Loudoun Real Estate Blog

Metropolitan Regional Information Systems (MRIS), which is the MLS system that all of Northern Virginia, including Loudoun and Fairfax Counties, most of Maryland and parts of Pennsylvania is changing the Days On Market Property reset time.  The Days On Market Property was the counter that would continue to increase every day the home is listed regardless if the home owner changed Real Estate Agents.

The Days On Market Property use to reset after the property was no longer active for a period of 180 days (6 months).  This value to established in 1993 and was thought to be a good indictor of a complete market cycle.  Since then people have started to move more frequently and value started to lose its meaning.  As of February 15^th 2008 the reset time is being changed to 90 days (3 months) which is a huge improvement and a welcomed change.

The other important factor in this change is that MRIS is going back through all the data and updating the Days On Market Property values.  Here is a quote from MRIS:

MRIS will recalculate the Days On Market for all existing listings.  In terms of appraisers accustomed to the old formula for assessing property value, the statistics that they have always relied on will still maintain value as the “market snapshots” they were intended to be.  Those market snapshots are still valid.

Any thoughts or questions please let us know and I will be happy to answer them.

A MSNBC Video with advice on selling your home in todays housing market

I was reading some good news for the real estate market in the Washington Post newspaper the other day that the global technology and consulting firm, Computer Sciences Corp., is relocating its headquarters to Falls Church from El Segundo, California. CSC will be one of the largest companies based in the Washington area. About 200 people would be relocating from the Los Angeles area to Northern Virginia. In this market, I look for every piece of good news for local real estate that I can find.

We are continuing to see an increase in activity at several of our listings. To follow up on my post from the middle of January, sales remained down in 20165 & Ashburn comparing 2007 vs 2008! In January of 2007 there were 66 contracts to ratify compared to 38 in January of 2008. That puts the number of ratified contracts down 42% for January in 20165. In looking at Ashburn, there were 183 contracts ratified in January of 2007 vs. 95 ratified contracts in 2008. That puts the number of ratified contracts down 48% in the Ashburn zip codes. We are seeing an increase in traffic and got a townhome under contract in Ashburn Village this weekend so we will see how sales continue in February!