Loudoun Real Estate Blog

I have been doing some pricing analysis on home sales in Belmont Country Club in Ashburn, Virginia. The last three homes to sell in Belmont Country Club were bank owned or relocation company owned homes.  All three homes sold at $160-$166 per square foot above grade. I used the above grade square footage as determined by the county tax records. I figured that using the above grade square footage per the tax records would be easiest for consistency and then could add or subtract a dollar amount based on condition, finished basement, upgrades, etc. In September there were several sales of homes that sold for $180-200/sq. ft. above grade and a bank owned home that sold for $159/sq. ft. above grade. Of the homes currently available in Belmont Country Club, I know that at least two homes have offers in. Both of these homes are listed for $190-$195/sq. ft. above grade which supports our analysis. Basically, it looks like if you want to sell a home in Belmont Country Club, the price needs to be below $200/sq. ft. above grade. There are currently homes listed for sale at prices as high as $280/sq. ft. above grade. Obviously, they need to read this blog post.

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

Some good news from Martin Crutsinger, an AP Economics Writer, reported this afternoon that sales of existing homes in February nationwide increased after six months of decline. Most experts and economists said it is too early to tell if the decline in the housing market is coming to an end.

There were actually some positive signs in the real estate market at the national level lately. New mortgage applications jumped up in the beginning of March for the first time in more than a month according to the Mortgage Bankers Assocation. Also, the pending home sale index didn’t decline in February as many predicted. It stayed flat. Finally, the Federal Reserve is keeping short term interest rates low. Could this mean real estate conditions are improving? I will keep you posted.

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