Buy Alexandria Real Estate: February 2010

It's very rare or more likely never that I've posted a picture or chart without much explanation.  However, this chart showing the return on investment over the last decade requires very little commentary.  Granted... depending upon your timing, your return may be significantly different.  However, the chart does make its point.

Please note: Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future returns.

Caveat Emptor -- that's Latin for "buyer beware." 

In today's real estate market, with the prevalence of foreclosures and short sales, I would caution that this phrase should read differently.  Since I don't speak Latin nor know anybody else who does (even though I graduated from law school and there are even more Latin terms in law than there are in real estate), I'll write it in English.

Today's phrase is:

BUYER BE VERY AWARE!

When you're buying a home, unless it's from a friend or family member, it is very unlikely that you know the seller of the home.  However, when you are purchasing a foreclosure home, you do know the seller!  It's Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, or some other well-known banking institution.

Banks are not in the business of selling real estate, but due to the foreclosure crisis, many of them have a large inventory of homes on the market.  Unlike a traditional seller, the banks do not know the condition of the property they are selling, and in most cases nobody from the bank has ever stepped foot in the house you're looking to purchase.

Banks are selling these foreclosure properties, "As Is."

While banks use their own addendums (or additional documentation for the real estate contract), the standard Regional Sales Contract for Northern Virginia and D.C. contains the following definition of "As Is":

"The Seller makes no representation or warranty, express or implied, as to the condition of the Property or any equiment or system contained therin.  The Seller will have no obligation to make repairs to the electrical, plumbing, heating, air conditioning, or any other mechanical system, equipment or fixture." 

In addition, this clause allows the seller to waive the following normal requirements:

• Property delivered free and clear of trash and debris
• Clauses pertaining to termites
• Clauses pertaining to Private Well and/or Private Sewage Systems
• Clauses pertaining to compliance with city, state or county regulations
• Clauses pertaining to compliance with Property Owner's or Condominium Owner's Assocations.

Let me emphasize again, if you're buying an "As Is" Property:

BUYER BE VERY AWARE!

However, this does not mean that you are blindly buying a home without taking any precautions.

Although you are purchasing a property "As Is" you still need to know what the definition of "As is" is (with deference to former President Bill Clinton's grand jury testimony).

You should always have a home inspection especially on a bank owned property!  Even though the banks won't necessarily fix anything or give any credit off the price for necessary repairs, at least you'll know what you're getting into with the purchase of the home.

The home inspection will enable you to find out the exact "As Is" condition of the property.  Once you are satisfied with the present condition is when you proceed with the purchase. If not, make sure the contract says that you can cancel the deal based upon the home inspection.  VERY IMPORTANT!

Even if you're not buying an "As Is" foreclosure property, I always recommend a home inspection.

Want some great news?  Who doesn't?

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released an unemployment report today that examined the rates of unemployment in the Northern Virginia counties and cities.

Unless you've been living under a rock, haven't turned on the t.v., read a newspaper, been on the internet, or walked down the street in the last 6 months, you're aware that the unemployment rate in the United States has skyrocketed to the 10% region.

Well, in Northern Virginia, most areas are doing quite well when it comes to employment statistics, and some counties, like Arlington, Fairfax, and Loudoun are doing phenomenal -- less than half of national unemployment.

Here's a look at unemployment numbers as of December 2009:

• Arlington County -- 4% unemployment
• Fairfax County -- 4.6% unemployment
• Loudoun County -- 4.6% unemployment
• Alexandria City -- 4.8% unemployment

Even Fredericksburg VA, with its comparatively high 9.9% unemployment rate is far below many other hurting areas of the nation.

Compare the above numbers with those of some other major metropolitan areas:

• Atlanta -- 10.1% unemployment
• Chicago -- 10.6% unemployment
• Los Angeles -- 11.3% unemployment
• Tampa -- 12.4% unemployment
• Las Vegas -- 13.1% unemployment
• Detroit -- 14.8% unemployment

Click here to view D.C. & Northern Virginia unemployment numbers on an area map.

With these numbers, it's no wonder people from around the country are starting to search for homes in Northern Virginia and moving here!

Chances are that if you're looking to buy a home in the D.C. metropolitan area, you may be scared of the home prices.  Whether you're a first time homebuyer, moving up to a larger home, buying an investment property, or relocating to the D.C. area, you're spending some time and effort tracking the home prices throughout the region.  You might look at the prices of homes coming across your computer screen after doing a home search or signing up to receive listing e-mails and shriek!

As with any purchase that involves 6 (or more) digits after the dollar sign, fear most likely is weighing in to the decision-making process.

Some education about the market can help dissipate some of that fear.

D.C. Homebuyers: Take some solace in knowing that while home prices may not make the D.C. area the most affordable market, D.C. area real estate is far from being the least affordable.

