Centreville, VA Market Report 6/22/10

What happened to all of the dire warnings about shadow inventory and the growing supply of unsold homes? Certainly not in Centreville!

The following statistics reflect the real estate market in Centreville, Virginia:

• Homes for sale: 378 (down from 435 last month, and down slightly from 394 at same time last year.)
• Homes Sold: 126 (up from 110 in April 89 in March and February’s snowy 44 units. Up from 119 one year ago.)
• Average sold price: $347,188 (another jump up from $337,492 last month and WAY UP from $274,000 at the same time last year.)
• Average days on market: 21 (very stable over past four months, but down from 66 days one year ago)

As we have said month after month, prices in Centreville are moving up and have been for the past 18 months. The increased confidence has created a growing trade-up market and that is pushes the prices statistics up at a rapid rate. With today’s interest rates at or near all time lows, even with the rising prices, the average house payment is getting cheaper. So what’s not to like?

Market data, commentary and statistics provided by David Hess, Executive Vice President.

Search for homes in Centreville, and all of the DC Metro: www.averyhess.com

MyLife in Metro DC – In Search of the Perfect Condo

300 seconds.

That’s all the time it took for my new landlords to rent their condo. In those five minutes, not only did I contact them, but they also had six other inquires about their home. How did they do it?

The Internet.

The days of sitting down with the Sunday paper to browse for a new place to live are over. The Internet is now an extremely powerful tool to help people search for a new place to call home.

Personally, I’ve found my last three apartments online. With everything right at my fingertips it’s easy to search and sort through hundreds of listings, view pictures, take virtual tours and contact someone for more information all within minutes.

I planned on starting my search for my new Arlington condo the same way. This time around I’d have a roommate, and we both had our own top 3 “Must Haves” for our new place. I wanted my own bathroom, a gym and a parking spot. He wanted a place close to the metro, a gas range (I’ve quickly learned having a great cook as a roomie is AWESOME), and it had to allowed pets (see below for a picture of our incredibly awesome pup – Nattie).

Nattie - The Incredibly Awesome Pup

And so the search began…

My “go to” search is Craigslist.org. It’s like the Twitter of apartment searches. Listings are constantly being added and posts from a week ago are ancient history.  As I started to search, I became hooked. I’d check Craigslist every ten to fifteen minutes for new posts…I couldn’t bear to think I might miss out on a potentially amazing apartment. I had to be “in the know.”

But just like Twitter, everything you read is not always as it seems.

I looked at listings that boasted of the apartment’s hardwood floors and gorgeous city views. The post’s professional photographs made me feel like I was turning the pages of House Beautiful. The price seemed too good to be true and the landlord called back right away to set up a viewing.

Then I’d arrive at the apartment.

The hardwood floors were old and splintered. The city views were of a back alley, complete with a gathering of the local homeless shifting through the dumpster by the master bedroom window. The Landlord admits the pictures might be a “bit outdated” and tells me the rent actually has some “extra” fees and an outrageous security deposit, but the place is a real “steal” for the location.

Yikes.

Weeks of this went on and time was running out – I was starting my new job in a week and still had no place to live. We had found nothing but dead ends, disappointments, no pets, no parking and nothing but electric ranges. I started to feel like our perfect condo didn’t exist.

One Last Look…

Then, that Friday evening, I decided to break from packing up my apartment – I couldn’t fight my urge to check Craigslist one last time before going out. And to my delight a new listing had just been posted three minutes prior. I read the listing almost in disbelief…it was …the PERFECT CONDO. Two bedrooms, two bath, located two blocks from the metro. It had a pool and a gym and came with a garage parking spot. Then came the last line, it read – “One small to medium sized dog is welcomed – no cats, reptiles or other pets allowed.” It was like the listing was made just for us!

I emailed, five minutes has past since the listing was posted.  The landlord called back immediately and from the very start of our  conversation, I got a great vibe from her. It was a welcomed surprise to find out their unit was in a building we had previously visited and loved.  I excitedly set up a viewing for that Sunday.

My roommate was on a sailboat, in the middle of the bay all weekend, so I when ahead and visited the place without him. As soon as they opened the door fell in love both with the condo and our future landlords – the place was adorable, they were two of the nicest people I’ve ever met and they too had an incredibly sweet dog. I made the bold decision of paying the deposit without my roommate ever even seeing the place, but I knew (or more so hoped) he’d agree that I had finally found the right condo for us.

