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In an effort to stimulate the housing market and the economy, Congress recently passed new legislation to help first time home buyers. It provides some great incentives and benefits, but of course, there are various twist and turns that you need to be aware of. Here’s a great resource which explains what’s available and how it all works. Click here to find this Information for new buyers. This could be a great opportunity for you or for friends you know who are thinking about buying their first home!
All of us homeowners keep an eye on what’s happening in our neighborhood, and what homes in our areas are selling for. Which is good–because that’s mainly how homes are valued–by what people are paying for similar homes. I keep a close watch on all of Richmond, but particularly my neighborhood, Smoketree. Click here if you’d like to see what homes have sold for here in 2008 (or Click here for Smoketree South). Call me if you have questions! Or if you’d like to know about any other home in any neighborhood, I’d be glad to research that for you!
If you’re like us, you’ve spend a significant portion of your free time this spring in lawn and garden maintenance. For those of you out there in the trenches, we thought this might be an encouragement! Click here to see how improving and maintaining the landscaping your home can be an exceptionally good investment. Now that’s one way to put real sweat equity into your home!
Richmond is always a beautiful town, but never more so than in April when everything is in bloom! I thought you might enjoy a trip around town, not only to see some local neighborhoods, but also some popular Richmond sites. Check out the photo gallery. Enjoy!
If you are interested in buying or selling a home, investing in property, or learning more about real estate, we can help! We are in headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, and can assist you in researching, buying and selling properties in central Virginia or anywhere across the country.
Because so many of us invest, have invested, or hope to invest in housing, this is a question that everyone seems to be talking about right now. Being even less of an expert/prophet than many are, I still would like to venture a few thoughts. If you’re thinking Virginia housing, Virginia, with strong job growth and low unemployment, is better prepared to rebound than many areas. Median prices on homes still increased in 2007 although at a slower rate than in 2006. The good news for buyers is that right now increasing inventory is driving prices down. The good news for sellers (in Richmond anyway) is that the average days on market (DOM in real estate speak) increased from 70 in 2006 to 88 in 2007. Which means in the overall picture, homes for sale are not sitting around that long! Nationwide, according to a Real Trends survey, 63% of real estate brokers are seeing improvement in the marketplace. And they think the reason more areas are not seeing improvement is (at least in part) because of “consumer hesitation driven by alarmist media reporting.” No doubt this is a complicated economic issue. But beware! Not all the news is bad news.