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The deadline of September 15th is over for the Fort Meade DISA BRAC moves and the new base commander says the employees are all here. Now he's focusing on beyond BRAC and some smaller, but still substantial, organizations including: The Defense Adjudication Activity (DAA) which processes security clearances for the DOD and their contractors. This facility will employ about 760 local workers. The Defense Media Activities (DMA) which will employ around 650 and is about 70 percent staffed as of ... Read Full Post

This one definitely bears repeating as so many military families are facing financial crisis while their loved ones are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan or even from regular PCS moves. The 2003 Servicemembers Civil Relief Act puts in place many safeguards and financial benefits for your family including protection from residential lease and automobile leases, terminations related to your service move, caps on the interest rate your lender can charge you for existing mortgages, protection from ... Read Full Post

If you are a Fort Meade area homeowner or prospective purchaser then you've probably been watching the real estate stats very closely and have seen the signs of stabilization that are coming to us well in advance of many other areas of the country. We were seeing HUGE gains in the beginning of the year that kind of flatlined in May. This is normally a pretty busy time for home purchases but we are seeing a much higher volume of rentals (related to the ongoing BRAC moves) than we are sales. Be... Read Full Post

The Military Homeowners Assistance Program HAP program is designed to help mliitary homeowner's at Fort Meade (and other bases nationwide) that purchased during the mortgage crisis, were later PCS assigned to a new base and were affected by a 10% or more decrease in the value of their home. Homeowner's must meet specific criteria in order to apply for the program including 1. Permanent reassignment to a new duty station or home port outside a 50-mile radius of the member's former duty station... Read Full Post

Maryland is one of just 34 states that qualifies for the Emergency Homeowner's Loan Program that was just unvelied as part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Designed to help up to 30,000 applicants who are behind on their mortgage and facing foreclosure receive up to $50,000 in interest free loans that can turn themselves into gifts if you ... Read Full Post

We've been hearing about BRAC for a long time. Way too long for most of us and while the initial moves are clearly upon us we're seeing just as large a contingent of employees coming in for the new Cyber Command. And while this command hasn't received nearly the amount of press or word of mouth, it appears that it could dwarf the BRAC/DISA moves. Our real estate team has worked with several employees/military members from this command who are already in the area and renting or buying homes. C... Read Full Post

Unfortunately foreclosures are a reality of today's real estate market near Fort Meade in Maryland. And so are rental homes. With a large military and government employee population near the base, many families are here just for 1 - 3 years and opt to rent a home or apartment rather than purchase . When foreclosures and rentals meet it is rarely a happy event. We have heard that, in some cases, the first notice the tenant receives is a Sheriff's note on the door. Of course this is terrifying,... Read Full Post

What an amazing month we had in December. I literally could not wait for the January figures to be published because based on what we were seeing on our home sale and listing activity it felt much more like June. And, with the typical real estate settlement taking 30 days to close I knew January would be our first real evidence of the mini-boom we are experiencing. Despite frigid weather and several snow and ice storms home buyers were out in droves. And home sellers were actively jumping in ... Read Full Post

I've been scouring the Internet to get the latest and greatest information on the Fort Meade BRAC moves and I'm finding nothing but re-runs of the same information. We are going to be seeing between 150 and 200 workers per week coming in to the new DISA facility starting now. What I can tell you from the trenches is that YES The Fort Meade Homes Team has seen our first DISA relocation clients. They include: Three clients that we have represented that are looking for rental homes. Two of those... Read Full Post

While everyone in the Fort Meade area is counting all the blessings that the BRAC move could bring our way, we've been a bit short sighted on the pitfalls of what will happen to our already over crowded roads. Estimates state that as many as 65% of DISA employees that are currently housed in Virginia will be commuting rather than relocating. And while this will shift naturally, over time as some commuters decide to make Fort Meade their home and others retire and are replaced with new hires f... Read Full Post