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

What's Happening in Your Neighborhood (Roundup)

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Holiday Tours and Open Houses in the Washington area

Many events require reservation or advance ticket purchases - call before you go!

New "Walter Reed" effort on track

Realignment of military medical facilities in the National Capital Region ordered by the Base Realignment and Closure Commission is on track to meet the commission’s deadline, senior Defense Department officials said here Dec. 2. Walter Reed Army Medical Center here is consolidating with the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., and a new hospital is under construction at Fort Belvoir. “Recommendations proposed a transition from a legacy service-specific medical infrastructure into a premier, modernized joint operational medicine platform,“ said Allen W. Middleton, acting principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for health affairs. “We are making great progress, and I am pleased to report that we are on track to implement the BRAC recommendations by the statutory deadline of Sept. 15, 2011.“

The Rebirth of Real Cooperation

When the Arlandria Chirilagua Housing Cooperative took definitive shape in the early 90s after a 10-year organizational effort, its residents hoped to stomp out the evictions, rent increases and utility hikes plaguing the low-income development on the Northeast fringe of the city. As owners of the 282-unit co-op, the tenants — mostly immigrants — and their elected board of directors would control their own rents and voice effectively their opinions related to their home.

The Long, Somber March to Next F.C. Budget Begins

The Falls Church City Council and School Board began a long, somber march toward the April adoption of the Fiscal Year 2011 Falls Church city budget with a joint work session at the Mary Ellen Henderson Middle School's cafetorium Monday night. The meeting marked the earliest starting point for an annual budget deliberation in Falls Church in the 50-plus year history of the City, and for good reason. The $7.5 million deficit, amounting to 11 percent of the $66.9 million size of current anticipated costs, even with hiring and wage freezes for both City and school employees, means that some combination of hefty tax rate increases and service, including employee, cuts is inevitable.

D.C. area loses 15,200 construction jobs

Construction employment decreased in the last year in 328 of the nation’s 337 biggest metro areas, according to an analysis by the Associated General Contractors of America. The Arlington-based builders association, citing figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, said Phoenix lost the most jobs from October 2008 to October 2009, with construction employment falling by 33,000 jobs. Reno, Nev. had the biggest percentage drop in construction employment, down 32 percent.

Metro's Budget Disaster, Fare Hikes Possible

$175 million. That is the current projected budget gap for Metro for the fiscal year. That is a gap some $30m larger than what was predicted just three months ago and you may be paying the difference. WaPo wrote today that Metro’s managers recommended this morning that up to $92 million of that gap be made up through fare hikes. That would require a full 25 cent increase on each fare, bus and rail, to cover 50% of the total shortfall. But why is Metro even worse off than expected?

Some officials want more students walking or biking

Fairfax County Supervisor Jeff McKay (D-Lee) believes that getting more students to walk or bike to school would be a win for everyone -- more exercise for the students, fewer vehicles on the road and lower transportation costs for the county's school system. He plans to take the lead on getting the "walking school bus" concept started at schools in his district. This is a concept in which bus routes that are within a reasonable walking distance of schools are replaced with a walking route, allowing parent volunteers to chaperone groups of students.

Airports authority submits new testing plan

The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority says it will have its contractor test all of the 30-year-old bridge pier foundations that will be used in the Dulles Metrorail extension. The agency, which is managing construction of the 23-mile extension from Falls Church to Washington Dulles International Airport and Loudoun County, has come under scrutiny after reports suggested that it was reluctant to do additional safety tests.

D.C. transit safety zones get fast-tracked

High volumes of holiday foot traffic, fewer hours of daylight and "a lot of desperate people" are spurring a D.C. Council member to move an emergency bill Tuesday that would establish enhanced-penalty safety zones around all District transit stops. Ward 5 Councilman Harry Thomas Jr. said Monday that his legislation deserved emergency consideration -- with no public hearing -- because "people are being preyed upon." D.C. residents, he said, "need to feel a little safer" and deserved "safe passage in our neighborhoods."

