Germantown, MD Market Report – 9/29/10

While price statistics this month look like a softening market, one month does not make a trend. We will have to see what the next few months bring after the hangover from the housing tax credit diminishes. In order for buyers to get the tax credit before it expired, some third quarter sales were “pulled” into the second quarter causing inflation in the second quarter.

• Homes for sale: 505 (down from 536 in August, up from 427 one year ago)
• Homes sold:  85 (down from 86 in August and down from 98 one year ago)
• Average sales price: $270,664 (down from $284,660 in August 2010 and down from $283,361 one year ago)
• Average days on market: 45 (down from 52 last month, and the same as 45 days one year ago)

Since we have a stabilized unemployment rate and low interest rates what I expect to happen is similar to what happened in the car business after “Cash for Clunkers” ran out; the market will return to equilibrium over a three to six month period. The market will continue to stabilize as long as we can avoid any more government stimulus.

Commentary and analysis provided by David Hess, Executive Vice President.

MyLife in Metro DC: Una fiesta de cumpleaños en Lauriol Plaza

One thing I’ve noticed about getting older is that the months start to go by super quick and before I know it I find myself celebrating yet another birthday (seriously, how is it already SEPTEMBER!? And when did I get so OLD!?).

I have to say, after my 21^st, birthdays just don’t have the same excitement and anticipation surrounding them. But lucky for me, I have amazing friends that keep making my day extra special and my first birthday celebration in DC was no exception! On Tuesday, three of my best friends took me to Lauriol Plaza to celebrate me turning twenty-too-old-to-mention.

With my wonderful friends Raha, Christie & Katie

Lauriol Plaza offers affordable, delicious and diverse Tex-Mex cuisine in a chic urban atmosphere.  The building, located at 1835 18^th Street, NW near Dupont Circle, has outdoor seating on their sidewalk and rooftop patios and indoor seating in their two-tiered dining room. There was a small free valet parking lot behind the building but it filled up quickly, We drove and were able to find street parking along a side road.  The closest metro stop is Dupont Circle and is about .7 miles away if you are up for the walk.

The girls had all raved about how incredible Lauriol Plaza was and I was excited to finally try it for myself.  We started our meal with chips, salsa and guacamole and as someone who has a serious love of avocadoes and guacamole – I must say theirs might be my new favorite! It was so tasty that we couldn’t help but order a second helping!  I’ve been told the swirled margaritas are incredible, but I’m not a tequila person so I tried the red sangria instead.  It was excellent and reasonably priced – a huge plus, as some restaurant’s sangria can be PRICEY.

The Delicious Guacamole and Sangria

For entrees, three of us split the “mixed fajitas for two” and Katie got the fajita salad.  Both of the meals were HUGE and had more than generous portions of chicken and steak.  We ate till we were stuffed and there was still plenty for leftovers.   At the end of our dinner the gracious staff presented me with a birthday flan and sang happy birthday… the singing was the best part of dessert, only because none of us are flan fans, but like they say, it’s the thought that counts!

Birthday Flan

If you are looking for a lively spot to have dinner and drinks with friends or to celebrate your own “too old to mention” birthday I highly recommend Lauriol Plaza.  I loved the modern atmosphere and the food and drinks lived up to all of my friends’ praises.  If you go, be sure to try the margaritas for me!

TIP:  Lauriol Plaza does not accept reservations for dining after 5:30pm and on weekends the wait can be over an hour, so arrive early if you want to avoid the wait or try them at lunch!

To learn more about MyLife, view pictures, videos, post comments, and suggest adventures“Like” MyLife on Facebook!

-Kristin

Yahoo!, Zillow, and the Local Opportunity

This week has been big in the on-line Real Estate space. Something unexpected happened: Yahoo! Real Estate eclipsed Realtor.com as the most heavily trafficked Real Estate website in August.

Yahoo for YAHOO!

Yahoo’s Real Estate Portal edged ahead of Realtor.com last month, ending a 3-year reign atop the list for Move Inc’s NAR backed juggernaut. According to HitWise, Yahoo garnered 5.9% of Real Estate traffic while Realtor.com saw its traffic drop to 5.74% of overall visits. Yahoo’s Real Estate platform seems poised for even more success as they push forward with a partnership with HitWise’s #3 Real Estate site Zillow.com (4.26% market share in August). The Yahoo!/Zillow partnership calls for Zillow.com to provide the listings feed for both on-line portals, and combined, the two will command over 10% of on-line eyeballs for the Real Estate category. But while Move, Yahoo! and Zillow jockey for supremacy in National Real Estate search, there is a tremendous amount of opportunity here locally, on two fronts. On-line and Off-line.

This is where it starts to get interesting.

The Local Opportunity: On-Line

5.9%. That’s a number to keep in mind. That’s the percentage of traffic sent to the #1 Real Estate site in the month of August. That’s a large number of eyeballs. But 94.1% of the rest of us used some other site to search for Real Estate. And in most cases, more than one other site to search for Real Estate. The truth of the matter is that on-line Real Estate search is very fragmented; Real Estate consumers utilize anywhere between 5-7 websites during their home search. Unfortunately, a lot of that fragmented traffic goes to myriad of large national sites replete with data latency issues and inaccurate information. Therein lies our local opportunity.

