Fortmeadehomes' Blog: All Categories

Short Sales are the latest real estate buzz words in the Fort Meade area.   I've come across a lot of consumers who have heard this term but don't really understand what it means.  The Maryland Association of Realtors has issued a Consumer Resource Guide for foreclosures and short sales that summarizes it pretty well.  Short sales may seem like a great solution for homeowners whose properties have lost value.  But they can be very complicated and require professional guidance.

A short sale can benefit both the lender and the buyer if done properly.

From the buyer's point of view
You own a home that you bought in 2005 for                                       $100,000
It's now 2008 and the current market value of your home is only           $  90,000 Read Full Post

March 5, 2008
  According to a recent Examiner article, the Virginia company Hensel Phelps Construction Co. has been awarded the $370 million dollar contract to build the new  Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) facility on the site of the current golf course on Fort Meade.  The 1 million square foot facility will house an estimated 4,000 DISA employees who are relocating from the current Arlington VA facility in September 2011.   The DISA organization represents the largest segment of workers associated with the BRAC move.  According to BRAC spokesman Army Colonel Kenneth McCreedy "this is the first tangible step in the BRAC transformation at Fort Meade."   The impact of these 4,000 new workers and the additional 4,000 that are now expected to… Read Full Post

We've had an usually active 1st quarter in the Fort Meade real estate market.  While home prices continue to fall, they are no longer in free fall status and homes that are properly prepared, priced and marketed heavily on the Internet continue to sell in a relatively short amount of time, usually 60 days or less. 

Woe to the home seller who doesn't recognize the current market trends and thinks that it's OK to have dirty baseboards or a long list of preventative maintenance items left undone when their home goes on the market.  Those homes are being passed over by today's ultra picky home buyers as  fixer uppers, and they are traveling right down the street to one of several other homes in the neighborhood that are on the market in the same price…

You've no doubt noticed all the "55 and better" signs for new construction in Anne Arundel County Maryland.   From Gambrills, to Piney Orchard to Odenton and Severn, they are everywhere.  I was recently speaking with a home buyer who wondered just how our area can support the sheer volume of the new homes being built just for this one segment of the population.  And why, oh why aren't there more new and affordable housing to serve buyers of all ages?   Simply put, we are feeling the pinch of what is affectionately known as the APFO, or Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance which went into effect in our area in 2004.  In our case, the APFO relates solely to schools.  We just do not have capacity for any growth and aren't expected to for quite some time. …

The Fort Meade real estate community is abuzz with BRAC talk.  But, interestingly enough, everyone seems to be a bit confused about numbers of new households versus jobs, when folks will be arriving, where they will be distributed throughout Maryland and most importantly what impact these BRAC newcomers will have on the Fort Meade area and Anne Arundel county housing market.   I've done some digging on the Internet and here's what I've come up with.   These are the latest BRAC figures as outlined on the Anne Arundel County BRAC web site (see link below)  for Fort Meade show an anticipated distribution by county of the nearly 29,000 projected new "households" for Maryland at 6/13/2007

PROJECTED NEW HOUSEHOLDS BY COUNTY FOR MARYLAND BRAC
26%     Harford…

We had a fabulous time at the Fort Meade Destination Maryland event on September 21st.  Lots and lots of military members and families were out and about and we had literally hundreds of visitors and new BRAC movers to our www.FortMeadeHomes.com display which included information on homes for sale and homes for rent near Fort Meade.  We had the whole Fort Meade Homes Team on-site with live MLS access to all the local listings of homes for sale and homes for rent.    Great food and great fun and a wonderful sense of the military community.  This Ft. Meade event was definitely worth the wait. 

Extra special thanks to our Karen Daley and her staff at www.homelandtitleandescrow.com .  Maryland's premier title company that offers special discounts to military…

It’s coming and so are the budget issues.  Below is a summary from a recent Baltimore Sun Article.  See full article at link below.

State and county officials are hoping that the Army will pitch in to assist with infrastructure upgrades needed to keep pace with the anticipated BRAC growth.  However, with a planned office complex to be built on the base, the building will not generate any tax revenue for the surrounding areas.   That’s right, because it’s on the base they will be tax exempt including impact fees.  This 15 building $700 million dollar office complex is expected to have over 2,000,000 s.f. of office space and two golf courses that would accommodate around 10,000 BRAC related defense contractor employees.  This information is according to a…

Workforce development needed to handle BRAC jobs

By JOSHUA STEWART, Staff Writer
CAPITAL NEWSPAPER
Published September 07, 2007

As tens of thousands of high-tech jobs come to Maryland, state and federal officials are trying to ensure that enough local workers will be available to fill the positions. The 2005 Base Realignment and Closure process is set to bring an estimated 60,000 new jobs to the state. But Maryland's work force needs to be ready to capitalize on the opportunity, officials said yesterday at the Maryland Military Installation Council meeting in Crownsville.

"The needs and challenges exist from GED to Ph.D.," Tom Perez, state secretary of labor licensing and regulation, told the military council, which included installation…