Archive for September, 2008
Northern Virginia Commuting-It Can be A Real Pain
September 27th, 2008 Categories: Military Relocation, Out and About
Are you relocating to Northern Virginia? Are you worried about finding the right home in a neighborhood close to work or within a reasonable commuting time to your new job? A standard question for anyone new to Northern Virginia to ask is “how long will it take me to get from here to there?”
Fortunately it is a question I can answer from years of experience. The reason I feel qualified to speak to the commute is because prior to getting my real estate license I had successful careers in the private sector which required me to commute throughout the area.
For years I lived in different neighborhoods in Northern Virginia and commuted to other parts of the area, DC and even for a year to PA. I drove the streets during morning and afternoon rush hour, rode the metro, connector buses, VRE and even Amtrak. For three years I picked up slugs every morning for a commute into DC.
DC has been named the #3 worst commuting area by Forbes Magazine behind LA and SF so our ever changing traffic patterns can be a mystery for someone just moving to the area.
When a military family asks me if they can drive from Burke to Fort Belvoir at 7AM in the morning in less than 30 minutes experience tells me “yes” and I can give you multiple options for the drive. Ask me if you can slug from Springfield to the Pentagon in 20 minutes and I’m going to tell you “yes” because I did it for years. Ask me if you can get from Woodbride to Bolling AFB in 30 minutes and I’ll tell you no. Northern Virginia commuting changes with the seasons as well. When the time changes in the fall the evening commute can get longer due to nighttime driving conditions. And my best advice is if the weather channel even hints of one snowflake then you need to take public transportation if you want any chance of getting home at all.
If you are a buyer who is looking for realistic information about commuting in the Northern Virginia area give me a call. I can help you make buying decisions that include not only the neighborhood that works for your family but also an understanding of commuting patterns in Northern Virginia.
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No, this isn’t a personal question about your belly button. Buyers moving to Northern Virginia often see the phrase “inside” or “outside” the beltway in MLS descriptions and wonder where are these locations on the map. For those who have lived in the Northern Virginia most of our lives we have watched “outside” the beltway on the Virginia side expand far west and south of DC.
Just as the term “slugging” started as a phrase to describe riders using counterfeit tokens, the term inside or outside the beltway started with a different meaning in our area as well. The phrase was originally used politically to describe the fact that most of the power in the DC area was located inside the beltway where the Federal Government is located.
The first written reference to the term is found with the Warren Commission Report about Watergate printed in 1975:
“In the White House of Richard M. Nixon, it was said that Watergate would become serious only if it “got outside the Washington Beltway.” Guess we know how that turned out!
Neighborhoods in Arlington, Alexandria, Falls Church and McLean are some examples of neighborhoods inside the beltway in Northern Virginia. Neighborhoods inside the beltway used to lean towards smaller older homes on tree lined lots however there has been a boom of condo developments inside the beltway. With the metro and buses within walking distance, many of the newer neighborhoods quickly gained popularity with buyers wanting to ditch their car for their daily commute.
Outside the beltway has expanded significantly over the past 10 years and some might say that it extends all the way to the Shenandoah Valley where you can find commuter lots for van pools to DC. The selection of neighborhoods outside the beltway is generally more diverse if for no other reason than the space constraints of trying to squeeze homes within a smaller geographic area has been removed. There has been significant new home development outside the beltway in recent years in the western part of Fairfax County, Prince William County and Loudoun County.
So another mystery of local terminology is revealed. If you want to know more about living either inside or outside the beltway give a native of the area a call. I’ve got a few other localisms I can clue you into as well!
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Don’t Lock Today’s Buyers Out of Homeownership
September 17th, 2008 Categories: Buyers Corner, Real Estate Ramblings
It seems that down payment assistance programs (DPA) create a genuine divide among real estate professionals. Some think they should be eliminated and others have seen value they bring to a buyer today. Hopefully everyone can agree that no seller has to accept an offer that contains the use of a DPA or any seller concessions. If a seller is uncomfortable with them then by all means advise them on other alternatives or wait for an offer from a more “qualified” buyer.
The press seem to be lumping together the use of legitimate DPA’s with the entire sub-prime mortgage mess. During the hot Northern Virginia real estate market between 2001-2005 most sellers flat out rejected any offer that asked for closing cost assistance. You had to fight tooth and nail to get a seller to even consider an FHA or VA loan as they were opposed to contributing the few hundred dollars in fees that those programs required in seller contribution.
