Beacon Hill - Large Supply Makes For A Buyer’s Delight

If you’re a buyer considering the Beacon Hill community of Loudoun County, the market conditions are definitely on your side. Beacon Hill, located just outside of Leesburg city limits off of Route 7, has a total of 24 properties for sale as of this afternoon. The asking prices range from $900,000 to $5,200,000.

Beacon Hill has had 3 properties sell so far this year (1/1/08 through 4/29), all because they were great deals. That’s .75 sales per month. With 24 properties for sale, that’s a 32 month supply of inventory. (As a reference, a "balanced" market is one with 6 month’s worth of inventory)

What does this mean to you as a buyer?

1. You have plenty of properties to choose from
2. The market conditions are on your side
3. Deals are few and far between, but they’re definitely out there

What does this mean to you as a seller in Beacon Hill?

1. Price your property competitively
2. Make sure the entire property "shows" as best as possible
3. Pay close attention to what your competitors are doing and stay ahead of the game

For more information about Beacon Hill or available properties in the area, don’t hesitate to email or call me 703-582-6900.

-Danilo

Loudoun County Real Estate Showing Signs of Strength

During the month of April, the Loudoun County real estate market has showed signs of strengthening on both sides of the supply and demand equation.

Listings have remained steady at or near the 2600 mark for the entire month.  Currently at 2626, this shows that there hasn’t been the usual spike in new listings that outstrip the number of sales.  That was the case for 2005, 2006 and 2007 but not this year.

Demand has been very good for the month with 555 homes going under contract this month in Loudoun County with 2 more days left in the month.  In 2007 there were only 491 sales in the month of April.

Several new home builders left the area in the last couple of months including KB Homes.  This has decreased the supply of new homes in the area. 

Houses that are priced agressively are being greated by multiple contracts from buyers looking for good values.  There are a tremendous amount of buyers that have been on the sidelines for quite some time that are starting to jump into the market.   This listing in Sterling Park had 7 offers in 6 days.

We might not be at the very bottom but these four signs show that we are no longer in a freefall here in Loudoun County.

The 2008 Guide To Loudoun County

The folks over at LoudounExtra.com (Washington Post) just released "The Guide 2008: Where We Live". It’s an online guide to Loudoun County that covers everything from neighborhoods and attractions to schools and transportation.

To check it out, click here.

-Danilo

Tax Rates May Be Eroding Loudoun’s Appeal To Home Owners

The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors recently approved a tax rate increase of 19 percent setting a tax rate of $1.14 per $100 in property value. Fairfax County announced today that the tax rate will only increase by 3 percent to 92 cents per $100 in property value. This means that Loudoun’s tax rate is 20 percent higher than Fairfax’s.

Perhaps the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors raised the tax rate to help curb budget short-falls, something they perceive as important to Loudoun’s short-term survival. But, by doing so, they may be eroding Loudoun’s appeal to home owners, a serious long-term issue.

Let’s not forget that two of the big reasons Loudoun County grew so quickly were lower taxes and the ability to get more house for your money. At least one of those two is still true today - more house for your money. As for the other - not so much.

With taxes being as high as they are, a huge chunk has been taken out of the overall appeal of Loudoun County. If people start looking to Fairfax or surrounding counties rather than Loudoun, then we’ll have more than just one year’s worth of budget short-falls. That’s a viscious cycle that none of us want to see start.

-Danilo

The Longer The Commute, The Harder Home Values Were Hit?

National Public Radio (NPR) ran a story today that suggests that areas with longer commutes and the lack of a good mass transit system are getting harder hit than those areas closer in with a proper mass transit system. This story hits very close to those in Loudoun County considering the sharp decrease in home values and the proposed Dulles Rail project being dead in the water.

To listen to and/or read the story, click here.

Further Reading:

"Update On Dulles Rail Project and Proffer System - Straight From Richmond"

-Danilo

HOA and Condo Associations Passing The Buck To Residents

Many home owner and condo associations are running into issues collecting money due to people not being able to afford (or not wanting to pay) their monthly dues. Some home owners just turned in the keys, moved and can’t even be found.

So what are the home owner and condo associations doing as result of the lost revenue? They have to either lower expenses or replace the missing revenue. This could mean a cut in services or raising dues. Basically, they’re passing the buck to the residents who are paying their dues every month like they’re supposed to.

So has anyone experienced any of the following because their HOA is having issues collecting dues?

• Cut services
• Raised dues
• Forced residents to do maintenance on their own
• Association went bankrupt

-Danilo

Equity, Basheer & Edgemoore Follow KB Homes Out The Door

Yesterday, I found out that KB Homes was pulling out of their Martin’s Chase community in Loudoun County. Today, a fellow Loudoun County real estate agent, Heather Elias reports on her blog, LoCo Real Estate Musings that Equity Homes and Basheer & Edgemoore are also on the way out the door.

"…I noticed that the inventory homes for Equity Homes, a builder with communities under construction in Purcellville and Round Hill, were now listed as owned by a trustee, including the model home at the Highlands in Round Hill. I did some digging but could only come up with a news article regarding the builder pulling out of a community in Westmoreland County, saying that they had ceased business operations."

"…Basheer & Edgemoore, a luxury home builder working on a community called Park Meadows just outside of Leesburg, is now selling 3 to 9 acre lots within the community from $325,000. I知 not sure how many finished homes they have there, but they were certainly billing it as an exclusive community (only 17 home sites) when they started marketing it; I知 hoping there are some restrictions on what can be built on those lots so that the folks that have already moved in there are living in a community that reflects what they thought they were purchasing."

Though these three builders are "outta here", most seem to be sticking around. For now…

Further Resources:

Park Meadows community - Basheer & Edgemoore

Equity Homes - Loudoun County communities

-Danilo

KB Homes Pulls Out Of Loudoun County

KB Homes is pulling out of it Martin’s Chase community in Loudoun County, as well as the entire mid-Atlantic region due to poor market performance. KB Homes said the move will help it hold on to cash reserves and ride out the housing crash.

The builder has 5 communities in the mid-Atlantic region including Martin’s Chase. The Martin’s Chase community is located between Belmont Ridge Rd and Evergreen Mills Rd just down the street from Brambleton.

I called KB Homes this morning to get more information on what was going on with Martin’s Chase. Here’s what they told me:

• They are only selling the model homes and current inventory/spec homes. Inventory/spec homes are homes that are already under construction, but the buyer pulled out of their contract
• They will not be building any new homes from scratch
• They have closed their sales center
• All calls are being directed to their call center and their "Home Finder Center"

According to the person on the phone, whether we’ll see KB Homes back in the area again is "yet to be determined".

-Danilo

Why A Final Walk-Through Inspection Is Important and What To Look For

A final walk-through inspection is important to all buyers because it’s your last chance to inspect the property before closing. The whole point of the walk-through inspection is to protect yourself and your future property from sellers that may not have lived up to the terms of the contract. If the seller has not, you want to know about it in advance of the closing so remedies (both monetary and otherwise) can be agreed upon before money changes hands.

So what should you look for during a final walk-through inspection?

Read more

NVTA Mimics Google To Help Plead It’s Case

The Northern Virginia Transportation Authority (NVTA) seems to be mimicking Google in their latest tactic to gain support for congestion relief.

Similar to Google driving around and videotaping streets across the country, the NVTA is asking residents to create orignial content videos of their commute and upload them to a special NVTA You Tube channel.

The idea is to show legislators just how much traffic congestion affects residents’ daily lives.

Here is the NVTA press release:

Read more

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