Prince William County market update

Jason Smith’s comments:

Inventory levels up slightly but everything else is staying steady so the market is going strong! We are just under a 2 month supply of houses in

Prince William County. The active inventory has 36% of the market as distressed sales. Nationally, inventory levels are up 7.6% in July – here we are down – houses continue to sell which is great news for us. There was a home with 20 contracts on it in Piedmont priced under $350,000. It is still a very competitive environment for us in the first time buyer price range. New construction activity is up as well and KB Homes is coming back to our area – stay tuned on where as we haven’t heard yet.

Loan modifications aren’t working with a majority of the lenders – anywhere. The push to modify from the government hasn’t yielded results from what we’ve heard.

There are very few FSBO’s on the market as well. Auction activity only showed 3 houses on the “block” in October – other auctions previously featured 100’s of houses…the tide is changing – inventory is getting absorbed prior to auction.

Scott’s comments:

Career Night, September 24th: Bring an agent and get into a drawing for a designation and your guest agent gets thrown into a separate drawing for a designation at the end of the night. We’d love for you to invite those agents that would be a great fit for our company.
Business planning retreat…Pat Cunningham is one of our wonderful sponsors. Friday starts with golf, spa, cocktail party, and business planning starts on Saturday. It’s going to be a different format this year with tons of interaction to help jump start your 2010! The location is easy to get to and it’s a beautiful resort – the Hyatt in Cambridge be sure to sign up today.

In today’s Market Watch, our monthly market update you will see that there is not much to talk about this month. For the first time in a long time, there is nothing earth shattering. It’s been relatively quiet. There is nothing new that we need to be concerned about - yet. There is a lot coming down the pike so stay tuned. So what’s next? Is the loan limit going to stay $729,750 or is going to be cut back to revert back to $629,650. Is the first time buyer tax credit going to be extended or will it go away? When are rates going to go up and how high? When is the government going to dismiss the FED’s advice to continue to purchase mortgage backed securities. If inventory levels go up by a thousand houses – BOA foreclosures in

Northern Virginia - it’s not going to affect the market too drastically.
Right now we are at May of 2005 inventory levels. We need more homes to sell!

Pat Cunningham agrees that there is not much has been going on the mortgage front. Rates are awesome – ARM’s are coming more into favor because of better education and lower start rates.
A year ago I remember the mid September of last year and we were literally in a financial firestorm and one of the things I was thinking then is about the fact that that Fannie & Freddie were going out of the business and lending institution having a hard time making loan and wondering if there will there be a credit freeze.

Let’s fast forward to today, its business as usual. We’ve gotten out of the toughest financial market of our time. Interest rates are at historic lows. PMI may require anti-flipping rules to be enforced and will be scrutinized heavily on 91-120 days be on the lookout for changes in this arena.