantly from August while sales are down slightly.
There are some significant differences in the single family and condo markets. Inventory was at a yearly high for single family homes, while condo inventory was higher last fall.
The average..(read more)
I was at a real estate conference Wednesday put on by Howard Brinton’s Starpower group (www.GoStarPower.com) with a lot of top agents from around the country in places that have been experiencing a changing or “correcting” market for a lot longer than we have in the Washington, DC area.
They advise that sellers price their houses $1 below the most recent sales price of a similar..(read more)
The Greater Capital Area Association of Realtors (GCAAR) has just released its September housing stats showing that both Montgomery County, MD condo and single family home inventories were slightly up over August, but that contracts continue to decline. September inventory was at its highest in over a year and contracts were at their lowest.
..(read more)