According to a CNNMoney Report, here are the five Most Affordable metro areas to buy a home:

• Indianapolis
• Detroit
• Dayton, OH
• Youngstown, OH
• Akron, OH

The 5 Least Affordable Metro Areas are:

• New York City
• San Francisco
• Honolulu
• Santa Ana, CA
• Los Angeles

The report compared the median price of homes with the median household income in all the metropolitan regions to come up with the most affordable and least affordable places to purchase a home.  For example, in Indianapolis, where the median price of a home is $106,000 and the median household income is $68,100, 95.7% of median income households can afford a median priced home.  Contrast that with New York City, where the median home price is $425,000 and the median income is $64,800 -- only 19.7% can afford the median priced home!

I took a look at the D.C. area numbers.  Household income is very high in the D.C. metropolitan region - $102,700 median household income.  The average sales price of a home in the 4th quarter of 2009 was $376,188.  So many of our high salaried D.C. area residents can afford these average priced homes, even though the prices are higher than many areas of the country.

As of today, there are over 2,500 homes in Washington D.C. and Northern Virginia that could be yours for under the average price of $376,188.

Today, I found 228 homes in Washington D.C. and Northern Virginia that have been listed on the MLS and on the market for more than 365 days.  An entire year or more on the market!  29 of those homes have been actively on the market for over 2 years!  Can you imagine?  Two years of keeping your home clean, having a lockbox on the door, and leaving the house on Sundays so a REALTOR can hold an open house!

That is a very long time even in today's slower market.

While 86 of these homes are over $1 million (which you might expect to be on the market a bit longer anyway), over 60% of these long-time listings are under that price.

How do this compare to the average time for sale?  Well, of the 1,847 homes that have sold so far this year in D.C. and Northern Virginia, the average days on market was 53.

WARNING: You Don't Want Your Home on the Market Forever!

One of the first questions buyers ask is "How Long Has That Home Been on the Market?" More often than not, buyers will use this information to determine how much they wish to offer for the home.  That is, if the buyer even makes an offer at all.  The longer a home has been on the market, the less chance it will get an offer from buyers because they will often think something is wrong with the house that's been on the market for so long.  In reality, the only thing wrong with the home may be the price!

If when checking out these homes, I notice that there have been no price reductions or very small price reductions, it becomes obvious to me that the sellers are not very motivated and unlikely to negotiate.  Chances are there were some offers for the property early on, but that the sellers refused to lower their price to get the deal done and the house sold.

When working as a listing agent representing the seller of a home, I do not want my seller's home on the market for more than a year with no price reductions.  We'll often agree upfront to scheduled price reductions after set periods of time without an offer to get the home sold.  The better strategy is to just price it right at the beginning.

If you're only a casual follower of the real estate market, you've probably caught tidbits here and there on the news.  There's lots of scare stories out there: foreclosures, short sales, resetting ARMs, banks going out of business, plummeting prices, etc.

It's enough to transform you from a ready, willing and able homebuyer into a cowering, spineless, anonymous creature who'd rather hole up in a cave somewhere in the mountains of Afghanistan than take your chances at entering into the tumultuous real estate market.

Had you been planning to sell your house you may have decided to stay still or rather pull your turtleneck over your head and hide for a few years until things get sorted out.

You hear it screaming from the television, the internet sites, and the newspapers: stay away from the housing market, it's scary out there.  Yikes!  Watch out! Prices are still going down.  It could be a double dip.

Casual observers, I'm happy to report that in the D.C. area, it's not a disaster.

Au Contraire, Mon Frère!

That's French for "on the contrary, my brother!"  While I don't get to use my high school French language skills often (Spanish would have probably been a much better and more useful choice), this cute rhyming phrase works perfectly here.

According to the Washington Business Journal (WBJ) and a report by the National Association of REALTORS, housing prices in the D.C. area ROSE 3.8% from the end of 2008 to the end of 2009. 

Not what you expected or what you've been lead to believe!

The WBJ article states that in the Washington region, single-family home sales averaged prices of $306,200 compared to a price of $295,100 in the final quarter of 2008. Area condominium prices were down just 1.3 percent from a year ago to a price of $239,000.

Moreover, on a national level, in the fourth quarter, 67 of the nation's largest 151 metro areas had higher median single-family home prices.  While, it's less than half of these metro area, it does bode well for many more regions than you might have thought.

Mortgage interest rates are still very low.  The Federal Homebuyer Tax Credit is still available (though time is running out). 

For analysis and a consultation regarding your options in today's Northern Virginia and D.C. real estate market, make sure to contact a seasoned real estate professional.  That's me!

Incredible record-breaking amounts of snow that we've received in the past week have caused municipality snow removal budgets to be squeezed, road conditions to remain impassable in certain locations, large tree branches to come tumbling down, and federal government employees (and just about everyone else in the D.C. area) to remain holed up inside.

