This was a very eventful week with 5 Team closings , adding up to a Team total of 10 settled properties in 2013! Along with 10 active listings and 6 other properties under contract, requiring constant attention, and another listing (#7) going under contract, we were very busy this week. The market is really heating up. With all this going it was somewhat amusing to run into an agent that did a Continue Reading
Renting Now Costs More than Buying
The graph above depicts Monthly Rent Costs versus Monthly Mortgage Payments over recent years.We see the beginnings of recovery for the housing market. The demand for rentals has exploded so that renting is still more expensive than buying a home. See "The After Math Of the Housing Bubble" by David Kelly, J.P. Morgan. Fallen home prices in Silver Spring coupled with historically low interest Continue Reading
Ciment Team Newsletter February 2013
This is a Good Time to List for Sale! You have not seen the above headline from me for over 5 Years! But, I am finally really experiencing an improved market in Silver Spring. I know you have heard that real estate is doing well inside the District and in some of the upper-scale areas like Bethesda and Chevy Chase. But, it has finally started to be felt in my marketing areas of Silver Spring and Continue Reading
Reliable Neighborhood/Subdivision Searches
When you decide to either buy or sell your home, like most people, you most probably enjoy doing your own "due diligence" by browsing through some listings. Now, when you finally get serious about moving to an area, do you search by City or Zip Code? The answer usually is, yes, because that is the way you get accurate geo-info. But, in reality you don't want all that extra data, you want some Continue Reading
Sales Volume Surging for Season
November real estate data are almost all settled down in Montgomery County (it usually takes until the 9th of each month) but, some things are already clear. The volume of units sold for November 2012 was up a healthy 20.45% over Nov 2011! As more data come in, that can only raise that volume of sales percentage. While sales prices were up 4.84% and only minor changes are likely in that number Continue Reading
Now You Can Save Your Real Estate Searches
By now you have seen how the MLS searches on my web site are fast and reliable. That is because we use a very advanced technology (RETS) to literally log into the MLS for every search or listing that you view. Now we are also offering you the ability to have your own Saved Searches. This requires you to register so that we can remember your searches when you return. In the future, we may add this Continue Reading
The Latest Taxpayer Housing Bust
It was 4 years ago during the height of the financial crisis (exactly on November 12, 2008) that Mel and I were taking a continuing credit real estate course in which they were explaining the "new" FHA requirements that had been announced in the wake of the bank failure brought on by bad mortgages. I will never forget Mel's look as he heard that FHA was increasing the down-payment requirement from Continue Reading
Don’t Lose Your Homestead Tax Credit
ACT NOW!! DECEMBER 31, 2012 is the deadline for filing your Application for Homestead Tax Credit. It does not matter whether you have owned your house one year or twenty years. An application must be filed by the end of the calendar year. If your application is already on file and approved, you DO NOT need to reapply. It only takes a minute to check to see if you have filed and if you are Continue Reading
Post-Storm Distress Syndrome
After the storm is over, after the debris has cleared, we still need to get our sellers and buyers through settlement. Although it is November 1, I am still trying to finish off three settlements that were scheduled for the last week of October, 2012. Even though our area did not take the full brunt of Sandy, lenders and buyers are properly wary that there may be storm damage and are requiring Continue Reading
Still a Buyer’s Market in Silver Spring
I have been back from my trip for a week and very excited to get back to work. First, I want to review the current market in a month-to-month (September 2011-to September 2012) comparison for Montgomery County. My personal reports that I use for my newsletters shows some interesting results: 1) Active Listings were down significantly from 3,249 in 2011 versus 2,334 in 2012, a 16.4% drop. 2) Continue Reading