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[h/t HuffPost]

A Family is Living Alone in a 32-Story Condo

It's creepy how in downtown Ft. Myers, Florida, one family is living alone in a 32-story luxury condo. (h/t Huffington Post]

Q2 2009: DC Condo, Coop and Single Family Sales - a Long Way to Recovery

Based on data provided by GCAAR, the Washington DC (just the City) market has a long way to go. Forget prices. If only look at the sales, under contract and active listings on month to month, you'll see that it will take a longer time than Northern Virginia to pull it off. Yeah, single home prices are on the uptick, but still .. home prices need to go down a little bit more to become more affordable. Or to motivate buyers to snatch properties.

The other observation is, there's a lot more happening in the lower and mid range than on the upper price range. $699,999 looks like the breaking point there. 

Here are the snapshots of second quarter sales and prices for condo, coop and single family home (hat includes townhouse or rowhouse) for DC based on mo-to-mo stats from GCAAR. 

Other stats for June 2009:

2009 2008             %

Ave. sales price $535,359 $571,055 -6.25%

Ave. median price $417,900 $425,000 -1.67%

Days on market 87   74

Ave. sales price as % of list      92.51% 94.81%

Here's the other thing from the financing front. Out of the total 612 transactions, FHA financed about 141 transactions,  conventional loan financed 342 home sales and there were 69 cash transactions. 

 data: MRIS and GCAAR

What Makes Dupont Circle a Green Place...

Great Green Places: Dupont Circle

New Truth-in-Lending Goes into Effect (tomorrow!) July 30

Yup- you read it right. The new Feds regs on Truth-in-Lending (in short TILA) starts tomorrow, July 30. There's a lot to digest with the changes, however, I'll try to make it easy. The regs apply to all loans for first home, second home, and refinancings. So, if you're applying for a loan tomorrow, your application will be affected by the changes.

The skinny on TILA is this: It's about disclosures and counting days from there either using business or calendar days. That's why "timing" is key, especially there's another deadline that comes into play- the November 30th closing - to qualify for the $8k home buyer tax credit. Everyone involves in a transaction (realtor, buyer, seller, lender, appraiser, settlement co.) will need to work more in tandem to make sure that closing is as scheduled. Think the big challenge is for lenders to comply with the new regs. (lenders are known to wait till the last minute..)

Here's why in Realtor's lingo "time is of the essence"  for the home buying process. (h/t NVAR):

• Lenders have to give good faith estimates within 3 business days (early disclosure) after consumer apply for the loan and can only require upfront fees for a credit check. 
• The closings may not take place until 7 days after the consumer receives early disclosure (that's the good faith est.).
• Consumers can only shorten or waive the 3 day and/or 7 day waiting periods for a documented personal financial emergency. 
• Lenders must provide a corrected disclosure and an additional 3 day waiting period if the annual percentage rate (APR) changes by more than 0.125%.

So, no more last minute changes. There's more here, here, and here. 

Q2 2009: N.Va Home Prices & Sales Up for 6 Straight Months..

Here are the snapshots for Q2 2009 home sales and sales prices for Northern Virginia, based on NVAR data.

1. Low interest rates, home buyer tax credit, and affordability converged. This kind of 'rare' market condition, motivated buyers to go out there and snap properties. Higher demand, drive prices up.

2. Inventories is low. Multiple contracts (here and here) is the norm! See data below from Center for Regional Analysis. Full report, is here.

3. Buyers realizes that home prices have declined so much that it become affordable. It's time to buy. High demand vs. low supply drive prices up..

4. More homes sold. Buyers are happy because they got their home at the right price. So are industry professionals.. :)

 

Nationwide, Case-Shiller, just released the report that shows home prices month-to-month trending up for the first time in 34 months.

Other Norther Virginia data:

Total Sales                        2009                             2008                    %

Detached                               1,028                              902

 Townhouse                             607                               598

Condos, coops                       534                                400

Active listings (total) 7,617                            10,440

Days on market                 71                                 83

YTD home sales               8,965                               8,014   

YTD sales price           $ 414,402                       $482,197

Mo. supply                      3.41                                   5.49

data: via NVAR, MRIS

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Weekly Roundup

Freddie Shares Closing Costs on Agency-Owned Homes

Freddie Mac (FRE: 0.592 -1.33%) offers comprehensive two-year home warranties for buyers of single-family homes as a primary residence through HomeSteps, and will temporarily pay up to 3.5% of the sales price in buyers’ closing costs.

Should We Bulldozed Underused Neighborhoods and Return Them to Nature?

Is real-estate development always good? Is a community succeeding only if it's growing? That was the post-war assumption in this country as skylines inched upward and suburbs sprawled. But like so many economic presumptions, the growth-is-good model may now be collapsing on itself.

10 Ways to Save Energy at Homes

These days, it’s more of a win-win than ever to save on energy. Every time you lower your utility bills, you put more money back in your bank account. And lower energy bills also means less energy consumed, which means less harmful emissions released into our environment. And what makes this an even better deal is you don’t have to overhaul your home (or buy a new one) to make it more energy efficient.

Math shows benefit of mortgage payoff

I plan on retiring this year, and I owe $92,000 on my mortgage. It is an adjustable-rate mortgage that was reset on May 1, when the lender lowered my rate to 3.25 percent from 4 percent for one year. With safe savings rates that are lower than my mortgage rate, should I go ahead and pay off my mortgage and be debt-free? 

