Please post your local house search updates, MLS finds, on-topic ideas, and links here.
In the News:
"The federal government yesterday expanded its bailout to another vulnerable sector, saying it will inject $1 billion into a nonprofit company that provides banking services to the credit union industry. . . . The federal aid comes from assessments on the industry, not from taxpayers. . . . The corporate credit unions together invested about $64 billion from their members in mortgage-related securities, which have declined in value by $18 billion as the market has plunged. Accounting rules are forcing the corporate credit unions to acknowledge those declines. On Monday, U.S. Central told the NCUA [National Credit Union Administration] it estimated a fourth-quarter loss of $1.2 billion on its loan portfolio. The NCUA board met behind closed doors yesterday and then announced the intervention".
20 comments:
help me find a TH...200K in Springfield Farnconia near metro or burke....must be safe area....
Frankly 22315,22150 active under $250k
They are apparently getting snatched up quickly, because there are 3 pages of results for under 250k originally and only 1 page if you add "active" to the search.
I would suggest the two in Windsor Park for right this instant. You'll have to low-ball them, but there should be the comps to support that.
Grandview of Virginia and Villa Del Ray are also falling like rocks with fewer takers, and walkable via a bike-overpass to the metro, but I haven't walked those neighborhoods yet, because I don't like how close they are to 95 S for pollution reasons.
I'm not familiar enough with Burke to verify the safety or proximity to the VRE of those townhomes but there were a bunch under $200k on Monday that were within 2 miles of the VRE stops. (search frankly with Burke and TH)
You need to set up alerts with Frankly or otherwise, because apparently people (other than me) have started buying them.
Oh and there's two in Landsdowne, which is a longer walk to the metro, but right next to the best restaurant in town, the sushi place in Landsdowne Center. (and you have to walk by the farmer's market on your way home). (and those are already closer to $200k, so it's not as much of a low-ball.)
(town* did a better job of picking up townhomes than TH)
is the FHA funding fees are normal for a FHA loan. is this mandated for a FHA loan. what about the %, is this also required. will this change by lender or required by FHA. any ideas...thanks.
Where can we get tax payment history for a pwc property.
I think "snapped up quickly" might be a bit optimistic, because if I delete "active" from your search, most of the inactives were on the market for 100+ days.
Novawatcher,
That's true, these are all the same ones I've been seeing since this summer, but they're all going under contract now. Which for many of them is within weeks of being listed under $230k. The point is, the inventory of ones with this low of a list price is under 1 month's worth right now.
This could convince others in those subdivisions that perhaps their wishing prices of $280-$350 need revision, and these will become available, but still... And I'm hoping this will allow banks to start marketing their ghost inventory at market prices now that things are moving. But that's assuming that there are any more foreclosures in these neighborhoods.
Or maybe it's the flipper fairy who's snatching them all up to renovate inexpensively but tastefully to put back on the market at $250k starting in May, just in time for me to buy one.
Hmmm. Nightmare or the day-dream, which is less likely??? Hard to say.
Manju,
The FHA mortgage insurance premium is 1.5% of the loan. It's fully tax deductible in the following tax year (adjusted percentage-wise with income over 100K), as are the monthly premium payments. (IRS PDF file).
The Prince William tax assessment database is under "County Assessment Websites" on the front page of this blog, third column on the right and down the page. It doesn't show if the taxes were paid, but for needing more info. on a specific property I would try calling 703-792-6710.
Maybe someone else knows if delinquent PW County taxes are easy to find somewhere. Usually they're published in the local newspaper.
Buck,
Here's one in Rolling Valley: FX6958679. No idea what the neighborhood is like. Haven't looked at the place in person. Not really within walking distance to the metro. Affordable.
Good luck.
Ex-Fannie Mae worker charged with planting computer virus
Cara,
thanks. So, for example, this TH
http://franklymls.com/FX6875381
has been on the market 134 days with the last price reduction on 10/10/08. assuming that nothing is wrong with the place, what would you consider a lowball offer? Current list is $239K.
thanks
Buck,
you asked for $200k, so 40k off is almost 20% off their list price of $239k, which by my understanding would be a low-ball offer. Recently the MRIS data showed sale prices to be ~92% of final list, so 10% off is not low-balling.
