recent RE

164 existing homes for sale and 31 FCs. Big growth in FCs!

RE

161 homes and 11 foreclosures. Both the ROcky Glen and the other Elk one are off-the-market, which is great news. Hope it turned out good (or, barring that, as painless as possible as they went thru FC) for both families.

RE

147 and 16 foreclosures. The Rocky Glen is still around at the high 200s (280, I think), and, although there has been a lot of activity at the Briarcroft one (i.e., mowing and some upkeep), it's still listed for 380.

Lots of WWE trucks and RV Buses at WalMart Parking Lot in Elkton Last Week

RE

156 and 13 FCs

RE

167 and 12

Bald Eagle

I saw this bald eagle as I was driving about a tenth of a mile just north of camp Bonsul and Forge on the east side of 472.

Almost a tornado, almost

Saw this over the horizon, facing north, between FairHill Park and the High's store on Applebrook and 273.

RE

169 and 16--not much change

RE

181 and 14--the only FC in Elk is the one on Briarcroft and it is still 370k.

Stricklersville Road Wind Damage

Real Estate for the First Week of August 2009

185 homes for sale; 12 foreclosures.

Lot of inventory! Nice low number for the Fcs, though. When I go back a year, I find about 165 and 15, so the numbers haven't changed that much. Last fall, we were over 200 for homes with a few more FCs, so I'm wondering if we're seeing some small improvement. I'll wait until fall and we can compare once again.

RE

137 and 17

RE

Sorry about missing a week.

141 and 15, so not that much of a change.

I noticed that 472 is being oiled and covered with new pebbles, which is good because it was getting a little worn out.

RE

133 and 15

Brookings Institute Unemployment List

Check out this list. We're at about 8.1 percent unemployment.

Brookings Institute Housing Price Decline pdf File

Check out the following link for the worst housing price declines. There is an associated map, but the problem areas (that have seen the worst price declines) are metro areas south and east of here. We're down about 2.3 percent in the last year.

http://www.brookings.edu/%7e/media/Files/Programs/Metro/metro_monitor/metro_ranks/housing_price_change_year_ranking_table.pdf

Real Estate

136 and 17.

So I was wrong last summer, when we had similar numbers, and suggested that we would see a large increase in both existing and FCs. 

I'm still wondering about the hidden inventory that could emerge when the market improves, plus I'm hearing a lot about green shoots and things not getting any worse. Could we be at the bottom? What I am reading suggests that the Alt-A loans (not technically subprime; these are the liar loans and no-doc mortgages) are in the middle of the recast season when they are adjusted after a few years of low interest rates to Prime plus whatever number of points is specified in the mortgage paperwork. With all the developments in Oxford--especially the ones with half acre or smaller lots that came online two or three years ago--I'd figure that many of those buyers got funky loans like Alt-As, which for the record were the kinds of loans given to people who believed they could refinance or sell and move up in a few years--both of which are difficult to say the least. 

Well check out my Foreclosure Cleanout of Oxford blog or leave a comment here if you are interested in having a foreclosed home cleaned out. 

Real Estate This Week

138 and 19. Also, quite unexpectedly, I was driving by Briarcroft and saw a huge dumpster in the driveway with a guy off-loading lots of household stuff into it. I figure that means the place is going to be under the maintenance of the bank that now owns it. Let's hope, for the neighbors' sake, that the bank gets the lawn mowed since it must be almost three feet high.

RE and Foreclosure Chatter

139 and 16, which is an expected increased in the existing homes inventory, since we are into the real selling season; although, I wonder how much selling will be happening this season.

Here is a pic from the yahoo RE listing for the foreclosure on Lewisville Road. The ad says there are no bedrooms and no bathrooms and the price is 45 thousand. The ad does not list a street number or any other identifying info. Since most foreclosures are handled by realtytrac nowadays, there is not that much info unless you subscribe to realtytrac, which I don't. What I am thinking, though, is that this image gives us a lot of info if we are familiar, as we are, with Elk. Take a look at the picture and try to figure out where it is.

The top left is the roofline and parking lot for that garage up there at the intersection of Hickory Hill and 472, which would be on the left, too. So, as I said in an earlier post, I think it's the prefab across from that parking lot. I could very well be wrong and this could be just a stock photo. 

When we were house-hunting, we looked at a prefab somewhere in Upper Oxford, and the price was significantly lower than the regular house like the one we ended up buying. But, I will say that this prefab and the one we looked at didn't look trailer-y, if you get my meaning. They looked like regular houses, or at least enough so that the price seemed like a hell of a bargain. 45 grand! I know there's not a lot of call for rentals out here, but it seems to me that someone who wanted to live here for life could make some money on it as a rental. But, if it is next to a commercial property, as it is in this pic, the value of the property will forever be crippled. Back in the day, when we were looking for houses, we looked at a place up in Lancaster County that had a small mechanical garage next door to it, and we wouldn't even consider it because who knew what the commercial business would become in the future. Who wants to live next to a high-flow commercial property like a WAWA?

So we'll keep an eye on this FC and see what happens.