Surrounding County Market Updates

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Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac get bailed out along with some other major companies, while we are fighting paycheck to paycheck here on ground level with all the other economic woes. Maybe the government will bail out our deficit too. OK, that’s not going to happen. We will only reap some of the benefits as these giants get back on track. But in the mean time we still have to deal with the reality of the market around us.

Today I will show you not only Frederick County numbers on what is going on here but a look at adjoining counties. Remember this is a snap shot in time and can change moments and days from now. The true test of numbers will be to see what direction they are going six months from now. I am positive that most of the inventory will drop between now and the New Year, only because it does every year. More and more people tend to take their property off the market and wait until spring again.

Also included will be the number of Foreclosures and bank owned properties. With the latest LIBOR rates adjustment, I am sure we will see some impact to the Short Sales and foreclosure list.

County Housing Market

	Cont <7 days	New	Condos	Town Home	SFH	Total	Sold 30 days	Pre	Auction	Bank Owned
Frederick	40	23	171	505	1376	2134	165	253	80	140
Washington	20	9	39	157	995	1347	60	123	24	160
Allegany	9	5	1	7	405	458	41	26	5	25
Franklin, PA	14	15	9	142	1007	1299	89	4	1	0

I am surprised to see the activity just across the line in Pennsylvania. I haven’t watch much of that market lately. So this little exercise was eye opening for me also. It seems they haven’t been plagued by the large number of foreclosures as we have in our area. It also appears that Allegany county is holding their own also with almost 10% of their inventory selling in the last 30 days. The inventory in Frederick county is starting to show signs of the season. The total number of homes is down almost 10% from 2320 from the beginning of the month. We should probably see this trend continue through the end of the year. My guess is that we will see our inventory somewhere in the 1800s. Check back in December to see if I am close.

The lending practices have definitely changed and will only lend money to qualified buyers this time. Interest rates have been stable (for now) and housing prices have been pretty competitive. There have been plenty of indicators that the worse is behind us, but we truly won’t know. You might already be looking in the rear view mirror at the best Buyer’s Market in a very long time.

If you think you are ready, my phone is always on.

Have a great day.

September 23, 2008 · Filed Under Frederick MD Real Estate, Frederick Market Conditions, Market Condition

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It is Frederick Fair time

One of the biggest event of the area starts today, The Great Frederick Fair. I, of course, love it for the food. But I think it’s also fun to run in to old friends. I have been here in the Frederick area for eight years and haven’t missed one yet. Here are some photos from last year. This year I should have some better shots. The Burnswick Photographers Guild will be on covering just about every square inch of this place. You will be able to track our photos on our Flickr Group created just for the fair or in the Guilds main page.

If you stopped by looking for the Frederick Fair events. You will need to stop by their home page. The Great Frederick Fair.

The best Gyros around (and he's also from Pittsburgh!)

Smother me in ketchup and vinegar and old bay and

Powdered sugar and maybe strawberries

Oh yeah they have a lot cute farm animals too

Have a great weekend and see you at the Fair!!!

September 12, 2008 · Filed Under Frederick Events

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What has been going under contract in Frederick County

In order to sell your home, you need to understand what is selling. Sometimes reality sucks, but it is the only thing that can help you sell your home. I constantly watch the trends of what is happening with contracts for the past week. It helps me, help sellers. It helps me, help buyers as well. In the scheme of things a seller can ask anything they want for their home and a buyer can offer anything they want, realistically it has to be what the market will bear. The contracts on they list below, first tells me what area is currently active, what price range is popular and what type of home is moving. Now mind you this is only a gauge at this point. The true tell is when these homes go to closing and finally settle. The closing price and seller consessions will tell me a different story. But here is list of homes that have went under contract…this is the first step at understanding on how to price your home. (It has be attractive enough to get buyer to look at it.)

Click to see entire document

Click on the document to open up a PDF of the past seven days of homes that went under contract. It is sorted by price range. Look for an area close to your home and see how you stack up to the homes listed. If you want more information about your neighborhood, give me a call and we can talk about the activity there. The average home is around $280,000 and averages 4 bedrooms. They also averaged 164 days before going under contract.

There were 171 homes sold in the month of July in Frederick County. August’s report will be out shortly and I suspect it will be about the same. The question you need to ask yourself, Do you want to be one of those homes next month? In case you are wondering, there are currently 2351 homes on the market right now. That’s a lot of competition.

Have a great week.

September 8, 2008 · Filed Under Frederick MD Real Estate

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Friday is for Fishing Fotos

I had the opportunity to camp out on the C&O canal a few weeks ago. It was something that I haven’t done in quite sometime. It was a primitive campsite, you know, no electric…no frills. We set up camp and headed out to the Potomac river for some fishing. We had great day on the water by landing many small mouth bass and a few blue gills. We we were even graced by a Bald Eagle on both days. He watched over us as we pulled fish out of his river. I was hoping for him to swoop down and snatch one out in front of us…but he just patiently just watched perched high above the river.

The day was coming to an end when I took this picture of my friend Jim. I thought it summed up the weekend pretty well. Peace and tranquility.

You can click on the photos to see a few others from the week. If you get a chance to fish or just float the Potomac River, I would highly recommend it. We had a great weekend. And by the way, the ground is much harder than I remembered. Thank God I had my hammock. (sleeping under the stars was pretty cool too)

Have a great weekend.

September 5, 2008 · Filed Under Frederick Misc, Friday, Fun

2 Comments