Loudoun County Real Estate Blog

I recently read a great article by David Crook about selling a home on July 14, 2008 in The Wall Street Journal Online. He gave seven points to remember when a homeowner needs to sell their home.

1. It isn’t worth trying to wait out the market or to time the market.

2. Don’t spend a lot of money on big-ticket renovations but do make sure that everything is in good repair. It won’t necessary increase your price but it will help attract buyers.

3. Price your home cheaply. Forget what you THINK the house should be worth or what it was worth three years ago. You must set your price below comparable nearby properties. Look at the asking price of other comparable homes and set your price to beat them.

4. Hire the best, more aggressive listing agent you can find regardless of their commission.

5. Promote the property. The listing agent should pay for the usual marketing costs but oftentimes the seller may need to pay for additional marketing if required.

6. Play the banker. Consider seller financing if possible.

7. If any qualified buyer comes in with a reasonable offer, be prepared to accept it without countering.

To see the entire article you can go to

http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB121553612650836199.html

Washington, D.C. metro area, Arlington and Alexandria recently made the top ten list in Forbes.com’s “Best Places To Buy Foreclosed Homes” published on March 19, 2008. Their goal was to identifiy markets where there were hints of stabilization and that properties in foreclosure may be a good investment. To compile the list, they took the country’s 100 largest metro areas and ranked them by annual foreclosure rate. Only cities on Forbes’ best places list, which measures criteria such as quality of life and the local economy were considered. Then they compared how real estate prices have moved since 2006 and compared the spread between median prices and foreclosure prices. The Washington, D.C. metro area and suburbs was ranked #10 with a Median home price of $366,583, Foreclosure savings of $56,858, Foreclosure rate of 1.16% and a Price change from 2006-2007 of 0.77%. To see the complete article click here.

Effective June 1, 2008, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have dropped their “declining market” policy requiring an addition 5% down payment for properties determined to be in declining or “at risk” markets. Hopefully this will impact Jumbo loans as well as conforming loans but a formal announcement has not been made. This is good news for buyers and sellers especially in neighborhoods that are categorized as “declining.” Hopefully, programs will continue to be announced to help buyers and sellers in this market.

I attended a seminar sponsored by Countrywide Mortgage on Tuesday May 6th at the Crowne Plaza in Tysons Corner, Virginia which featured Tom Fiddler, an expert in the real estate industry. It definitely put the current real estate market in perspective. He gave some background about the bond ratings of mortgages, etc. but more importantly emphasized that we need to "celebrate affordability" and I couldn’t agree more. Home prices are down and household income is still up. The final piece of the puzzle is interest rates-which are still so low. It is one of the most affordable times to buy a home nationwide in two decades! Obviously, at some point, probably after the election, interest rates will have to rise.

Mr. Fiddler also emphasized using FHA to the fullest. Not only do FHA loans typically end up being cheaper than conventional loans right now, if home prices were to stay flat or even go lower and interest rates go higher, the sellers who have FHA loans will be in a much better selling position because of the assumability of FHA loans. Tom Fiddler was an excellent speaker and I highly recommend seeing a seminar if you have an opportunity.

Thats right! On April 26th Loudoun County wants you to feel free to dump that hazardous waste off and get it out of your home to be properly disposed of. The county has a fabulous program dealing with household hazardous materials which I don’t think many people know about. From March to November the county has monthly drop off locations at different areas through-out the county to make it convenient for people to dispose of anything the trash company won’t take or shouldn’t go into the county landfill.

This month’s location is at Loudoun Valley High School 340 N. Maple Avenue, Purcellville Virginia between the hours of 8:30am and 2:30pm. For more information visit the county’s website .

Not sure what is hazardous waste? Click here for a list of common household items .

Our mid-month housing market analysis for Loudoun County, Sterling VA, Ashburn VA and Leesburg VA shows signs of staying relatively flat from last month’s numbers. To generate the numbers, we combined what has already sold as well as what is currently under contract with a closing date within April 2008

Loudoun County

Overall, the county will sell roughly 172 detached homes and 156 townhomes as compared to last month a total of 171 detached and 157 townhomes. The average sales price is currently lower than last month for detached homes and higher for townhomes. Lets see if the numbers change once the end of the month is here and all the sales have been entered.

