The market continues to do well for those homes that show great and are well priced. The number of sales are a little lower the last few weeks but August is usually a pretty dormant time of the year. The inventory continues to stay low so that is good for the sellers. We have 54 single family homes on the market in Oak Hill/Herndon. There were 9 new listings - 1 was a relist. To see those, click http://matrix.mris.com/Matrix/Public/Email.aspx?ID=32466496504. We had 6 sell this week - which is great for this time of the year. The solds can be seen at http://matrix.mris.com/Matrix/Public/Email.aspx?ID=32466513455. One was a short sale. Most of these homes this week were on the market quite a while and had significant price drop from where they started. 1/2 were over 100 days on the market. It would be great if this continues through August and then we should see an improvement in sales in September as more new listings come on the market.

The market continues to show strength as we move into September. We have 41 active single family homes on the market. 6 of those homes are new this week - one is a foreclosure. The one that is a foreclosure is on Quincy Adams and had sold in May 2005 - which was the all time high - at $620,000. As a foreclosure, it is on the market today as $446,000. With real estate costs - an over $200,000 loss to the bank.  To see these listings, click http://mrislistings.mris.com/Matrix/Public/Portal.aspx?k=524916XJRPL&p=DE-87829431-770. The market is still selling at a great pace - 6 homes sold this week - none of which were foreclosures or short sales. To see those, click http://mrislistings.mris.com/Matrix/Public/Portal.aspx?k=524916XJRPL&p=DE-87829673-206. Have a great week and if you have any questions, just let me know.

The real estate market in Oak Hill/Herndon has again done well for the sellers and the buyers. There are a total of 43 active listings. There were 7 new listings. To see those, http://mrislistings.mris.com/matrix/public/Portal.aspx?k=524916XJRPL&p=DE-87038806-515. None of these were short sales or foreclosures. There were 9 homes sold - which is great for the last 3 weeks of August. To see those, http://mrislistings.mris.com/matrix/public/Portal.aspx?k=524916XJRPL&p=DE-87038884-508. One of the nine sales was an pre-approved short sale. The home had over 3510 sq feet on the upper 2 levels and a finished basement and was priced at $650,000 - a great deal for someone. It was originally purchased in 2006 for $820,000. It was 2481 Iron Forge.  

Well the market is not grinding to a halt, as I said earlier, there are a lot of buyers that are having a hard time finding a suitable home for themselves. There were 42 active single family homes in 20171 for sale this week - down from last week by 3. An interesting fact is that when our market was very hot in April of 2005, we had 30 homes on the market at any one time - which in my real estate career that started in 1992 - that was an all time low - so we will see what continues to happen. I would assume that more listings will come up in September once the children are back at school and parents are able to look at homes and it will not be so hot getting in and out of cars. There were 7 new listings - two of which were relists - so 5 new listings this week. To see those, http://matrix.mris.com/Matrix/Public/Email.aspx?ID=32340959665. There were 6 solds which was almost twice as many as last week. One was a short sale. They had been on the market from 2 days to 221 days. When we sell 8 a week our market is doing well so it looks like August is still going to do okay. To see those, http://matrix.mris.com/Matrix/Public/Email.aspx?ID=32340982080. To show you some of what the market has to offer, I had a home on the market 41 days. It was priced at $559,900. We were not getting much traffic and we had 2 issues that we were dealing with that the seller and I had no control of - one was backing to a future road and the other was an inground pool. Since buyers get so much information up front before they see a home and the buyer is able to Google map the home, I could tell that buyers were not seeing it because of the possible road behind it. The seller and I just needed to find the price where we were the best on the market at that price so buyers would not use the road against us. We had lowered it before but there was not an increase in activity. We lowered it $9,900 to $550,000 which put us in the $525,000 to $550,000 search criteria - a major difference in price searches -  and the traffic increased that weekend and we received 2 contracts. Another interesting point to support my thoughts is that I have sold homes over the years backing to the road. 95% of the time, neither the buyer nor the buying agent was aware of the possible road. The only way they would find out that information was to look on a Fairfax County paper map. Since it is a buyer beware state, the seller does not need to disclose the information. In this transaction, both buyers were aware of the road because they had done their own research before seeing and/or making the offer and were aware of the possible road.  To sum it up, buyers make a lot of their purchasing decision on the internet before they ever see a home.

The real estate market in Oak Hill 20171 is showing signs of an August slow down  - a possible result of people heading for the beaches/vacations before school starts and the majority of incoming transferees having purchased a home in June or July trying to make sure they get their kids moved into a home before school starts. The inventory dropped to 45 - which is 5 less than last week - so still a very low inventory. There were 8 new listings - 3 of which were relisted - so, actually 5 new listings. To see those, http://matrix.mris.com/Matrix/Public/Email.aspx?ID=32235160183. Four homes sold this week - which is 50% less than last week and one of them was a short sale - so, in reality,  3 homes sold out of 50 active listings. To see those,  http://matrix.mris.com/Matrix/Public/Email.aspx?ID=32235331882. I would think that we will remain at a slower pace through August and, hopefully, we will pickup in September. There is still quite a bit of buyer activity traffic going through the listed homes - which indicates there are still quite a few buyers looking for homes and have not found them yet.