U r b a n T r e k k e r

Happy New Year!

Have a nice and safe New Year's eve.

Dave Barry expressed it well in his blog.

Black Russians. The drinks, we mean. Avoid them, unless you are a trained expert.

We speak from experience here. The experience was, back in the 1970s, when we lived in Pennsylvania, we woke up on New Year's Day lying on a lawn. And it was not our lawn. We're still not sure whose lawn it was.

Move forward. Welcome 2005.

Help for Tsunami Relief Efforts

From Malaysia Star just an hour ago Tsunami deaths likely to pass 100,000. 

Here is the link to some of the organizations working to provide emergency relief:

American Red Cross  International Response Fund
Catholic Relief   
Oxfam America (part of the UK organization) Asian Earthquake & Tsunami Fund
AmeriCares South Asia Relief Fund
UNICEF South Asia Tsunami Relief Efforts
Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) Tsunami Emergencies Appeal
Save the Children Earthquake and Tidalwave in Southeastern Asia
Mercy Corps Southeast Asia Earthquake

The Monroe at Virginia Square

The Monroe condominium is a secured 9 story luxury residential building with a concierge service. This is urban living at its best! Location, location, location. There are 79 total residence units. Sixty-percent of these units are already sold. Schedule of deliveries at the earliest spring 2006.

The location is so convenient. It's about a throw stone from Virginia Square Metro,  within walking distance from Clarendon, Ballston Metro and Metro bus stops. The best part is you can walk to  shops, restaurants and Ballston Mall. The picture above shows rows of restaurants at Fairfax Drive in Ballston).

1031 Tax Deferred Exchange

A 1031 exchange is one of the most powerful tax deferral strategies available for investors.

What is 1031 exchange?

Section 1031 of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code allows investors to defer capital gains taxes on the exchange of like-kind properties.

If you have investment properties that you want to sell, you can defer the taxable gain received from selling your properties into another in-kind replacement properties. For example, say, you have a condo that you rented out and want to sell it. You bought the condo for $100,000 and sell it for $300,000. Under normal circumstances, when you sell your condo for a profit, you would have to pay IRS taxes for the $200,000 profit.

However, when you reinvest the proceeds into another investment property, this time you bought a townhouse (for rental), you owe no taxes. The only time you will have to pay taxes is when you take money out from the proceeds.

How does 1031 exchange work?

Affordable Housing

"Houston we've got a problem."

When housing prices rising faster than its wages, it created shortages in the affordable housing market, especially for the moderate to low income workers such as fire fighters, teachers, food prep workers, and parking attendants.

In a study by Fannie Mae and the Urban Institute "Housing in the Nation's Capital" that was reported in Washington Post, here are some of the findings:

• The region wages rose 9 percent on average from 2000 to 2002, while median home prices rose 37 percent.
• The share of homes selling for $400,000 or more is rising, while the share selling for less than $140,000 falling.
• The region has a solid economy, lowest unemployment rate among the nation's largest metropolitan areas, but not housing workers close to their jobs.

The new urban Living: Vienna

Today's Washington Post, talks about how a development plan that surely will transform part of Vienna from sprawling suburban into urban living. Apparently, the go-ahead vote was approved yesterday. The plan is to build a mini-city of more than 5000 workers and residents West of Vienna Metro. It will be a mixed-use development. Here's the excerpt:

Yesterday's vote, which changes the county's land-use plan to allow offices, stores and a mix of residential uses, opens the door to the kind of neighborhood transformation from suburban to urban long planned for Vienna but blocked by residents. The developers hope to replace what had once been a neighborhood of 61 single-family homes on 56 acres, which they purchased and razed, with offices, stores and 2,250 homes in a dozen buildings up to 14 stories tall and luxury townhouses. Condominiums would sell for $400,000 to $800,000.

Remodeling Cost vs. Value

The December edition of Remodeling magazine - covers an extensive analysis on the cost vs. value of remodeling projects for bathroom, kitchen, siding, deck to sunroom addition and compares that to the resale value after the added value. The report gives you an overview for what you can expect in terms of the prospect of investment returns for different remodeling projects. The survey was randomly taken to represent four regions: East, Midwest, South and West. Furthermore, it breaks down to comparing costs of stand alone project from the very basic (minor) to midrange all the way to the upscale.

What's interesting about this report is that just by looking at the numbers, the cost versus the resale value of any  project - you can see what people are willing to pay for the improvement of the house in different parts of the country. For example, in Metro Washington DC area, a midrange bathroom remodeling project costs about $9,588 on average. Here in DC, people are willing to pay for $10,192 or a 106.3 percent return for the improvement! Compare that to a national average cost of $9,861 for a resale value of $8,887 - or 90.1% returns on the money for the same project.