Sterling / Potomac Falls (20165) Virginia

Sterling’s numbers are currently 19 detached homes and 17 townhomes, which will be higher than the 10 detached and 15 townhomes that sold last month. Currently, the average sales price is lower than last month for both detached homes and townhomes.

Ashburn (20147) Virginia

Ashburn doesn’t look like it will be able to keep up the improving trend since the beginning of the year. Each month since January 2008 for both detached and townhouses the number of homes sold has increased. Currently, it appears 17 detached homes and 32 townhouses will sell by the end of the month which is down slightly from 19 detached and 38 townhomes. The average sales price is a bit lower for detached and higher for townhouses.

Leesburg (20176) Virginia

The Leesburg detached home run up in activity looks like it will not be sustainable. Currently a total of 18 detached homes are set to settle in April, down from a high of 28 homes in March. The townhouse market in Leesburg is up a little to 27 townhomes to sell from 21 in March. The average sales price is looking higher than last month for townhomes but lower from detached.

Open Houses might expose your home to more than potential buyers. It may expose your home to a possible burglary. A Leesburg woman was recently charged with 34 crimes related to accusations that she used her position at a moving company to attend open houses and burglarize homes. There have been several homes burglarized in Loudoun County since November 2007 many of which resulted from an Open House.  See the full story here.  I am happy to do Open Houses for my clients but do not think it is the most effective way to sell homes. My job is to find the real estate agent that has a qualified and motivated buyer or to find a qualified and motivated buyer myself. The majority of the people who attend Open Houses are considering buying or selling in the future.

Gary M. Clemens, Loudoun County’s Clerk of the Circuit Court, announced that his office is working with the clerks of circuit court from the City of Alexandria, Arlington County, Fairfax County and Prince William County on establishing uniform guidelines related to the refund of the Northern Virginia Transportation Grantor’s Tax paid on deeds recorded between January 1, 2008 and March 3, 2008.The 2007 Virginia General Assembly passed legislation authorizing certain fees and taxes to be imposed by the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority (NVTA) which became effective on January 1, 2008. The Virginia Supreme Court ruled that these fees and taxes were unconstitutional on February 29, 2008 and the clerks of circuit court stopped collection of the taxes on March 3, 2008 as directed by the Supreme Court’s ruling.

The clerks of circuit court in Northern Virginia will be required to issue refunds to the real estate settlement agents who paid the taxes to the clerk. The settlements agents are then required to provide the refund of the taxes to the individuals who paid the taxes as part of the settlement of the a real estate transaction.

A listing of the Loudoun deed transactions where the NVTA grantor taxes were paid and eligible for a refund will be posted on the Loudoun County Clerk of the Circuit Court’s website at www.loudoun.gov/clerk to assist citizens and settlement agents. The clerk’s office will also be providing detailed guidelines for the refund process once those guidelines are aproved by all five circuit court clerks in Northern Virginia

The Loudoun County housing market overall was mixed for the month of March. Overall, Loudoun County did see an increase in the number of homes sold since last month, which is definitely a positive. The market is still trying to recover from the credit crisis which definitely affected housing sales in August and September of 2007. Another drop in the market occurred in December of 2007. The average sales price continues to decrease as we head full swing into the spring market. Unless the number of homes selling each month increases, the odds of home sale prices stabilizing is probably not realistic.

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The Board of Supervisors adopted a new tax rate for Loudoun County on April 1st. The new real estate tax rate is $1.14 for every $100 of a home’s assessed value. This is the highest rate for Loudoun County since 1981. The rate in 2008 was 96 cents. Even with the higher tax rate, the Board of Supervisors said the county’s public school system will fall short of what the School Board said it needed from county tax dollars. Homeowners won’t be happy with the higher rate because most homes would sell right now at a price far lower than the assessed values from Loudoun County.  Click here for the public news release.