The Koitz Group's Blog: All Categories

It appears interest rates are on their way up...in a big way. I received this e-mail from one of our favorite lenders today:

"I have never seen rate changes like we have today. Conventional Conforming rates are up 207 basis points from this morning's opening. That means that the opening rate which would have cost no points this morning would now cost 2 points to obtain. It translates into a 5/8%-3/4% interest rate increase in one day."

He, like other lenders, had inklings that rates weren't going to stay low but is crossing his fingers that this dramatic increase is just a blip on the radar.

Although not 100% clear yet, It appears that this increase can be attributed to:

• The current rally in the stock market
• The massive amount of federal…

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Is it a safe to assume we're all a little weary from hearing all of the gloom and doom on the news lately? From the wars, to the "Swine", to the state of our troubled economy, it seems like the media has had little "good" to report for months.

But, yesterday - "above the fold" on the front page of The Washington Post, no less - there was an article that clearly and consistently offered inklings of "economic hope"

Titled "Wider Confidence Lifts Economy From Winter's Deep, Dark Freeze", the first sentence sets the tenor:

         "The financial system, frozen solid for the past nine months, is in a spring thaw."

 

According to the article:

• Our frozen economic system is finally starting to show signs of movement again - despite the fact that…

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It’s not all gloom and doom - at least not if you recent Georgetown DC Homes & Townhome sales as your barometer. In a period where some extraordinary homes in the DC Metro area are seeing significant depreciation, first “third” (I missed the first quarter, sorry!) statistics for Georgetown DC homes and townhomes appear, dare I say, encouraging?

Georgetown DC Homes & Townhome Sales

"First Third 2008" vs "First Third 2009"

  2008 2009 Number of Homes Sold    36 25 Median Sold Price*  $1,300,000 $1,400,000 Average Days on Market*  80 … Read Full Post

“U Got Sales?”, an intriguing article in Friday’s Washington Times magazine, discusses the relatively rapid sales of a small condo development in DC. With over “10,000 condos for sale” in the DC Metro area, it’s safe to say that this genre of housing, like in many other cities, has been hit the hardest by an un-forgiving market. Even the finest Bethesda condos have taken double digit depreciation hits over the past year. I’ll go out on a limb and say for the majority of new condos in Northwest Washington DC, you can subtract 15% (give or take). But combine a resilient area, a “brandable” subdivision, and a few other variables, and “u got sales”!

U Street Corridor in NW Washington DC, home to many historic Jazz clubs and Ben's Chili Bowl (already famous…

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The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), in its annual State of the Industry press briefing, released their 2009 Advocacy Agenda, which included the following recommendations:

• Permanently Increasing the Government Loan Limits to help unfreeze the housing finance system:   “MBA requests Congress to help make mortgage credit more available and affordable by setting the Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Federal Housing Administration standard, nationwide loan limits to $625,500, and up to $729,750 in high-cost areas on a permanent basis.” In the Washington, D.C. area, this would mean a permanent return to the $729,750 loan limit which went into effect on a temporary basis for part of 2008, but which was reduced to the $625,500 limit beginning in 2009. The…

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Yesterday: 24 Competing Offers & Profound Price Escalations

In the sellers’ market of yesteryear, the asking price was merely the “base” price on which offers then escalated. At least that’s the way it worked in our Greater Bethesda area market with most properties that were appropriately priced.

 

Today: Expectations, Percentages, & The “One Price Fits All” Theory

Today’s market is different. In the vast majority of cases, an asking price reflects the sellers’ hopes, but today’s buyers inwardly laugh at that price and try to decide how low they can go. It always interests me when buyers come into the process with preconceived ideas about what percentage of the asking price they should offer. The reason this “one size fits all” theory doesn’t…

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We snuck out of town over the holidays and I got a chance to catch up on my airline reading. In United’s January Hemisphere Magazine, there’s an article entitled “Light on Its Footprint.” In this very short piece, the author discusses the increasing use of light rail in cities across the United States. He talks about areas that are developing new systems, others that are expanding their systems and even large employers who are moving their headquarters to be closer to public transportation. The subtitle, “Residents of U.S. cities are flocking to live and work along new rail lines” tells it all – and also acknowledges what D.C. area residents have practiced for years.

Our Metro Rail system is definitely a draw and has consistently driven up prices of…

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I said “available” didn’t I? That sounds like something an Agent would have said during the second quarter of 2005. Properties on the market are pretty “available” these days in most parts of the country -- even in the “recession proof” Washington DC area. I also said “endangered species” didn’t I? I’ll get to that in just a moment :-)

Despite these trying economic times, there are a few micro-markets that have still fared quite well in areas in or around the Nation's Capitol – the downtown Bethesda townhome is one such niche.

From 1997-2000, when the downtown Bethesda corridor began it’s transformation from sleepy town to “it” destination, two small townhome developments sprouted up. “The Villages of Bethesda” and “The City Homes of Edgemoor” ---…

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