Letter from Baltimore: Design for Aging

I remember when my grandparents had to leave their home. They were in their seventies. My grandmother could no longer navigate the stairs to the basement and my grandfather couldn’t maintain their large yard. They moved to a continued-care retirement community, or CCRC, outside of Baltimore. It was your classic CCRC design: a large campus in an isolated spot off of a suburban artery road, accessible only by car, with different levels of care stationed in a smattering of lifeless, mid-rise buildings. You checked into independent-living apartments and as your capacities decreased, you worked your way into assisted and full-time nursing care.

Fairfax, Regional Unemployment Down in October

Unemployment across Fairfax County in October dipped from a month before, part of a general - and not unexpected - trend toward lower joblessness statewide. The county’s October unemployment rate of 4.5 percent was down from 4.7 percent in September. It represented 568,620 county residents in the civilian workforce, and 26,516 looking for work. The county’s unemployment rate was third-best among Virginia’s 134 cities and counties. There were about 1,300 fewer unemployed Fairfax residents reported in October than in September.

Manager: 'Nothing Off Table' in Budget- Cutting Effort

All options are being considered as the county government works to prepare a fiscal 2011 budget that could require $25 million or more in cuts, acting County Manager Barbara Donnellan told delegates to the Arlington County Civic Federation on Dec. 1. “Nothing’s off the table,” she said in a budget presention. “There’s very few sacred cows - I’m looking at everything.” Still-declining real estate values, particularly on the commercial side, will make next year’s budget choices more difficult than in any other recent time, government officials have warned for months. The full extent of the situation won’t be known until 2011 property assessments are finalized, which should occur in coming weeks.

County Unveils Reston Master Plan Special Study

Fairfax County officials presented plans for the Reston Master Plan Special Study to more than 100 area residents at South Lakes High School on Tuesday evening. Heidi Merkel, a senior planner with the county's department of planning and zoning, said Reston is a unique area of Fairfax County because many of its residents also work in close proximity to their homes. She said in 2001 the county took a look at the master plan for Reston and made some changes but now that transportation plans have changed the 2001 changes need to be revisited.

For all other real estate news roundup, go here..

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• Great Places to Work in Fairfax (metrodcliving.com)
• Salahis: 'We were invited, not crashers' (msnbc.msn.com)
• When will the Washington DC area public schools next close for a snow day? (hubdub.com)

Great Places to Work in Fairfax

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Fairfax County have 14 of 50 great places to work, according to Washingtonian (subscription only). These are places that where employees are happy to work there, get paid well (with good benefits), and can do some interesting work. In Fairfax, these companies are located either in Tysons Corner, Reston or Falls Church - a few of center of employment over here.

Here they are.

• Booz Allen Hamilton, Tysons Corner
• CarFax, Centreville
• Cassaday & Company, Tysons Corner
• Customink, Tysons Corner
• Eagle Hill Consulting, Tysons Corner
• HireStrategy, Reston
• Integrity Applications Incorporated, Chantilly
• Irving Burton Associates, Falls Church
• Merritt Group, Reston
• Mitre Corporation, Tysons Corner
• NetApp, Tysons Corner
• Nitva, Tysons Corner
• 5AM Solutions, Reston
• Virginia Spine Institute, Reston

[via Fairfax EDA]

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• WBJ: More than Half Fastest Growing Cos. Based in Fairfax (metrodcliving.com)

Northern Virginia Inventory Drops to Under 4 Mos. Supply, in August

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For the month of August, inventory of homes in Northern Virginia declines to 3.87 from 5.07 months. Below 5-6 months supply is clearly seller's market. Sellers don't get your chin up yet, because lower priced homes 'still' dominate the sales. 

What's interesting is this: the sub-$200k no longer dominate the sales. Twelve percent of all homes sold is in the sub-$200k. However, about thirty-nine percent of homes sold in August was in the $200,000 to $400,000 range. So, prices inched up a bit.

A total of 1813 homes was sold in August, up by 1 home from the same period last year. Days on market gets shorter, from 87 to 63 days. The average sales price sales price declined by 3.17% from $473,183 to $458,172. Using the point of reference above with more sales happening in the $200k-400k, the median price also up by 1.31% from $389,000 to $395,000.

