• Four Corners (a great, older community with lots of trees and close to the commuter routes)
• White Oak Shopping Center
• the new Food and Drug Administration (FDA) office facilities
• Westfield Wheaton Shopping
• the Wheaton METRO station
• Sligo Creek Park (great for biking and walking)

So….What’s going on in the real estate market?

It’s still not a pretty picture. However there seems to be signs of improvement:

• Median Sales Price is moving up slightly.
• Days on Market seems to have stabilized a bit. It’s still a long time but, at least, it’s not getting any longer.
• Inventory is getting bigger — this is the number of homes currently on the market. This means more people are feeling good about selling their homes.

Two recent articles help to highlight this situation:

• Shelia Bair Can’t Sell Her House as reported on The Business Insider

evidently the Chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) can’t get her house sold even after dropping the price $100,000.  So she has decided to rent it out until the market turns around.  My only hope is that she lets the rest of us know when that happens.  I know a lot of people who would love to sell their home “when the market turns around”. When?

• For Sale, Still: Grander Homes in Gracious Neighborhoods as reported in today’s Washington Post

this is a story about homes in the $1,000,000 and more category in the DC Metro area that are really having a tough time of it.  Part of the challenge with selling homes in this price range is the mortgage situation.  Jumbo loans are hard to come by and the interest rates and credit requirements are prohibitive.  Not everybody has the actual cash to plunk down on these homes and a lot more have their money tied up in the stock market which has seen a huge decrease over the past couple of years.

I don’t know about you but I take a small bit of comfort in knowing that even if you have lots of money and a great, high profile job (note: Secretary of the Treasury, Timothy Geithner can’t sell his place either) it’s just as hard to sell your home as it is for the rest of us.  Hopefully, they’ll have some empathy for the “little guy” and get this economy back on track knowing that as soon as they do they’ll be able to sell their homes.  This might be a little bit of “enlightened self interest”.  You don’t need an expensive lobbyist to tell you the real estate market is in the tank when you can’t sell your own home!

I hope you enjoy it as I enter in some photos that highlight life in towns outside of Washington, DC like:

• College Park, MD
• Beltsville, MD
• Laurel, MD
• Silver Spring, MD
• Bethesda, MD

and many, more places nearby.

Click Here to take a look.

You can Click Here to read a detailed report in today’s Washington Post.

I can tell you from personal experience that this prolonged period of rain is no help whatsoever when you’re trying to sell your house.  I’m challenged from day to day to keep my grass mowed neatly and the garden area from looking like a jungle gone wild.  It’s not an easy task.  My back yard has a small slope and because of the clay soil that is so prevalent around here it is not draining fast enough before the next rainfall begins. That makes for some tall grass.

Here are some other challenges that you may be facing that could slow down the sale of your home:

• wet basements — people sometimes get a bit nervous when they see a sump pump in the basement but I’m always glad to see it.  If the sump pump is working properly that means the basement is being kept dry.
• leaking roofs — if there was a problem with the roof this weather will bring it out.  If the roof was “on the edge” of needing repair or replacement this prolonged wet spell is going t tell the tale on whether or not a new roof is in order.  This is a big ticket item but vitally important to the sale of your home.
• soggy yards — this is my problem and it could be worse if the water didn’t actually drain completely away after a day.  No one likes a yard with puddles and they could be a danger sign for mosquitoes and other annoying critters.
• window condensation — this is what happens when double paned or triple paned windows get a small pinhole in them allowing the humidity to create condensation between the panes.  This shows up as “foggy” windows and there is nothing that can be done but to replace them.  Typically, windows that have this type of condensation problem won’t have any effect on the energy efficiency of the window.  It’ll still help maintain the temperature inside the house.  People are funny, though. They like to be able to look out their windows and see the outside.
• gutters and downspouts — if they need repair or if they need to be cleaned out this would be the time to do it.  Gutters clogged with leaves and debris are bad news for your roof or siding.

These are just some of the challenges.

One more, that really doesn’t have anything to do with your house, as such, is just the fact that hardly anyone likes to trudge around in the rain to look at houses.  It’s wet and messy and you can’t spend a lot of time looking around in the yard or at the exterior of the house and neighborhood.  Not to mention, that if someone is out looking at houses, they’re going to be trudging through your home with their wet and muddy shoes, dripping umbrellas and soaked rain gear.  Not pleasant.

It turns out that the folks at Adirondack are extremely knowledgeable about trees and shrubs of all kinds and truly expert about trimming, removal and re-planting.  They came by that first year we were in our home and took care of some tree work for a very reasonable price.  Some years later, after a particularly bad storm, a 30 foot plus pear tree toppled over.  I’m thankful it didn’t crash into our garage.  Adirondack came out to dispose of the tree and grind the stump so we would have a nice, level lawn.  The next year they came out again to trim out another tall pear tree and grind another stump for a Rose of Sharon Jan had cut back because it was blocking access to our garage.

All in all, these folks have done a fair amount of work for us over the years and we’ve always been pleased with the end result of their work.  They know their stuff, their prices are extremely reasonable, they’re licensed, bonded and insured …and they cover the MD Suburbs!