However, what you really need to do is get the most recent comps. Which, as a non-realtor, I don't think I have easy access to. But I would say, given the other list prices in Windsor Park, the sale prices are likely to be $210ish, such that a bid of $215k should be accepted by this seller, especially given that they haven't bothered to update their list price recently. But you really need an agent for this, not me.
Keep in mind, at a sale price of $220k in the current market of 5% interest rates, buying these places wins over renting them at $1600/month even without any future appreciation, covering the 6% realtor fees solely with the cash-flow savings in under 5 years. So, these are good prices, and a possible true bottom for this segment of the market if this sales pace keeps up.
I would caution that rent parity is not necessarily the true bottom of the market. A combination of inventory glut and slow/negative economic growth could drive down rents as well. So even if the property is at rental parity today, theoretically there is nothing stopping rents and property values to fall further in the future.
Rental parity is probably a necessary but not sufficient condition for buying to be the right decision.
I'm a renter about a mile from the Ballston/Va Square metro, and it looks to me like the rental market for 1 bedroom apartments within a few blocks of the Orange line stations has softened recently. For instance well-furnished 700 sq ft apartments within a few blocks of a station on the Courthouse-Ballston corridor are now going from the low $1500s per month. 12-18 months ago these places were going for the low $1700s. Given how many seem to be available and the fact that there are still new buildings being built that are yet to come online, I suspect rents have more to fall still.
I can second Chirdson- A lot of good rental deals can be found right now. After briefly flirting with buying, I've searched and signed a lease for a redone place 5 minutes walk from the orange line for a great price. I had my pick of a bunch of places and could afford to be choosy, despite my relatively low budget.
Lots of bigger complexes are playing games with the rent by offering several months free and outright discounting the rent. We'll see how long that lasts.
Chirdson, Hi
Good point. There aren't any new construction luxury apartments coming on line near FS metro, but given the relative uniformity of rents throughout DC, F-S will also be effected one way or another.
I also wrote Frankly, who said that there are reasons some people hold off on purchases until after Jan 1, so that's likely to be the reason for this flurry of activity on long sitting properties.
The "lease now" signs are constant at the Kingstowne apartment complexes, so vacancies must be available, and given our one month's rent concession this September, it's not hard to imagaine rents dropping.
Hey Cara,
You are right.
I don't remember what Alexandria was, but I just saw a report yesterday about Prince William and how the inventory went from like 12-18 months to like 4 or 5 months. And 20%-30% fewer new listings are coming on the market, whiile the number of transactions was up sharply (as in some crazy number like 50 or 100%).
While initially I said more listings come on in the spring, to balance out the increased buying, I got to thinking... that is for regular homeowner resales. I don't think banks really care about when they list. They don't care about flowers.
(There are rumors that banks are holding back inventory for another wave, but who knows)
Bottom line is, I dont believe in trying to time the market bottom. Instead, find the time that works for you, and then buy at that point. Also keep in mind the $7500 1st time homeowner tax credit (which will probably be extended, but you never know)
Frank
frank,
Yeah, I think you'll see that that bump in buying in Fairfax/Greater Alexandria was pretty significant in our price bracket.
Bank's don't care about flowers but they do care about incentives the government is going to give to buyers. I think many (as made obvious by the extended foreclosure moratoria by Fannie and Freddie) are waiting to see what the government will do to slow/halt the decline. So, once Obama signs the stimulus package and it's clear buyers will get up to a 15k rebate from the Fed for buying this year (not just first time buyers and not just a 0% interest loan), banks will then feel free to start listing properties.
What that will do is another question. But we're waiting to see what actually comes out of the stimulus package ourselves before re-evaluating our decision to hold off until August (i.e. stick to our personal timeline for the best time for us to buy).
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