Loudoun Real Estate Blog

Average home prices rose in August for the first time in several years in Loudoun County. According to the MRIS, in August 2009, average home sale prices in Loudoun County are up 5.9% from the same time last year. In addition, the number of homes listed for sale is down 25% from last year in some areas. Buyers have been taking advantage of the combination of low interest rates and depressed prices as well as the temporary tax credit for first-time home buyers.

It has been a busy summer in the real estate market in Loudoun County, Virginia. According to NVAR, in July, 2009 pending and sold transactions for single family detached homes has remained relatively stable while the inventory available is at the lowest point it has been all year, 1369 homes. Obviously, fewer homes on the market should been better prices for sellers. According the NVAR, the average days on market has decreased since February 2009. In July, 2009 the average days on market for single-family detached homes in Loudoun County was 73 days down from over 125 days in February. Could it be the market in Loudoun County is recovering? I would recommend that buyers take advantage quickly of the lower prices and low interest rates.

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.

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.

Looking at the Loudoun County average sales price of homes monthly since 1996, a few interesting things stand out to me. First of all, the average sales price of homes in Loudoun County has steadily risen since 1996 at a rate of 4%-7% every year. In 2004 and 2005, the average sales price of homes increased dramatically. At the end of 2007, the average sales price in Loudoun County is down to about where it was in the middle to end of 2004. Furthermore, if the average sales price had continued at the appreciate rate prior to 2004, average prices would be about where they are now.  The increased foreclosures and short sales doesn’t help but could it be that the “pricing adjustment” is almost over?