Wheaton Regional Park-Another cheap Silver Spring date.

Wheaton Regional Park-Another cheap Silver Spring date.

Don’t want to sell your home? Here are ten ways to accomplish it.

Don’t want to sell your home? Here are ten ways to accomplish it.

A blast from the Past. The big explosion in White Oak.

A blast from the Past. The big explosion in White Oak.

New listing in Silver Spring-Hillandale Subdivision

I just put this property on the market. It is a custom built home in Hillandale featuring over 5,200 feet of total space. I think it is one of the nicest homes in the area, (I am a neighbor) and know that the community is the best. If you are curious about what is for sale in surrounding Area you can check out the search engine on my web site. And, if you are thinking about selling you home and have some questions about the process you can let me know by going to this page on my website.

Public Art in Silver Spring. Development does sometimes bring good things.

The transformation of Silver Spring into a real viable urban center brings the good with the bad. Mostly good in my opinion. Except for the extra traffic and loss of some low cost eateries, most people would agree with me that downtown Silver Spring in the last decade has become a very nice place to hang out. My wife and I bought our first home in the old North Woodside neighborhood in 1982. At that time-even though we were close to the downtown Silver Spring area we spent very little time there. What had been an energetic and viable downtown shopping area had mostly faded by then. The wonderful old Hecht Company department store closed up soon after we moved to Woodside and with the exception for J C Penny's and our favorite Thai eatery, we just went elsewhere when looking for fun. However in the past decade since the AFI Theater opened in the restored Silver Theater, I would say that 90% of our entertainment time is spent in the downtown area. With the revitalization has come some fine public art projects. I discovered this nice short documentary about the excellent public art in the downtown area and would like to share it with everyone.. This documentary was sponsored by docsinprogress which is a great site that helps both experienced and  promising documentarians (I made that up.) gain exposure.

Blogging lazy. A follow up on the state of the market from the NAR.

I thought I would write a follow up today on my last article about the state of the market. However, I am just going to be lazy and re-post this excellent article from the National Association of Realtors on the current state of the housing market. These are national statistics but I think they do reflect what is happening here in Silver Spring and the DC area. Just add a few points to everything figure that they cite. That is, the market for this area is actually looking slightly better than the national average. Based on this report and the current lack of decent inventory all through the Washington Metro area, I can find no reason why we should not have a very strong market in 2014. I think we might just "blast off." Interested in taking a peek at what homes are selling for in your area. Usually, I put a direct link to my web one web site's search engine. However, I actually have two sites and there is a different search engine on that one powered by Wolfnet. I think it is a great one to use and it has a bit more chrome than my regular engine. Take a look.

Market report. What to expect in Silver Spring in 2014

As we begin to shake of the cold and look forward to the spring selling season in Silver Spring and surrounding areas, I would like to talk a little about where the real estate market is currently and what I look to see coming for 2014. I want to also examine the factors that I think will affect the market in the long term.

Personally, I expect the coming year to be a good one for home sellers and for home buyers. How can that be for both sellers and buyers? Well for buyers, although home values in the area have gone up for the past few years the increases (unless you are looking in DC) have not been dramatic and housing values compared to five years ago still are fairly low. There are not so many "steals" out there as in the past few years but there is plenty of value and I expect any home sold this year to appreciate over time and prove to be a good investment overall. The bad news for buyers is that interest rates have gone up from last year. With the improving economy both locally and nationally it is impossible to sustain the super low interest rates that we have seen in the past. However, rates are not expected to go up sharply this year and should remain in the 4.5% range. This is an excellent rate and well below the historical average for the past 30 years Having worked this business since 1985 I think any rate below six percent is pretty darn good.

For home sellers it should be a good year as well. Homes in Montgomery county are steadily appreciating. Appreciation has been stronger in the western portion of the county but Silver Spring. especially those neighborhoods near the beltway and metro, is doing just fine. Our biggest problem today and this will benefit those who are considering selling is that the inventory of homes on the market is very low. The active homes on the market for this past December was the lowest that I have seen in quite a long time. This translate into demand as the weather and market heats up. I will say this and it was true at this time last year, any home that is in top condition and not overpriced is selling very fast. Multiple price offers are not uncommon. On the other hand, tired homes that have not been updated seem to sit on the market for a very long time. Things have changed and the tastes of consumers has changed with the times. I think most buyers these days are not interested in buying homes that need work and thus are discounting their offers to reflect the condition of the home. To get top dollar today it is very important to take the time and bring your home up to market. If you need some advice about your home just let me know. I will be glad to come out and consult with you about the market and your home. I you would like to do some research on your own, you can go to my IDX search engine and check out the activity for your neighborhood