Camberley Homes, Boulevard at Brambleton Starts Selling This Weekend

Camberley Homes, Boulevard at Brambleton will officially open their sales office this Saturday, September 18, 2010. I stopped by last Saturday while giving home buyers a tour of Brambleton. We had a chance to spend some time with Mike, the sales manager and get more of the latest details.

To go into detail would be a looooooong blog post so I’ll give you the short “in a nutshell” version here – email or call me for the details.

Camberley Homes, Boulevard at Brambleton

- Base prices range from $370K to $403K depending on the model
- There are four different models to choose from
- Two car garages are standard
- Much different layout than typical town home buildings
- Camberley Homes is more willing to customize than most builders
- Delivery of the first building and town homes in Spring 2011 (April/May)
- Some 3 bedroom models can be made into 2 master bedroom models
- One model has a rooftop terrace (they may offer the terrace on other models in the future)

There’s a lot of information about Camberley Homes, Boulevard at Brambleton’s models and features online on their site and blog. But that’s only the tip of the iceberg.

If you would like more information or to set up a time to check out the sales center or get a tour of Brambleton, click here to contact me.

And if you haven’t read this blog post about buying a new construction home, click here to do so now.

First Ever Braxton Model by Stanley Martin Homes in Greene Mill Preserve

The first ever Braxton model by Stanley Martin Homes in their Greene Mill Preserve community is complete! Not only is this the first Braxton model by Stanley Martin Homes in their Greene Mill Preserve community in Leesburg…it is the first Braxton model they’ve built for any customer in the entire area. My clients will be settling on the property this Friday, September 18, 2010 and are excited to live in their new home that they’ve watched being built since February.

This particular Braxton model is Elevation E (reversed). This elevation comes with a wrap-around front porch, a specific style of windows and partial stone with a side-load garage.

This home is loaded with pretty much every structural option you can get including the bonus room with full bathroom above the garage and the 4th level loft with full bathroom. My clients decided to also finish off about 2/3 of the basement which includes a large rec room, bedroom and full bathroom. The unfinished space in the basement is being used as a large storage area, but you can easily finish off part of it into a media room, kids playroom or exercise room with plenty of space left for storage.

Remember how they say, “Looks can be deceiving”? This home has over 7000 finished square feet yet its footprint is not as large as most other homes with similar finished space. This is mainly due to the bonus room being above the garage and the 4th level loft which doesn’t add to the width or depth of the home. And personally…I’d rather have finished space than useless attic space.

Some of the best features of this home (IMHO) are…

- the kitchen area with large center island and room for several stools which opens up into the breakfast room, (future) deck, family room

- great use of square footage. Many larger homes have less usable space with lots of  “dead” space throughout the home

- option for bonus room and loft both with full bathrooms is excellent if you have teenagers who want their “own space” or family/friends that visit often and/or stay for a while

- the 2 car garage is actually a 2.5 car garage. You can easily have a workshop or store motorcycles, bicycles or lawn mowers in the side of the garage while having plenty of room to open your car door without hitting something. Plus, there’s an option for a 3 car garage.

- It’s not about the actual home itself, but it’s worth mentioning… The Greene Mill Preserve community is far away so you feel like you’re away from the hustle and bustle yet, it’s only about a mile from the Brambleton Town Center and a few miles away from major routes, downtown Leesburg, etc.

If you would like more information about the Braxton or any other model Stanley Martin Homes offers or the Greene Mill Preserve community in general, feel free to contact me.

NOTE: If you can not see the slide show in this post, click here to check out the photos on Flickr.

Cost of FHA Financing Going Up 63 Percent

As of October 4, the cost of FHA financing is going up. And not just by a little – an average of 63 percent.

A home buyer purchasing a $200,000 home using a $193,000 FHA mortgage before October 4 would pay an insurance premium of $88.46 per month. If the same home buyer waits until after October 4, the insurance premium would jump to $148.01. In this example, the home buyer would lose $59.55 per month, or $7,146 over a 10-year time frame.

According to Gibran Nicholas, chairman of the CMPS Institute, an organization that trains and certifies mortgage bankers and brokers, “Although the upfront mortgage insurance premium is going down after October 4, the real impact to the home buyer is actually a net increase in their out of pocket costs because the monthly premium is going up by 63%. Remember, buyers can pay the upfront premium or it can be financed into the loan amount, so homebuyers rarely pay the upfront premium out of pocket. On the other hand, the increase in the monthly premiums will be paid right out of the home buyer’s pocket with their mortgage payment each month.”

So there it is folks…the cost of FHA financing is going up by an average of 63 percent.

And here I was thinking that the government was here to help make housing more affordable and do things to help the housing market recover.

Silly me.

Brambleton New Home Model Home Map

Curious about new homes being built in Brambleton? Would you like to take a tour of the different builders’ models, but not sure where they are? Well, here’s a map of the various builder’s model homes and sales centers.

Note: Give me a call or email me before you check out the model homes so I can give you the inside scoop on each builder, models and their specific section within Brambleton.