The Koitz Group's Blog: Washington DC Real Estate

When it comes to condos in the Greater Bethesda area (and most of DC Metro area for that matter), it seems as though developers are missing out on the “out”.  Huh?  What I mean is that they aren’t paying enough attention to outside spaces – they have interior square footage “tunnel vision”.

More and more new buildings are being constructed in Bethesda and beyond with little, if any, balcony or terrace space…and rooftop space (except perhaps very small, communal areas) are almost non-existent.  Compare this to New York City, where there appears to be a move afoot to create condos with Zen gardens.  Perhaps it’s the popularity of the “green” movement that’s prompting these NY developers, but no matter why it’s happening, this trend needs to move south (in…

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“Everyone around here is too scared to look out the window and see that it's not raining”

I’d love to take credit for coming up with that statement, but I can’t take ownership.  It is a quote from a lender concerning his organization and he used it after telling me that his underwriters had refused a loan that would have been a legitimate “gimme” a year ago and should have been the same today.  I don’t want to use his name, or the name of his organization, but it’s probably important to let you know that he works for an extremely well-recognized national lender. 

The day after hearing this wonderfully observant analysis on today’s lending market, I happened to meet with extremely well qualified clients who have outgrown their current home and are trying…

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Here’s what we know. We know that the real estate market (at least real estate in the Washington DC Metropolitan Area) is cyclical. I have a friend who told me years ago that he believed that our market operated in 7 year cycles…the price of housing would increase for 7 years and then it would level off or decrease for another seven years…before it began a 7 year increase. I never challenged him, but I know that the last increase lasted for more than seven years. 

I think we’ve learned that houses aren’t stocks. They may be good investments, but at the core their value provides something that a stock never can…like security and a place to live. As we listen to prognosticators today, I think it’s important to consider how housing prices have been viewed… Read Full Post

In a post last week, I made a prediction about a home in Bethesda that I had shown…the one where there were seven groups of people in a one hour time span. I went out on a limb and said that, based on the activity that I observed, it would be under contract by the end of the week. I was wrong…it’s still available.

So, what does that say (other than the obvious, which is that I’m not a perfect predictor of market activity)? It looks like what’s happening (at least in the Bethesda area real estate market) is that buyers are out again, but they’re not feeling any sense of urgency. They’re taking their time…and perhaps waiting either for prices to drop or for interest rates to drop. In the case of this particular house, priced at just over $1 million, the… Read Full Post

So maybe I just want to prove myself right…but less than a week after Super Bowl (and that was an amazing Super Bowl!!), the real estate market in the Washington DC Metropolitan Area seems to be picking up. Regular readers will already know about my theory about “Super Bowl Sunday to Mother’s Day.” Just a quick recap: I have seen evidence over past years that this time period defines our busiest market.

And, here we are…into the very beginning of that market and I have to tell you what happened to me today. I had an appointment to show a Bethesda property at 11am this morning. Because I wanted to drive by a couple of new listings, I got to the house a little early. As I sat and waited for my clients, three couples (with agents) went thru the… Read Full Post

As part of the Economic Stimulus Package being considered by the administration and by Congress, there is a proposal that would be a great boon to the housing market in the Washington, D.C. area – that is the increase in the conforming loan amount. Depending on what you read, this amount (which is currently capped at $417,000) could temporarily increase to $625,000…or even more. 

My understanding is that the temporary increase would be different for different parts of the country. Where housing prices are more expensive, the loan limit would be allowed to go higher than where housing prices are less. This makes great sense and, even if the increase is only temporary, it seems that” the powers that be” should give consideration to the fact that housing… Read Full Post

It had to happen….the pendulum needed to swing. It turned out that it just didn’t make sense to suggest that you could “buy” a home with no money down…especially if you didn’t have great credit…more especially if you were doing an “interest only” loan and REALLY especially if you also got “cash back” at closing. Why anyone thought this was a good idea is a question we all need to be asking ourselves. The only people who consistently benefited were the loan officers who made money each time one of these questionable loans was placed. 

So, we need to return to the good old days, when you saved some money in order to buy a home and when you cleaned up any credit issues prior to buying a home. But the restrictions currently being placed on the loan market…

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Although I don’t subscribe to the “the sky is falling” school of real estate (especially in the Washington DC area), it is true that for whatever reason, we are in a market different than the one where everything sold overnight at an inflated price. What this means is that we’re returning to a normal market – a market that is definitely advantageous for buyers, but also rewards sellers who are willing to return to the basics of Home Selling 101.

Here’s a question: If you were going to sell your used car, wouldn’t you at least vacuum the inside and wash and wax the outside? Seems like a no-brainer and people don’t question the need to put their car (a depreciating asset) into its best showing condition if they’re planning on selling it. But not all home… Read Full Post