Luckily, after seeing it for himself, he did agree. So did Nattie.  Three weeks later we all moved in.

So after endless hours of searching, it all came down to 5 minutes. 300 seconds. In the world of Internet searches, it’s all about being in the right place at the right time…maybe with a little bit of luck sprinkled in too.

View of Arlington and DC from our Living Room

- Kristin

Leesburg, VA Market Report – 6/17/10

After being overly stimulated by government interference into the real estate market via the various tax credits, the market is returning to a normal balance of supply and demand and normal negotiations between buyers and sellers.

The figures below reflect the Leesburg, Virginia market during the month of May 2010.

• Homes for sale: 618 (down from 646 last month, and down from 643 one year ago)
• Homes sold: 91 (down from the tax credit induced frenzy  of 108 last month)
• Average sold price: $417,479 (down just a smidge from $420,963 last month but still up from $385,551 same time last year.)
• Average days on market: 59 (up from 55 last month and way down from 113 one year ago.)

Increasing consumer confidence combined with historically low interest rates have combined to help make it fun to trade up to a larger house again. Homeowners with equity are finding good demand for their homes and are happy with the supply of higher priced houses they have to choose from. Prices in Leesburg reflect this new healthy and stable market.

Market data and  commentary provided by David Hess, Executive Vice President and Managing Broker.

Search for homes in Leesburg, and all of the DC Metro: www.averyhess.com

Gaithersburg, MD Market Report 6/15/10

For the month of May, the average sales price in Gaithersburg got back onto its slow steady rise in average sale prices. Thus the average rose from $330,231 to $345,753. For the first time in a long time, prices in Gaithersburg are beating their one year ago comparisons.  Below you’ll find statistics as well as a full report for Gaithersburg, Maryland.

• Homes for sale: 867 (down from 902 last month and down from 945 one year ago)
• Homes Sold: 214 (very close to last month’s 211 and up from 156 one year ago)
• Average sold price: $345,753 (up from $330,231 last month and up from $336,760 one year ago)
• Average days on market: 43 (down from 48 last month and 115 days from one year ago)

What has made the big statistical change is the re-emergence of a trade up market. Existing property owners with equity are selling and buying more expensive houses. This has brought life to the market above $500,000 and the increase in sales at the higher price range is pulling up the average and median prices.

The drop in days on market says that the demand is real as buyers choose faster and faster.

Gaithersburg is a very diverse area with the charm of Old Town mixing with the newest type of planned community found in the development known as Kentlands with its condos, rental apartments, townhomes and large single family houses.  Walk among the streets of Kentlands and you will see the residents and visitors enjoying the restaurants, small shops, and movie theaters as well as the larger stores such as Kmart and Lowe’s.

Data, analysis, and commentary provided by David Hess, Executive Vice President.

Find your in Gaithersburg and all of Montgomery County: www.averyhess.com

MyLife in Metro DC – New Beginnings

When you decide to embark on the tumultuous journey of finding the perfect job, it can feel like a cycle of lost hope and endless rejection.  It’s like going through a bad break up… on a weekly basis.

“What do you mean I’m not good enough?  Why won’t he call me back? Does this mean you want to see other people?”

And then, right when you’ve reached rock bottom, when you are ready to settle for mediocrity, to work as one of the masses in a dead end job, it happens.

As you stare defeated at your computer screen, hidden behind the banner ads and posts for terrible sales jobs, you find it.  The endless hours submitting applications and scrolling through job posts suddenly all seems worth it; you’ve found – the ONE.

You walk down the street to your interview, birds start chirping, everyone stops to say “hello,” the Starbuck’s barista even gives you your coffee for free.  This is it, the day you knew would one day come, the day you’ve been waiting for – Utopia found.

There is nothing better than this feeling; all your hard work has finally paid off.  For me, as I floated around on my cloud of euphoria, I quickly remembered accepting the perfect job meant moving to Metro DC.  From past experiences, I knew finding the perfect city to call “home” was just as challenging as finding the perfect job…thus my journey continued…

Choosing Your Perfect City

Trying to decide on what area of a new city to live in is an extremely important decision. The area you choose can totally influence how comfortable you are, shape the first experiences you have in your new city and affect your overall happiness– this makes it crucial you pick the right place.