St. Regis Resort Foreclosed On

Oh, the irony. The St. Regis resort made famous as the spot where AIG staged a blowout, $440,000 party for its salespeople just two weeks after receiving $85 billion in federal bailout money has been foreclosed upon. And who is stuck with the property? None other than wobbly, taxpayer bailed-out Citigroup.

Former Bear Stearns exec cuts townhouse price

Jeff Urwin, former co-head of investment banking at Bear Stearns and now JPMorgan's head of investment banking coverage in the Americas, has cut the price of his Upper East Side townhouse to $26 million from $32.8 million.

Our Painter Used Traditional Paints Instead of Non-VOC. Should We Strip the Walls and Start Over?

Question: I am in the midst of building a small new home, trying to keep it as green and nontoxic as possible. I have just discovered that my contractor, after promising to use all non-VOC paints, has used traditional primer and paints throughout the house. I am, of course, furious, but would like to know, purely from a health standpoint, am I better off having him try to strip all the paint and start over, or repaint using natural paint over what is already there?

Plants for Indoor Clean Air

Horticulturists Dr. Stanley Kays, Dr. Bodie Pennisi and research associate D.S. Wang at the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Science are conducting ongoing research into the ability of houseplants to remove volatile organic compounds from the air.

.. Links from Around DC Region:

• Herndon ranks high on 'rich and single' scale [Fairfax Times]
• Back to the drawing board: Luxury project goes affordable [the Real Estate Wonk]
• Many Chevy Chase residents favor lawsuit to stop Purple Line [Gazette.net]
• Loudoun County OKs plan for baseball stadium [Wash Business Journal]
• Area jurisdictions to get share of transportation funding [Inside NOVA]
• Buying 'As-Is': A Deal Worth the Risk? [Washington Post]
• The $1,000 Sell-It-Fast Makeover [Washington Post]
• Virginia allocates $1 billion for infrastructure projects [Virginia Business]

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• Mortgage Rates Fall Again (abcnews.go.com)
• FHFA Reports Monthly Increase in Home Prices (hsh.com)

Attic Insulation

You just moved in to your new house. Check around the house, look at your attic to see if you have enough insulation. Adding attic insulation can help save money on your heating and cooling bills. This image below from Energy Star explains why attic is the hottest part of the house in the summer. On the other hand in the winter, without adequate insulation, the attic can cause heat loss and overwork the heating system.

image: Energy Star

A couple of things you gotta do before adding insulation to your attic, via Energy Savers:

• Find out how much insulation you already have in your home and where. A qualified home energy auditor will include an insulation check as a routine part of a whole-house energy audit. (diy home energy audit here)
• If you don't want audit, then you need to find out the following:
• • where your home is, isn't, and/or should be insulated
  • what type of insulation you have
  • the R-value and thickness or depth (inches) of the insulation you have.

What is R-value?

R-value indicates an insulation's resistance to heat flow. The higher the R-value the greater insulating effect. 

R-value can be a whole new discussion in another post. The R-value depends on where you want to insulate and the area you live in.

 

image: Lowes

Energy tip from Energy Star: 'Sealing and insulation are often the most cost-effective ways to make a home more comfortable and energy-efficient.'

And here's the the gift for you from the Feds: the Federal Tax Credit for Energy Efficiency that gives consumers tax credit (for all things) to make a house more energy-efficient. Among others, is a credit of up to 30% of cost or $1,500 for insulation for 2009 and 2010. 

If you want to know more about it, check this video below (with commercial twist) but- at least you learn about it or watch this one on How to Insulate Attic.

By the way, saving money on energy, can also be a 'selling' feature for sellers..

Read also:

Energy Star DIY guide attic insulation

Recommended levels of insulation table

Fact sheet on insulation

Got that Question Again.. Buyer Tax Credit

I had this conversation (again) today with one of my former colleagues how does the $8k home buyer tax credit works. And "if there's anyway to access that for downpayment or closing cost." I said "sure you do," via VHDA loan. (only applies if you purchase properties in Virginia). 

Details about the program, here, here, and here.

Condo vs. Coop, the Differences

photo: Watergate via Wiki

From the outside, it's hard to tell whether the building is a cooperative or a condominium. There's no way you could tell the difference. The buildings look alike. You'll be surprised to find out later on that it's not a condo, but rather a coop, which has very different implications on how you treat its ownership. Because there are many differences between the two form of ownerships.

If you're attracted to co-ops, your Realtor probably would tell you this: Forget it. Let's look somewhere else. You may not get it financed. During market heyday, there were few lenders willing to finance co-op. This condition probably haven't changed much, especially with financing kinda challenging these days - not only for co-ops - but, for all types.  

To help fuel the market, FHA also gets in with 203(n) mortgage insurance, to get lenders financed cooperative purchase. (it doesn't mean that FHA is going big in this, it's just to inform you that there's alternative to conventional or cash).

The Section 203(n) program insures mortgages for persons buying a unit in a cooperative housing project. The mortgage is made by a lending institution, such as a mortgage company, bank, or savings and loan association, and is insured by HUD's Federal Housing Administration (FHA).

Like I mentioned earlier, even with FHA in the game, only a few lenders doing co-ops.

Over in DC region, DC has more co-ops than across the river, in Northern Virginia. Some of the old buildings in DC belongs to a co-op. The famous Watergate is a co-op. On the new home side, Capitol Hill Tower is a new co-op. 

The easiest way to differentiate the type of ownership between the two is this. In condo, you own 'what's inside the four walls.' In coop, you own share of the company that owns the building. Therefore, as a shareholder, your co-op fee includes your portion of real estate tax, in addition to some other amenities provided for building or company owners.

More details below the fold..