All of this has indeed affected the real estate market in Northern Virginia. 

• Many settlement companies have been closed for much of the week, so even those sales scheduled to go to settlement this week have been delayed.
  
  
• REALTORS (except perhaps those with Hummers) have been unable to show many homes; and
  
  
• People have just not been able to do much of anything except watch television, surf the internet, relax with a good book and some hot cocoa, or entertain their kids who have been out of school all week.

Nonetheless, the Northern Virginia housing market stops for nobody - not even Mother Nature.  It may slow down, and slow down significantly but it does not stop!

Here then are some statistics about sales during the snowiest week on record in Northern Virginia:

In the last 7 days (remember the snow started last Friday), there have been 71 closed sales in Northern Virginia (including the jurisdictions of Alexandria, Arlington, Fairfax County, Fairfax City, and Falls Church).

Additionally, 247 contracts were ratified during the past 7 days.

These numbers are quite a bit off from the previous two weeks of real estate activity in Northern Virginia which respectively saw 276 sales and 495 contracts ratified, and 287 sales and 409 ratified contracts.

I'm expecting that next week will be back to a normal pace of real estate activity (or even a slight increase due to things that were delayed from this week).

Most of the roads are cleared at this point and people are itching to get out of their homes.  I know that I'll be showing some Alexandria condos to some clients tomorrow.

The sky is blue.  The snow WILL melt.  The roads are cleared.  And the Block Real Estate Group is open for business.

You might want to hurry.  In order to qualify for the Federal Homebuyer Tax Credit, you need to ratify a contract on your new home by April 30, 2010.

Christine Bohn just posted about setting up an Active Rain meetup for the RE/MAX Convention in Orlando from Feb. 28th through March 3rd.  I'll be there as well and am looking forward to getting together with some folks I haven't yet met as well as some old friends.

Let us know if you will be attending the RE/MAX Convention.

Real estate, like any other market, is all about supply and demand.

SUPPLY:  As of February 11, 2010, there are about 425 homes on the market in Alexandria, Virginia.

DEMAND:  In the last 30 days, 101 homes sold in the City of Alexandria.  January and early February are traditionally very slow times for the Northern Virginia real estate market.  At this pace, there'd be a 4.2 month inventory of homes on the market.  That's not a lot of inventory!  However, I expect that the warmer Spring days will usher in a somewhat heated up real estate market with both more inventory on the market and more sales volume.

Here are the details about the housing inventory in Alexandria -- if you're thinking about buying a home in Alexandria or elsewhere in Northern Virginia, you might want to whisper to your sweetheart this Valentine's Day that he/she ought to read this blog.

Alexandria Virginia Single Family Homes 

63 Single Family Homes are on the market in Alexandria at an average price of $1,030,322.  The prices range from $399,900 up to $4,450,000.  There are 19 homes priced at one million dollars or more.  However, there are over 20 Alexandria single family homes priced below $700,000.

The largest concentration of homes are in the following Alexandria neighborhoods:

Beverly Hills -- 4 homes available -- Average price $914,950

Braddock Heights -- 5 homes available -- Average price $833,560

Old Town -- 5 homes available -- Average price $1,834,980

Rosemont -- 4 homes available -- Average price $1,229,725

Seminary Ridge -- 4 homes available -- Average price $1,117,250

CLICK HERE TO FIND A SINGLE FAMILY HOME IN ALEXANDRIA 

Alexandria Virginia Townhouses 

136 Townhouses are on the market in Alexandria at an average listing price of $902,458.  The range in prices for Alexandria townhouses is between $239,000 and $5.7 million.

The highest concentration of townhouses are in the following Alexandria communities:

Cameron Station -- 6 townhouses -- Average price $674,067

Fords Landing -- 5 townhouses -- Average price $1,842,600

Old Town -- 35 townhouses -- Average price $1,430,518 (note that this number is skewed a bit because of a townhouse on the market for $5.7 million and another for $5 million.  Without these two homes, the average price in Old Town is $1,194,489 -- over $236K less).

Parkfairfax -- 6 townhouses -- Average Price $315,132

Potomac Greens -- 6 townhouses -- Average price $864,917

FIND A TOWNHOUSE IN ALEXANDRIA

Alexandria Condominiums

Over 200 condos are on the market in Alexandria:

93 Garden Style condos (1-4 floors) at an Average price of $345,069

30 Mid-Rise condos (5-8 floors) at an Average price of $315,078

80 High-Rise condos (9+ floors) at an Average price of $256,675

FIND AN ALEXANDRIA CONDO

Are you wondering about Northern Virginia real estate and pondering what has sold recently?

Here's some information about the most expensive home sales in Northern Virginia (Arlington County, Alexandria City, Fairfax City, Fairfax County, and Falls Church City) for January 2010.  All information was obtained through MRIS.