“The first-time home buyer tax credit has made a difference. First-time home buyers used it and the market stabilized, but we don’t have a recession in first-time home buyers. We have a recession in the move-up market,” Isakson said. “One of the biggest problems facing the American people today is an illiquid housing market, a decline in their equity, a decline in their net worth and a depression in the housing market that we are obligated to correct if we possibly can.”

“The man who is transferred from Missouri to Georgia can’t sell his house in Missouri, can’t come to Georgia and can’t take the transfer. His employer can’t afford to buy the house and hold it for him because of the proliferation of inventory that is owned,” Isakson said. “Today, in the United States, one in two sales made every day is a short sale or a foreclosure. That is an unhealthy market, and it is continuing to precipitate a downward spiral in values, loss of equity by the American people and a protracted, difficult economic time for our country.”

The proposed legislation immediately picked up a bipartisan group of co-sponsors for his legislation, including:

• Senators Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn.,
• Jim Bunning, R-Ky.,
• Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga.,
• Chris Dodd, D-Conn.,
• John Ensign, R-Nev.,
• Joe Lieberman, ID-Conn.,
• Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska,
• James Risch, R-Idaho, and
• David Vitter, R-La.

To view the press release: Isakson Continues Push to Stimulate Housing Market

This legislation could have positive effect on real estate sales in 2009 and 2010. I will continue to monitor the progress of the legislation and keep you posted on it’s progress.

Thanks to Alan Gross of National City Mortgage for staying on top of this issue and sharing.

In any case, News 4 Washington sent this along to me and asked me to post.  I figure it’s a good deed and I’ve been complaining about this weather for so long on my Facebook page it even makes it kind of relevant.  So…..

WILD WEATHER

Plumbers and cleaning crews in our area have been busy with flooded basements over the last few weeks.  Julie Carey is checking in with some of them today and will react to breaking weather news as it happens. Plus, our meteorologists say tonight’s rush hour maybe affected by heavy storms.  Check out News4 before your commute for the latest information.

Good suggestion.  Tune into Channel 4 tonight!

Home prices have declined dramatically and many homeowners are in negative territory where there equity is concerned. This might not be a huge concern to homeowners that have the option of staying put.  My own situation is like that.  I enjoy my home and neighborhood and have no intention of moving anytime soon.  This is not an option for many military homeowners.  They may have bought three or four or five years ago only to find out the military is moving them out.

What to do?

Homeowner Assistance Program

The Army Corps of Engineers has been tasked with administering a program that can help military personnel make up the loss in their equity.  It also helps with the Seller side of closing costs including the Realtor’s fee. So, in effect, the Army is encouraging people to use a Realtor to sell their home.  The Program is called the Homeowner Assistance Program and it can be just the lifeline military homeowners need in order to sell their home and essesntially “break even”.  This is a huge benefit considering that, for many home sellers, the alternative would be to try and get a “short sale” approved by the mortgage company that holds the mortgage on the house.

A “short sale” would be devasting to military families, in particular, since it would destroy their credit and jeopardize any clearance status they may have now or want to get for job advancement. It would also crush their chances of obtaining another mortgage in another area anytime in the near or intermediate future.

There are lots of little details and the extremely important thing to remember is that, at this writing, the Army Corps of Engineers is still awaiting the final regulations to be handed down before they even begin processing applications for the program. It would be a good thing to get started, though.  So, if you are in a military family it might be a good idea to visit the website and download the application.  When it happens it’ll be a good deal!

If you have questions about this program you can shoot me an e-mail or call at 240-417-9100.  Remember, it isn’t finalized yet but it is on the way.  I may be able to help.

That is what is happening to mortgage rates now. The government, through the Federal Reserve, has been trying to drive down interest rates in order to make home buying more attractive and more affordable. They have provided the $8,000 First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit to put a little extra cash in to home buyer pockets. The government has even allowed home buyers to use that $8,000 tax credit toward closing costs which can include paying loan discount points which, in turn, will lower the mortgage interest rate a home buyer would obtain. Can you imagine having a 30 year fixed mortgage with an interest rate in the low 4% or high 3% range? It’s possible if you structure the loan properly with the $8,000 first time home buyer tax credit.

However, since consumer confidence is rising, the stock market is also rising. When the stock market rises, the bong market decreases and mortgage interest rates increase. Sound complicated? It is. I only wish that when the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, spoke interest rates would go down. They don’t.  Mortgage interest rates are tied to the bond market.

What this really means for home buyers is that the time may be past to grab the absolute lowest mortgage interest rate in the history of mankind. It still means that interest rates below 6% are still readily available to qualified home buyers with good credit. verifiable employment and income and some money in the bank for a down payment (3.5% for an FHA mortgage).

The moral to the story is that you can never really predict the absolute best time to buy a home.  Some people manage to do it by luck.  They see a good time to buy a home, they find a great home and a nice neighborhood and they make the home purchase. Others look at charts and trends, ask around and then decide that this time or that is the right time to buy a home.

Speaking of trends… you can get real time real estate market trends for 10 zip codes in the MD Suburbs just by filling in the form to the right under Real-Time Market Trends.  You can also click on the link that says “Market Trends” at the top of the page.  The report will be e-mailed to you and it is absolutely FREE. Sign up today to stay completely up-to-date on current real estate market trends in the MD Suburbs.