Geothermal Energy for Heating and Cooling Your Home

We had a neighbor in Hillandale recently install a new geothermal heating and cooling system and that got me interested in looking into this new alternate energy source. In this area a typical home uses over 50% of its total annual energy cost for heating, cooling and hot water.  A geothermal system can save you a significant amount of money over time. Up to $100 a month. The issue is  time. Installing a geothermal system is not cheap so you would have to be in your home a number of years for it to pay off. However, a money saving environmentally friendly system can both add to the value of  your home and help sell your home faster if you put it on the market. So, aside from the monthly savings there can be other unseen financial advantages to having a geothermal system installed. The systems are pretty reliable, and in this area you can expect to have a very low maintenance system for years to come. In fact most new or rebuilt Montgomery County schools now have geothermal systems in place. Both Key Middle and Cresthaven Elementary Schools in my neighborhood have been totally rebuilt and have modern geothermal systems. Here is a nice short video that I found on the web that explains the two types of geothermal systems.

Short Sales-Still lurking around out there.

The improvement in home values over the past two years has greatly reduced the number of short sales on the market. For the investor or home buyer who is not pressed for time, a short sale can be a good buy. Generally you can purchase a home for below market cost because of the distressed nature of the sale. However, in many areas including the eastern and outlying portions of Montgomery County, home values have yet to appreciate above the dizzying heights achieved around 2005-6. This means that there are still many homeowners who have mortgages where the principal owned is still higher than the value of the home. For this reason, don't expect short sales to completely disappear for a few years yet. In the community where I live Hillandale MD there are now only four properties listed as short sales. This is far below the average numbers for the past few years. If you were to look in some communities in Howard or Prince George's Counties you will a greater proportion of short sales. In DC and West Montgomery County short sales have all but dried up.

There is good news in these numbers. The reduction in short sales on the market indicate a growing economy and improving housing market. This will help us all as equity in our homes in probably the biggest investment that most Americans will ever have. If you would like to explore distressed homes for sale in your community you can go to my own listing search engine. There you can use filters to find distressed homes or set up an alert to let you know when a distressed home comes on the market in your community.