Overall, there were 48 Northern Virginia home sales topping $1 million during the first month of 2010.

Currently, there are 633 homes on the market in Northern Virginia with list prices topping $1 million just up from the 627 that were on the market in December.

JANUARY 2010'S MOST EXPENSIVE SALES

Single Family Detached Homes:

• 1030 Aziza Court, Great Falls, VA 22066 -- Sold on January 4th for $2,800,000
  After a long time on the market, this home built in 2008 sold for $800,000 under the listing price of $3.6 million.  With 6 bedrooms, 8 full bathrooms, and 8 fireplaces, this Great Falls home features luxuries such as an elevator, sauna, home theater and 4 car garage.
  
  
• 1317 Kurtz Road, McLean, VA 22101 -- Sold on January 4th for $2,285,000
  Sold in just 13 days for 96.2% of the listing price, this home in Salona Village of McLean was built in 2008.  In addition to 5 bedrooms and 5 full bathrooms, this custom designed home has outdoor fireplaces and porches offering vistas of parkland.  The home has a gated entry, 6 fireplaces, and a 3 car garage.
  
  
• 2373 N. Fillmore Street, Arlington, VA 22207 -- Sold on January 27th for $1,825,000
  Green house!  Not the color, but the whole house is 5 star Energy Star Certified.  This 6 bedroom, 6.5 bathroom house is in the Woodmont neighbrohood of Arlington.  It sold for just $100K under the asking price.
  
  
• 1911 Kirby Road, McLean, VA 22101 -- Sold on January 5th for $1,636,500
  After a price reduction of $200K, this custom built home built in 2004 recently sold.  With almost 6,900 square feet of living space, this home also has a heated pool, custom hot tub, and lush professional landscaping.
  
  

CLICK TO SEARCH FOR AVAILABLE SINGLE FAMILY HOMES IN NORTHERN VIRGINIA 

Townhouses: 

• 18 Franklin Street, Alexandria, VA 22314 -- Sold on January 29th for $1,225,000
  January's most expensive townhouse sale was in the ever-popular Fords Landing area in Old Town Alexandria.  This 3 bedroom 2.5 bathroom townhouse also has a 2 car garage.
  
  
• 1448 Harvest Crossing Drive, McLean, VA 22101 -- Sold on January 14th for $1,125,000
  Located in McLean's premiere gated community, this Evans Farm townhouse has 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms on 4 levels.  With an open floorplan and high-end kitchen, this home sold for $125K under the listing price. 
  
  
• 231 N. Lee Street, Alexandria, VA 22314 -- Sold on January 29th for $1,050,000
  Right in the heart of Old Town Alexandria, this all-brick townhouse built in 1998 features 2,745 square feet of living space, 3 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, tall ceilings, and wood floors.
  

SEE AVAILABLE TOWNHOUSES IN NORTHERN VIRGINIA

Condominiums: 

• 1600 Clarendon Blvd. #W305, Arlington, VA 22209 -- Sold on January 28th for $1,700,000
  Wooster and Mercer Lofts in Arlington often make the list of most expensive condo sales.  This is the most expensive sale there in quite a while.  3 bedrooms plus an open loft and 3 bathrooms providing a total of 3,000 of living space!  This corner unit has views of Courthouse and allows the new owner to easily walk to the Metro.
  
  
• 1401 N. Oak Street #605, Arlington, VA 22209 -- Sold on January 8th for $1,400,000.
  Over in Rosslyn, this condo at The Weslie provides 1,778 square feet of space, 2 bedrooms and 2.5 baths on 3 levels!  The awesome view of D.C., the Potomac River and the monuments make this spacious condo a great place for entertaining.
  
  
• 11776 Stratford House Place #1104, Reston, VA 20190 -- Sold on January 29th for $1,060,000
  This huge 2,850 square foot condo at Stratford House in Reston has 2 master suites and a third bedroom.  All the way from Reston, there are great views of Tysons Corner and the National Cathedral!
  
  
• 828 Slaters Lane #406, Alexandria, VA 22314 -- Sold on January 29th for $940,000
  This penthouse condo at Old Town Crescent offers almost 2,200 square feet of space throughout 3 bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms.  While close to D.C., this condo is right by the Potomac River and biking and nature paths.  The condo has two master suites, 2 parking spaces, and a jacuzzi.

SEE AVAILABLE CONDOMINIUMS IN NORTHERN VIRGINIA 

Contact Brian Block, Managing Broker, REALTOR/Attorney, RE/MAX Allegiance:
Licensed in Virginia & Washington D.C. 703-626-0715.
If you are interested in purchasing or selling a property in Northern Virginia including Arlington County, Alexandria City, Annandale, Burke, D.C., Fairfax County, Falls Church City, Great Falls, Lorton, McLean, Springfield, Washington D.C., contact Brian today.