Many of the national sites experience data latency issues due to the lack of direct feeds from local MLS’ into their sites, which gives an inherent advantage to local brokerage sites because of what we have – accurate and up to date listing information. But here’s the problem. Most local Brokerage sites are terrible. Most also fail to provide a rich, deep consumer experience.

That’s where the national sites make their mark. They deliver deep, rich user experiences that have the consumer coming back for more.

But that’s changing.

Smart brokerages are creating sites that deliver accurate, up-to-date data along with rich user experiences (AveryHess.com is one of these sites, more to come as the year progresses). As Real Estate Brokerages get their on-line act together, local eyeballs will follow.  (Read a comprehensive analysis of the “Property Search Delta” by the Wav Group here).

To the Heart of the Matter: Off-Line

Here’s another number. 80%. That’s the percentage of business Realtors® acquired from their personal Spheres of Influence (SOI) in 2009. That percentage has remained relatively unchanged over the course of two decades. The Internet boom of the 2000′s and the ensuing emergence of on-line sites, on-line lead capture programs and third-party aggregators have had little to no impact on this number.

Consumers whet their appetite online; they still satiate their hunger through the 5 course Real Estate meal offered by local Real Estate professionals. And therein lies the off-line opportunity. Connect with consumers at a hyper-local level, and you offer something far more valuable than a fluffy user experience from an on-line aggregator or valuation model.

The jostling at the national level between Move, Yahoo! and Zillow will be interesting to watch, but for us here locally, it really shouldn’t have any bearing on how we conduct our business. Understanding each market at a hyper-local level, from pricing and market conditions to neighborhoods and local lifestyle is what the consumer craves, what the consumer expects from the professional they choose.

Couple that expertise with a local Real Estate broker who understands the importance of initial on-line engagement with the consumer, and WHAM! You have a recipe for not just local opportunity, but long-term local success.

-Amit

Find Your Home, Plan Your Life: www.averyhess.com

Arlington County Market Report – 9/17/10

Arlington continues to be a favorite location for many reasons. There are so many varied neighborhoods to be found throughout the county. The more established, higher priced neighborhoods are in North Arlington. These communities have easy access to the downtown areas of McLean and Great Falls and are just a short drive across Chain Bridge to Upper Northwest D.C.  South Arlington offers more affordable homes and is convenient to Crystal City and Old Town Alexandria. The Wilson Blvd. corridor from Rosslyn to Ballston is filled with high rise and garden Condo’s, more older, established neighborhoods , and trendy restaurants and shops.

The dog days of summer kept the real estate market relatively stable in August. The significant statistics were literally unchanged from August of 2009, and showed a slight decrease from the previous month. The total number of units sold was exactly the same as in July. The days on market increased by a few days , and the average sold price decreased slightly.  The market seems to have paused at this average price level and the Market Action Index shows that conditions currently favor buyers. Both prices and inventory levels are unchanged in recent weeks.   Buyers seem to have taken another wait and see attitude. Despite historically low interests rates and stable or decreasing prices, there has not been an urgency to enter into the fray.  The government reported recently that 1 in 7 Americans are living near the poverty level. Fear of loss of jobs has stopped otherwise ready buyers from moving forward. I suspect that until after the November elections there will not be much activity.

These are the days that in 5 or 10 years we will look back and say we wished we had bought when the prices and interest rates were so low.  Despite all the gloom in the forecast, owning your home is still the wisest long term investment you can make.

Commentary and analysis provided by Charlie Carroll, Managing Broker, Avery-Hess, Realtors

Find Your Home. Plan Your Life. www.averyhess.com

Leesburg, VA Market Report – 9/16/10

Leesburg is a very stable real estate market. Check out the stats below and see for yourself.

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

• Homes for sale: 585 (up a little from 576 in July and from 541 one year ago)
• Homes sold: 86 (down from 119 in July and 117of one year ago)
• Average sold price: $431.213 (down from 439,662 in July but up from $412,245  same time last year.)
• Average days on market: 63 (very stable through 2010, and down from 84 one year ago.)

The numbers in Leesburg prove that we do not need tax credits to sell houses. People know a good value when they see it and here in Leesburg it can’t be missed.

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 9/15/10

Inventory in Gaithersburg is pretty stable. The number of sales per month is down but houses on the market are still selling in a timely manner.  I am still expecting that new contracts being written will be slowing some as we reach a new level of stability. It is possible that we are at that stabilized level now, however only time will tell.

Here are the statistics for Gaithersburg:

• Homes for sale: 894 (very stable over the past four months, up from 813 in August one year  ago)
• Homes Sold: 142 (down from 160 in July, down from 180 sales one year ago)
• Average sold price: $340,058 (up from $331,238 in June, down from $343,284 one year  ago)-but look at how stable that is!
• Average days on market: 71 (very stable throughout 2010 and back to last year when it was 75 days in August 2009)

What says fall better than crisp, cool mornings, leaves turning beautiful reds, yellows and oranges and the sound of high school football games on a Friday night at any one of the three high schools that call Gaithersburg home.   On Saturday mornings you can see kids of all ages playing soccer or football at one of the athletic fields in Gaithersburg on teams sponsored by the Gaithersburg Boys and Girls Club or the Montgomery Village sports association.  There is still plenty of time to enjoy a game of golf at one of the public golf courses in the area or pick up a game of tennis.  Or get out and enjoy the walking trails and parks in Gaithersburg while the weather is still inviting!

Commentary and analysis provided by David Hess, Executive Vice President.