I was very fortunate during this part of my journey.  A huge benefit of moving to DC was that I already knew plenty of people in the city.  This was extremely helpful when it came to finding the perfect part of the city to call home.  I thought about the cities my friends lived in, the ones I enjoyed visiting and started calling old friends and classmates to find out how they liked where they were currently living.  From these chats, I came up with the three most important things for me to consider when picking my new city.

1)  Traffic – Morning commutes in Metro DC can be some of the worst in the country! My office is near Tysons Corner, which as many know can be a maze of endless traffic that stretches on for miles.  I knew living in Tysons wasn’t where I wanted to be, so I was looking for other cities that had a “reverse” commute.”  (In Metro DC, this means it only takes 30 minutes to go 5 miles instead of over an hour…)

2)  “Walkability” – There’s something irresistible to me about having everything you could possibly need within a few blocks from your house.   I love being able to park my car on a weekend and not see it again until Monday.  Being able to walk to everywhere, to the grocery store, friend’s houses, bars and restaurants was critical in my city choice.

3)  Active – I’m a 26 year old single female.  I was moving to a new city, wanted to meet lots of new people and was not ready for the “burbs” (and don’t know if I ever will be…).  I wanted to find a city that had an energetic social scene with people my age and lots of options of things to do.

For me, Arlington became a clear winner.  It’s a quick (again quick in DC is a relative term) reverse commute on 66 West to Tysons, you can walk everywhere (if you can’t, you can just hop on the metro), and there is an abundance of “20 somethings” living in the area that partake in the endless choices of happy hour specials.  The next chapter of my journey was now complete and I hopped back on my cloud and floated happily along.

New City – Check.

My advice to you – Come up with a list of three or four characteristics that are critical for your new city, then start researching.  Talk to your friends, family members, and new coworkers.  Google cities until you can Google no more.  As you do this, places will start to eliminate themselves, leaving you with a few great options.  Before making the “big move,” visit these places and see which city fits you best. I guarantee one will stand out from the rest and be perfect location for you to call “home.”

-  Kristin

Sunset in Georgetown overlooking my new city - Arlington

Up next:  Finding a Condo and Making the “Big Move”

Facebook Privacy Made Simple

Privacy, or more specifically the confusion surrounding privacy, on Facebook has been the focus of much media attention and user distress in the past few months.  Facebook has changed settings and auto-enabled features without notifying its users and left many feeling their privacy on the social network is in jeopardy.

In response, Facebook has launched new privacy settings that give users significantly more control over their personal information.  Not only do users have more control, but these controls are also a lot simpler. The changes focus around three things: a single control for user’s content, more control for user’s basic information and easy ways to control and turn off applications.

In Real Estate, these security settings are important for us, and for our business. These settings will allow us to better control our brand messaging, and to separate our personal information and posts from our business/professional content and posts.

Facebook is introducing these changes in phases to the 400 million plus users.  When the changes are activated on your account a message will appear on your home screen alerting you of the new settings.  Click the link to find out more and view your settings. If you’ve already seen this note and “X’d” it, you can access the new settings by clicking on “My Account” and then choosing “Privacy Settings”

You’ll notice right away the settings page has been redesigned and is much simpler to navigate.  With one click you can set up a broad based privacy setting just by deciding if you want to share all your content with “Everyone”  “Friends of Friends” or just “Friends.”

Already have privacy settings in place and want to review or update them or have total control over your content? Just click on “Custom” (then click on “Customize Settings”) and you can decide on each piece of content individually.  This choice is the most complex of choices, but gives you the most options.

Want to pick and choose who can see what but don’t know where to start.  Click on “Recommended” (which personally Idon’t recommend) and Facebook will give you their suggested settings to use.  I’d only suggest using this setting if you are comfortable sharing a large amount of profile information with “Everyone.”

The BEST part about the new settings– once you set up these controls they will apply to all new products launched by Facebook, keeping YOU in control of your information and what is being shared.  Hooray!

The new settings page also provides you with easy to find links where you can edit what basic directory information you share, block people or block applications.  You can turn off the “instant personalization” application (allows Facebook to share your information with their third party partners) under the “Applications & Website” section.

Still need a little more guidance?  Click on “Learn More” under the “Controlling How You Share” icon and Facebook will break down the options even further.  Facebook also created a Fan Page for “Facebook & Privacy.”  You can “like” this page and have updates they post included in your news feed.  Avery-Hess Agents also remember that I’m just a call or quick visit away to help you out if you ever have questions or need assistance.  Happy & Safe Facebooking!

- Kristin