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Monday, March 16, 2009
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22 comments:
Hello,
During the past few years I went from HBB to Calculated Risk learning things. I started writing very short stories about what I thought the future might bring. They started getting long so it was suggested I post them on a site and link to them. I started doing that in the past few months.
It has grown to an onging serial novel that takes place in No. VA.
If anyone is interested; it is at:
http://afterthecrash.net/?author=2
I am interested in feedback.
thx
nova
I read the first chapter.
Nice work.
I went to the open house at this TH in Windsor Park:
http://franklymls.com/FX6951138
It was useful, we learned that indeed these meet the minimum size we feel we need, so the division is definitely still in the running. But while the heirs have done a good job with their updates, nice, inexpensive, choices on the flooring, good taste on the new vanities, this place still appears to have minor issues that make it's new lower list price of $319k inappropriate. Dead flies near all the bedroom windows? Questionable 6 outlet fronts on the outlets in the living room (so that it was hard to tell if they were originally grounded outlets) wierd choice of carpeting over the sump pump in the family room, a missing lint collector on the dryer, and more structurally, two of the 4 bathrooms were too cramped to fit a waste-basket. That said, there was nothing wrong with it that price couldn't fix. It's just I'd much rather see someone else buy it for $280k then it to still be on the market waiting for us to put in an offer. Because I don't love it. And I really didn't like the constant views of your neighbors townhouses out all the nice big windows.
@J@
Thanks,
No.VA. seems to be doing very well compared to the rest of the US. On the way in I heard a WaPo add for buying real estate:
Voice 1: "Is it a good time to buy?"
Voice 2: We'll we placed an offer, and we were outbid!"
In a NY times article on what to do if you're under water I found this gem:
Some lenders aren’t waiting that long to initiate their own foreclosure destigmatization programs. The Golden 1, one of the nation’s largest credit unions, now has a mortgage repair loan for people who have lost a home to foreclosure but want to buy a new one.
It’s hard to imagine that there won’t be a parade of insurance companies, credit card issuers and mortgage lenders in Golden 1’s wake, even though Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may be unwilling to guarantee the mortgages of such borrowers for several years. In fact, Aaron Bresko, the vice president of lending for BECU, another large credit union based in Washington State, is putting together a panel called “How to Lend to the Newly Credit Impaired” for a conference later this year.
“Good people have bad things happen to them, so how do you find those people and reach out to them?” he said. “As the year progresses, it’s going to be an emerging market.”
Great....
Just what the doctor ordered, let those who timed the market incredibly poorly right back in to the market again... For a price, presumably.
Killing time while waiting to hear about our offer on the 11-acre place, I checked out a couple townhouse neighborhoods in Manassas that were really destroyed by foreclosures, Georgetown South and Bristoe Station. I was just curious about their assessed values.
Georgetown South townhouses are now assessed in the $60Ks. Bristoe Station rowhouses are now assessed just over $100K. Both were selling in the $300Ks at the peak. I saw one recent sale in Georgetown for $30K, and asking prices in Bristoe start in the $70Ks. Assessments are just about half what they were last year.
Current sales are below 1980s prices.
I have a very good friend who lives in Bristoe Station. Their house is now assessed for less than what they paid in 2001. In 2006, they bought some land out in Nokesville, intending to build someday. Now they don't know what to do.
We're all keeping our fingers crossed for you Tabitha!
Tabitha..did you go with the 570 or the 550 or the 530? Wish you luck. My assessment went down 17.5% and the assors office isn't projecting any further declines in 2010.
Here's one for all my friends out there who think assessments don't mean anything:
http://franklymls.com/PW6799387
asking price: $1.8 million
2009 assessed value: $369,800
Mismatch, no?
Current owners paid $400,000 in 1994, BTW.
Tabitha,
Do the furniture, rugs, pewter and silver convey??? Just askin.
A clever burglar would peruse real estate listings for addresses with good scores.
cara, wish I knew. I would kill lions and tigers with my bare hands to live there with dozens of cats. I could wear my long skirts every day, and no one would ever see me on my 25 acres. Grow some crops. Raise sheep.