On the other hand, year-to-date sales was up by 9.83% from 11,683 to 12,831 homes. Average sales price, still in negative territory. It's down 11.07% from $481,280 to $428,011.

Real-time data via MRIS:

Active listings         4,233

    Under $400k       1,374 

Under contract       4,315

Distressed properties still dominate the listings under $400,000. Of 1,374 actives, about 557 or 40% of listings is distressed properties (in foreclosure and short-sale). The number of short-sale homes on the market actually 3 to 1 foreclosures.

So long as foreclosures and short-sale are still around and dominate the market, pricing properties will be an uphill battle for regular sellers...

data: NVAR, MRIS

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• Existing home sales up 18.5% (thestar.com)

Weekly Roundup

America's Most Expensive Homes

There's been a lot of denial among luxury homeowners. In 2006, it was thought that the luxury market wouldn't suffer the same fate as the broader market.

The State of the Nation's Housing 2009 report gives U.S. market mixed grades

The nation's housing industry should remain mired in an epic slump for the rest of 2009, but the longer-term picture is not all doom and gloom, according to the "The State of the Nation's Housing 2009" report, to be presented on Monday by Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies at the Ford Foundation in New York City. (We'll have more news from the event later this week.)

41 Charged as Mortgage Fraud Hits Condos and Suburbs

Federal law enforcement officials recently announced charges have brought against 41 defendants in five separate cases in Chicago. The cases involve more than $48 million in fraudulently obtained mortgages for dilapidated homes in urban areas as well as deals involving million dollar condominiums in a Chicago high-rise and sprawling homes in affluent suburbs like Wheaton and Glenview. The vice president of a title company, mortgage brokers, loan officers, appraisers, real estate investors and an attorney are among the 37 defendants charged.

What's With All the Moaning About Home Appraisals?

Lately, mortgage brokers, builders, real estate agents and others in the housing business have been moaning about appraisals. On Tuesday, it was the turn of Lawrence Yun, the chief economist of the National Association of Realtors. He lamented that May home sales were “less than expected because poor appraisals are stalling transactions. Pending home sales indicated much stronger activity, but some contracts are falling through from faulty valuations that keep buyers from getting a loan.”

10 Things Moving Companies Won't Say

The moving industry packs in nearly 55 percent of its business during the summer months, but often leaves a trail of frustrated consumers in its wake. The Department of Transportation receives up to 4,000 household moving complaints annually, mostly about loss and damage, poor service, or overcharging. The Council of Better Business Bureaus, meanwhile, reports that complaints about movers jumped from nearly 3,800 in 1997 to more than 9,200 in 2007.

Additional news from around DC region:

• Q&A: Sally Wilson on the USGBC Headquarters, LEED Fine Print, and Negotiating a Green Lease [Metropolis]
• Montgomery Approves Project Before Moratorium [Washington Post]
• Eastern Market reopens after $22M renovation [Wash Biz Journal]
• Index finds D.C. has best 'brain smarts' in U.S. [WTOP]
• Looking for a rent-free home on a lot of land [Real Estate Wonk]
• "Not Paying the Mortgage Yet Stuck with the Keys" [Hot Property]
• Prince William transfers Silver Lake to Park Authority [DC Examiner]
• Cuts Coming to Community Center Hours [Arlington Gazette]
• Experts: Investment in Green Amenities Pays Dividend [Gazette]
• DDOT Launches Real Time Circulator Mobile App [DCist]
• F.C. Council Unanimous in Bid to Convert City to 'Green Lab' [FCNP]

Weekly Roundup

The Low Down on Listing Home Inspection Costs

Question: I have been looking for a house. I was driving in an area that I like and noticed a house I had long admired had just gone up for sale. I called the listing Realtor, viewed the house and made an offer which was accepted.

Price Slashed on 23.6% of Listed Homes

Nearly one in four US homes for sale today have had at least one price reduction, as sellers come to grips with the reality of a weakening economy and a housing market still groping along toward bottom.

The Summer Home Bust

In recent years, I've approached the summer with something resembling dread. Another three months of having to explain that, no, we won't be spending much time at our place on Cape Cod, seeing as how we don't have one.