There were some unscrupulous lenders and agents who were back-ending down payment assistance by manipulating offers and appraisals to be significantly higher than the asking price. They then requested the overage amount back under the table to fund the buyer’s down payment. These are not the down payment assistance programs we are talking about today. The buyer’s attempting to use those programs were not qualified to buy homes then and they wouldn’t be qualified to buy a home today. These programs were the result of an unregulated mortgage industry fueling by corporate greed and bad business practices.
Today’s buyers attempting to use DPA’s are a different set of buyers. They are buyers who qualify to buy a home. They are buyers who want to improve neighborhoods not make a fast buck and run. These are buyers who have jobs with verifiable income and have tax returns that can be checked. They have credit scores that make sense and a credit history that goes beyond a cell phone bill. What these buyers haven’t done in an economy with rising costs for everything from food to fuel is save a significant amount of cash to apply towards a down payment and closing costs.
So the politicians who sit on Capitol Hill have decided that these buyers, who sat on the sidelines during the sub-prime mortgage crisis, are the ones that should be punished by eliminating DPA programs. These are the first time buyers who are teachers, fire fighters, military men and women (who aren’t eligible for VA) and young professional who work hard everyday. Someone said to me recently “if they haven’t saved for a down payment then they shouldn’t own a home.” Apparently the idea that home ownership is the best way to build long term financial stability is only available for those who are able to live frugally on a teacher’s salary until they have socked away $20,000 to cover their down payment and closing costs.
Let’s be real. If a buyer can qualify for a 30 year fixed mortgage under today’s tighter lending standards, then providing them the means to have their down payment funded through legitimate DPA programs is the right thing to do. If the programs need more oversight to make sure that they are being utilized properly, then set the checks and balances in place. If the buyers who use these programs default on their loans in 3-5 years then make them accountable for repaying a portion of the assistance they received. Stop letting today’s homeowners walk away with no penality and start making them accountable for their actions.
Don’t lock today’s buyers out of the chance of homeownership because of mistakes made by the mortgage industry and unqualified buyers from five years ago. Give the buyers who want to help dig us out of the housing crisis a chance to become the responsible homeowners of the future.
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Fort Belvoir- Neighborhood Connections in PW County
September 13th, 2008 Categories: Focus on Prince William, Military Relocation
With the upcoming influx of military and civilian personnel scheduled to move to Fort Belvoir, neighborhoods within 30 minutes of the post in Prince William County are gearing up for new homeowners to arrive. All of these neighborhoods offer great value in today’s market and they offer a choice for buyers which include foreclosures, new homes and re-sales.
The first community you find when you cross the Occoquan River is Belmont Bay. With its waterfront location, variety of home styles and communities amenities it isn’t a surprise that this community has been discovered by military families being stationed at Fort Belvoir. If you walk the waterfront paths in the community you will be greeted with a smile and hello from everyone you pass. Kids love to run on the pavilion green and watch the boats coming and going from the gazebo by the docks. Commuters appreciate the quick hop onto Route 1 to head to Fort Belvoir or the VRE station right in the neighborhood to take them into Alexandria or DC.
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Think 
about it for a second. If you want to know who is having trouble paying their mortgage the mailman may be the person to ask. The mailman is the one that is delivering the overdue notices and demand letters from the lenders to the house. It seems they should be the ones we should be asking what’s going on in the market. If all real estate is local then who is more local than the mailman?
This might seem a bit far fetched but it is it anymore far fetched than what the national news is reporting? The balance of what they tell us is stilted to the story they want to report. Facts may not be all that important and the numbers they use doesn’t always match the reality of a particular neighborhood.
It is true that the mailman might know who is getting the foreclosure notices but they don’t know how much the houses in the neighborhood are selling for. They don’t know what concessions the lenders are willing to provide to get a home sold. They don’t know how to write a contract that protects your interests and they don’t know how to connect you with the right lender. That is where buyers need the help of a Realtor® who is in the trenches everyday.
If you don’t want to be charged with stalking the mailman trying to find the next foreclosure in your favorite neighborhood call a Realtor®. They will be there to prtoect your interests and make sure that you don’t have to be out in the rain, sleet and dead of night to make it happen!
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