Why did we ever stop building such exquisite houses? 8 fireplaces?!
Well, don't I feel like a dummy.
This historical home is one of those properties that is so fantabulous, there are THREE columns to add on the assessment website. The one I looked at was just for the "improvements," and did not count the land, which was, ahem, an additional $428,200. OK, so maybe it's total assessed value is $798,000. They're still asking more than twice that!
WaPo Mortgage Fraud Rises Even as Loans Decline
Fraud jumped by 26 percent in 2008 from the previous year, the study concluded, based on data collected from roughly 70 percent of the nation's lenders as well as mortgage insurance companies and mortgage investors. The study was prepared by the Mortgage Asset Research Institute, an arm of LexisNexis, for the Mortgage Bankers Association.
...
The study noted that the spike in fraudulent activity cases can be partially attributed to more vigorous reporting and investigations.
John Courson, president and chief executive of the Mortgage Bankers Association, said in a statement that lenders must be vigilant about combating the fraud because it is "more prevalent today than it was at the height of the boom in mortgage loan originations."
Could the seeming conclusion of this article possibly be true?? Or are they reading the wrong thing into the data? This is by the same staff writer who did the long on conclusions short on info report on FHA loans... Did she learn nothing from the lashing she got in the comments?
More prevalent today? Really? Were buyers in MD getting impatient for their share of the housing correction?
doh,
of course Calculated Risk and Housing Wire are already on top of this story...
http://franklymls.com/FX7005980
(Falls Church, 22042)
Went to this open house yesterday, already under contract today. Guess that's what happens when you mark your place $30K under 09's slashed assessment.
Not a bad place overall, except for the tiny closet of a kitchen and a very low income dominated school district.
Interesting part is that the owner bought in 1989 for $179K and listed in 2009 for $299K. That's a 2.7% (if my math is right) sub-inflationary annualized rate.
Fred,
In case you did not know, the last housing bubble in the area was in 1989. Prices were too high in 1989. Prices went down from that point and up again. That is why you get, you said, a 2.7 percent annualized rate.
Fred,
By the way, that house you talked about has only 884 square feet.
The price of $179,000 in 1989 was definitely over priced. In 1981 it sold for $89,000. It may have been another bubble. But from that point forward it sold for about a 4.5 percent annualized rate since then, a little bit under 5 percent.
In any event, I doubt it was worth $179,000 in 1999. It is pretty small.
Cara,
Case in point that assessments mean nothing. Some people would pay $$ for a historic house like that, others won't. The assessment does not reflect true market value. It is a guestimate full of flaws. Who knows what is the true market value. The next buyer will tell.
Sorry,
My last post was meant for Tabitha not Cara. Ooops!
"Tabitha Said...
OK, so maybe it's total assessed value is $798,000. They're still asking more than twice that!"
Tabitha - FWIW, the assessed value probably reflects a sight or facade easement, as is suggested by the fact this place is on the national register of historic places.
My house is of a similar vintage as this one. A few years ago, I registered my house as historic, and donated the facade of my place to the national preservation trust. By doing so, I ensured the facade of the house would stay the same in perpetuity, and got a substantial tax credit for doing so.
Theoretically, this diminishes the value of the property i.e. no matter how valuable the underlying land, I can never sell my place to a developer to put up a high rise - or in this case, subdivide the place into tract mcmansions. Hence I get a tax credit for the relinquishment of this right.
In reality, the property is not diminished to a homebuyer who wants to live there - they appreciate it for its history and want to use it as such. Still, they buy knowing they have given up the right to sell to a developer for who knows how much money.
In any event, thats my guess as to whats going on here. I'll be curious to know what it sells for.
dc2,
I don't believe the listed sq footage. It was kind of a split with three different floors. I have a feeling that the above grade sq footage was only the middle "family room" and the upstairs bedrooms. It didn't include the lower level "living room", kitchen, utility and 1/2 bath. Felt more like 1300 sq feet or so.
Point taken on the '89 bubble, though.
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