Mortgage crisis robbing seniors of golden years

Howard Weiss is 77 and scared. This year, the semiretired distributor from Phoenix ran into financial problems and stopped making his mortgage payments. He was told his home was scheduled for a foreclosure auction in May.

8 'freebies' for new-home buyers

Rhonda Duffy, owner of Duffy Realty in Atlanta, says a builder's whole career could rest on whether he or she sells one house.

The Psychology of Short Sales by Tanta, April 2008

As CR mentions in his essay on housing supply in this issue, plenty of markets are seeing very large segments of for-sale inventory coming in the form of short sale listings. Yet completed short sales remain a small segment of actual “distressed sales” or final dispositions of “worked out” loans.

Programmable thermostats are no longer part of the federal Energy Star program

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently announced that it will suspend its Energy Star specification for programmable thermostats effective December 31, 2009. Any models manufactured after that date cannot bear the Energy Star label; manufacturers will have several months to update their Web sites and promotional material.

FROM AROUND THE WASHINGTON DC REGION:

• Chevy Chase to hold informational, public hearings on purple line [Gazette.net]
• Getting Closer to Confirmation of the Real World House [DCist]
• Beware: Decks Could Soon be Counted as Lot Coverage [Historic Vienna]
• Wiehle avenue development approved [Fairfax Times]
• Local Area Has Its Share of Virginia's Wealthiest [Gazette]
• Greater Washington Initiative: Region's economy to shrink in 2009 [Washington Biz Journal]
• Virginia changes mortgage regulations to fight fraud [Virginia Business]
• Is McMansion era over? [Virginia Business]
• The Cash That's Left [Washington Post]

Real Estate Weekly News Roundup

Beanie Baby Tycoon Buys Nation's Highest Home
Ty Warner earned a giant fortune from small toys. Now the Beanie Baby billionaire aims to top all other homes in the country–literally.

Bargain Hunters Trickle Back to US Housing Market
If you believe the media hype, there are millions of homes for sale in America and not a buyer in sight. But one person's dead market is another's buying opportunity.

Who Said Recession?
Oooo-weee children, hold on to your britches because real estate gossip Max Abelson at the New York Observer is on a roll this week.

Q&A: Is It a Worth the Extra Cost to Buy Windows Filled with Argon Gas?
It is generally not a good investment to replace windows just for energy-efficiency purposes.

The Quickest Way to Begin Greening Your House
Quick - What’s the easiest way to reduce your energy use and costs in your home? Better Insulation, perhaps? Solar panels on the roof? Microturbine on the lawn?

America's Next Foreclosure Capitals
The number of homeowners dealing with foreclosure is mounting. Nationwide, almost 766,000 homes received at least one foreclosure-related notice from July through September, according to Realty Trac.

Zelman: "Current Trends are Pretty Frightening."
The message was clear during housing analyst Ivy Zelman's presentation this afternoon at the NAHB's Fall Construction Forecast Conference: Fasten your seatbelts.

Eco-Friendly Tips We All Need to Know
Before you launch into a weekend of cleaning out your cabinets or the garage, stop for a refresher course on disposing of all that leftover paint, used motor oil, expired medications, dead batteries and other items considered “hazardous household waste”.

A Look at Chemical Free Pool
Although fall is settling in, it's never to early to plan for next summer and spring-time projects.

Bair: 3,500 Mortgages Modified at IndyMac Under FDIC Program
In testimony Thursday on Capitol Hill, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. chairman Sheila Bair provided the first public update on the FDIC’s loan modification program put into place at IndyMac Federal Bank since it was introduced roughly two months ago.

How to Handle a Home-Equity Hang-up with Ongoing Project
I am one of those homeowners whose home-equity lines of credit was reduced due to the "significant decline" in prices in my area. This is our problem: We learned about the HELOC reduction after we started to build.

OTHER NEWS FROM THE AROUND THE REGION

• The Tysons Lunch Bunch
• Surrounded by Ruins, Mortgage Market Remains Intact
• F.C. Scores Bonanza: BJ's Warehouse Relocating Here
• Parc Rosslyn-= Affordable Housing Never Look so Good!
• Metro Bringing Bigger Buses to Rosslyn-Dulles Route
• Purple Line Supported, Not Funded
• Wilson Bridge Project Honored
• Tysons Project Could Add to Traffic Congestion
• "Intersection of Influence and Parking"
• Local Banks Holding Strong During Financial Crisis

Money Quote

Looking 'where' to invest in real estate?

