Fairfax

4587 Derring Lane, Fairfax Virginia SOLD!

SOLD and Settled @ $429,900 in April 2010!

… look at the interior photos! This home is not asking a 3rd party for approval! Not a foreclosure either… super clean and ready to settle by the end of the year!

Mint condition town home located close to Fair Oaks, Fairfax, and some of the best shopping on the East Coast including Wegman’s, Whole Foods, REI, Costco, Target and the Merrifield Garden Center. Walk to an almost new Fairfax County Elementary School (Eagle View), Fairfax County parks and walking trails and so much more.

3 level, rear load two-car garage, almost new condition. 3 bedrooms, 2 full and 2 half baths

All ready to close quickly. But we need to set up a time to see it this weekend… 703-304-6827.

Equal Housing Opportunity!

View Larger Map and settl

Fairfax

Upcoming Changes to Conforming Loan Limits

This is a post of special interest to many of us in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area. I was in a NVAR Finance Forum meeting discussing the Economic Summit and Sweth started to talk about the upcoming expiration of the current $ 729,750 conforming loan limit on December 1st and how it may impact the health of the Northern Virginia real estate market.

So I decided to invite him to tell the story… enjoy!

by: Sweth Chandramouli, an Alexandria, VA mortgage broker, blogger and yet another former retired high-tech guy now with Ethical Homes.com

Conforming loan limits in the metro DC area may be changing significantly in coming months, potentially dropping by nearly half by the end of the year.

The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA) increased the conforming mortgage loan limit to $417k, and also created “high-balance” conforming loans in high cost areas, which would have rates that were slightly worse than “regular” conforming loans but still better than traditional “jumbo” mortgages. The high-balance limits were based on median sales prices in those high-cost areas, and for the metro DC area, the limit for 2009 was set at $625,500. In February 2009, Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA, aka the economic stimulus bill of 2009), which temporarily increased the limit for high-cost areas such as DC to $729,750.

The ARRA limits expire on 12/1/09, however, at which point the limit for the DC area will drop back down to the HERA limit of $625,500. (12/1/09 is also the deadline for first-time home buyers to take advantage of the $8000 tax credit, so first-time buyers who need loans in the $626k-$729k range should be especially motivated to close their purchases by December 1st.)

That change will affect many people in the DC area, but far more widespread will be the change that will probably occur on January 1, 2010. HERA resets the conforming and high-balance limits each January according to a specific formula; that formula does not allow the basic conforming limit to decrease from year to year, but it does allow the high-balance limit to decrease or vanish entirely, and based on current calculations, that’s exactly what will happen in most parts of the U.S., including the metro DC area–on January 1st, barring any new stimulus bills passed by Congress between now and then, any loan in the DC area above $417k will probably be treated as a “jumbo” loan with significantly higher rates and tighter qualifying requirements.

We’re going to be monitoring this situation closely, and have contacts at Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and in Congress who are trying to get more information on whether there are in fact any plans to enact another temporary stimulus bill that would increase the limit for 2010, but for now, borrowers should assume that the high-balance loan limit in the DC area will drop to $625,500 on 12/1/09, and go away entirely on 1/1/10.

For the detail-oriented people out there:

• HERA sets the high-balance limit at the lesser of 115% of the median MSA sales price (as published by FHFA each October) or $625,500, which means that all MSAs w/ median sales prices above $544k are capped at $625,500, and all MSAs w/ median sales prices below $363k are not considered high-cost and are capped at the regular conforming limit (currently $417k). In October 2008, FHFA’s published median MSA sales price for the DC MSA was more than $544k, so the limit for 2009 was $625,500.
• The exact FHFA numbers for 2010 won’t be published until October 2009. NAR does publish very similar statistics, however, and based on NAR’s numbers for the last quarter, as well as FHFA’s own HPI numbers, most MSAs (including DC) will have median sales prices below $363k, which is why we are assuming that high-balance loans will effectively be eliminated as of 1/1/2010.
• The exact history of high-balance conforming limits in the last few years is actually more even more complicated. In Feb 2008, Congress passed the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008, which raised the conforming limit to $729,750 in the highest-cost areas, but which expired on 1/1/2009. Also, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the lenders that work with them took some time to implement the changes in ARRA 2009, during which time the practical limit was still the HERA limit of $625,500. So the high-balance limits in the highest-cost areas such as DC were $729,750 from 2/2008-1/2009, $625,500 from 1/2009-2/2009, then legally $729,750 but still practically $625,500 from 2/2009-4/2009, and then $729,750 from 4/2009 to the present. Expect a similar series of confusing changes in late 2009 and early 2010, especially if new legislation is passed to change the limits yet again.

Fairfax

Tell me about the crime rate in Fairfax County?

Last weekend I met with an interested buyer to discuss a listing of mine, and he looked me in the eye and asked me, “how is the crime rate in the neighborhood?”

I can understand his reason for asking the question because I certainly would not want to move my wife and children into a crime plagued neighborhood either. But asking a salesman who is trying to “make-the-sale” such a question is crazy, risky, and the last thing he should have been doing. Yes, I consider myself trust-worthy but I don’t live in the neighborhood and really have no idea if someone had broken into a car over the weekend.

Get it?

Asking real estate agents for local crime info just isn’t a good idea.

So I always suggest people look up the data on the excellent police web sites, and here are a few from my market area in Northern Virginia or the Washington D.C. suburbs.

• The Fairfax County Police Department
• The Arlington County Police Department
• The City of Alexandria Police Department
• The City of Falls Church Police Department
• The City of Fairfax Police Department
• Town of Herndon Police Department
• Town of Vienna Police Department
• Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office
• The Prince William County Police Department

If there is another police department that I have left out then I will be happy to add them too!

Fairfax

A sick home seller strategy…

This is an angle that many real estate agents have yet to discuss with their seller clients because it may sound a little harsh. Some subjects like current market activity, reductions in asking or list price, keeping the house clean, proper staging, repainting, repairing, de-cluttering, re-carpeting, curb appeal, sanitizing, lighting, scenting, offering closing cost assistance or any other creative marketing idea your agent has conjured up to help you get an offer if your home is not selling quickly will seem like a walk-in-the-park compared to this sick angle.

It may add a greater sense of urgency for making any one of those changes… today!

Ready?

Starting immediately, home sellers need to have a plan in place if they come down with the flu because the house will need to be taken off the market immediately. Really, within the hour.

If you are a sick home seller in Northern Virginia…

• Notify your real estate agent ASAP (e-mail, text, voice mail, Twitter, Facebook… you pick)
• You won’t want anyone calling you on the phone…
• You won’t want anyone catching the flu from you…
• You won’t want anyone using the lock box only to discover you sick in bed, too weak to move…

I have asked before if you are a sick and tired home seller in Northern Virginia? Why? It is  because I have shown home over the past 18 years and we discovered someone sick, at home, in bed, and too weak to move. My clients have never bought any of those sick homes.

Home sellers, get this “sick-plan” in place today with your agent and consider making a refinement or two to your home if it will help get a contract… before you get too sick to sell.

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