Stay away from luxury properties, because they won't command enough rent to cover your equity investment. And working-class neighborhoods will continue to have job losses--though small, easy-to-manage multifamily properties in close-in areas can be opportunities. I would buy mid-priced houses in areas with good schools, transportation and job growth. When the market improves, your tenants may want to buy the property.

- R. Donohue Peebles via Wall Street Journal

N. Va Resale Homes Sold Up 165% Since January, Sign of Market Turnaround?

image: Price vs. units sold

The Northern Virginia Association of Realtors (NVAR) released their June sales report recently for resale market. This is what interesting: The total number of homes sold year-to-date up almost doubled from 716 to 1,900 homes. That's a cool 165% increase over the past 6 months! 

How can anyone miss that?

For the same period, the average sold price declined by 14.44% from $569,826 to $487,549. Clearly, when you link the two indicators together - prices and units sold - the increase in total number of homes sold has something to do with falling prices, even though prices stay flat since beginning of the year. The total number of units (or homes) sold declined 5.05% from 2,001 to 1900 homes.

The numbers also show that sellers (some of them) have come to terms with the reality of the market. The ave. sales price as percentage of list price came down from 95.71% to 93.31%. And the ave. list price for solds declined 12.24% from $595,372 to $522,512. What this trend tells basically prices have come down. From the peak, which was 2006, the average sold price have come down from $578,689 to $487,549 or 15.74%. (2005 was not the peak of the market in terms of prices - only units sold).

What we've been hearing about FHA loans slowly become serious player in the marketplace is so true. Look at the market share. FHA, VA (other than conventional financing) takes bigger chunk of market share.

Market Trends: Arlington, Alexandria and Fairfax

(The charts below shows you the movement between prices and volume or (total number of units) sold from June 2007 to June 2008.)

When you compare trends for Northern Virginia vs other jurisdictions, you can see that all real estate is local. Look at Arlington. What's going on there? It could be that during the month of February to March and April, there was low supply of homes in the upper bracket.

Alexandria tells a different story. Over a year period, home prices here stay flat while units sold almost double from under 100 homes sold in January of '08 to almost 200 homes in June. Buyers took advantage 'of closer-in' affordable homes in the City of Alexandria (less pricey than Arlington).

Fairfax county. It looks like this is where the action is. Buyers suddenly took advantage of some 'deals' on the market - which is a combination of foreclosures (bank-owned), short sale and other type of deals -  even though prices not coming down that fast and furious.

** data, information: MRIS, NVAR

** Northern Virginia includes Alexandria, Arlington, Fairfax, Falls Church City, Town of Vienna. The stats exclude Loudoun and PW counties.

Wash. DC (and N. Va) Housing Turns Around

A measure of market activity shows that when prices decline housing sales sizzles. The observation is based on current market (raw numbers) indicators from MRIS. You'll see below that market shows signs of improvement for Washington DC and Northern Virginia. In other words - sales 'picked up.' [Release of April 'official' housing sales from NVAR and GCAAR won't be available until second week in May].

UNDER CONTRACTS (April 2008)

Let's compare month-over-month sales under contract - in NAR jargon 'pending home sales.' In bracket it shows last year's data.

Washington DC (+21%)
369 homes (conventional)   (303)
17 (foreclosure)
7 (short-sales)

Alexandria City (+15%)
156 homes   (141)
6 (foreclosure)
3 (short-sales)

Arlington  (+14%)
162 homes   (149)
8 (foreclosure)
2 (short-sales)

Fairfax (+14.2%)
1095 homes    (1135)
145 (foreclosure)
57 (short-sales)

Loudoun (+13.5%)
464 homes   (518)
83 (foreclosure)
41 (short-sales)

Prince William  (+23%)
613 homes    (686)
181 (foreclosure)
52 (short-sales)

Based on the data above, you kind of see where the areas with the hardest hit. The analysis of - how sales is better in closer-in neighborhoods (inside the beltway) than in outer burbs (outside the beltway) because of proximity to DC - prove that is the case. Especially now with gas prices on target to reach $4 a gallon? Yeah, commuting can hit pocketbook deep.

For example, Prince William county. Almost 20% of homes under contract is foreclosure. I don't really count short-sales until it closes, because the percentage of short-sales that got sold actually really low. If we take short-sales out (52homes), the turnaround is still 15.7% in April - that is a hell of a come back for Prince William county! Ditto for Loudoun and Fairfax. These hoods show some coming back signs as well.

HOUSING INVENTORIES

Washington DC 8.3 mos.
Alexandria City 5.8 mos.
Arlington 4.9 mos.
Fairfax 8.1 mos.
Loudoun 9 mos.
Prince William 11.1 mos.

[note: 5-6 months is a 'balanced' market. Under 5 months is a sellers market and over 6 months is buyers market.]

You see market is moving fast. Supply of foreclosure homes (bank-owned/REO) might not be around too much longer. Before you know it, they're gone. So you got to hurry up.

::

Check here for the most recent REO listings: Washington DC, Alexandria, Arlington, Fairfax, Falls Church and Fairfax City.

data: MRIS

Spectrum Condo

Spectrum condominium is a new mixed-use with green features over at City of Falls Church right off Route 7 or Broad Street as the locals call it. There are 189 condo units in the 7-story building along with retails and offices. It is build by the same developer, Waterford, which builds the Broadway condominium a few years back, which is up the street. Easy access to George (Falls Church CIty feeder buses) and to major roads I-66, Rt. 29, Rt. 7. A short hop to Tysons Corner, Arlington, and two metro stations East or West Falls Church. It's also walking distance to shops and local restaurants.

flooring: bamboo

flooring: cork

This building is not LEED certified, however it does offer some of - the 'green (eco-friendly)' elements that to a certain extent commonly found in buildings that are certified - in addition to the features you seen in other development (non-green condos), like granite counters, tile floors and tub surround, stainless steel appliances, 42" cabinets, and berber carpet.

Here is some the green and sustainable features this condominium offer:

• Green roof
  
• Energy-efficient appliances (refrigerator, washer/dryer) including low-flow toilets.
• Bike rack (was a pre-requisite in counting LEED points)
• Energy-efficient central hot water, natural gas heating and electric air
• Bamboo or cork flooring
• Building was built with bricks which come from local supplier

A little bit about benefits of green roof for a building: 1) Protection for the roof membrane - extend the life of the roof, 2) Savings on energy and cooling costs, 3) Insulate sound, 4) Reduce the size of HVAC equipment, 5) Meet regulatory requirement for storm management, and 6) Potential to eliminate roof drains. So for the owners you get the benefit of low utility bills which is nice.

Each home gets one underground car garage and if you need additional parking space, it comes with a price tag of $18,000, which is on the low end - in comparison to other places like Arlington and Washington DC.  Choices available from 1BR, +den to 2BR, +den and penthouse. Living space ranged from the smallest 1 BR 814 s.f. to 1,663 s.f. for the 2BR penthouse.

Amenities include fitness center, courtyard garden, lounge, theater room, bike storage room and internet business suite. Condo fees interestingly includes - almost everything from the basic (water, sewer, trash, snow removal, master insurance policy and CAM) to cable and internet access plus- heating and air-conditioning.

The question that always come up every single time is - what's the condo fee? At least over here because of the energy-efficient features (and green roof) it offer, you can be assure that you won't see big jump on your condo fee at least for a couple of years. The one thing lacks, is installation of solar panels on the roof. With PV installation, it could really make this condo the 'plus-plus advantage' versus other condos in the area. Condo fee starts from $331 to $562 per month (includes everything). Not bad. (I have seen older condos with $400 to high $700 condo fee a month that includes utilities.) Throw in a bonus perk there for secured access and  on-site management (weekday).

Condos are priced from  upper $300's to high $700's. They're running current incentives for a $5,000 + 1/2% closing assistance if you use 'their' designated lender and title company.

Crossposted at New Homes Trekker