We have never hid our belief in homeownership. That does not mean we think EVERYONE should run out and buy a house. However, if a person or family is ready, willingand able to purchase a home, we believe that owning is much better than renting. And we believe that now is a great time to buy.

We are not the only ones that thinkowning has massive benefits or that now is a sensational time to plunge into owning your own home. Here are a few others:

Benefits of Owning

Joint Center for Housing Studies, Harvard University

“Homeowners pay debt service to pay down their own principal while households that rent pay down the principal of a landlord…Having to make a housing payment one way or the other, owning a home can overcome people’s tendency to defer savings.”

The Federal Reserve

“Renters have much lower median and mean net worth than homeowners in any survey year.”

Benefits of Buying Now

Trulia

“Buying costs less than renting in all 100 large U.S. metros… Now, at a 30-year fixed rate of 4.5%, buying is 38% cheaper than renting nationally.”

Freddie Mac

"One thing seems certain: we are not likely to see average 30-year fixed mortgage rates return to the historic lows experienced in 2012…Yes, rates are higher than they were a year ago – and certainly higher than two years ago. But if you look at the averages over the last four decades, today's rates remain historically low."

18901 Smoothstone Way, Apt. #1, Gaithersburg, 20886

18901 Smoothstone Way, Apt. #1, Gaithersburg, 20886

Overview Maps Photos Features Description Video Market Report Neighborhood

$62,000 Condominium Main Features 1 Bedroom 1 Bathroom Interior: 794 sqft Location 18901 Smoothstone Way, 1 Gaithersburg, MD 20886 USA

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Sirous M Jafari Real Pros (301) 881-2000 sirous@realprosdc.com http://www.realestatefreesearch.com/ Listed by: Real Pros

Our recent listings 14302 ASTRODOME DR #74, SILVER SPRING, MD 20906 18901 Smoothstone Way, Apt. #1, Gaithersburg, 20886 3521 MADISON PL HYATTSVILLE MD 20782 5816 31ST PL HYATTSVILLE MD 20782 14018 VISTA DR 53-B LAUREL MD 20707 Subscribe to our listing feed

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14302 ASTRODOME DR #74, SILVER SPRING, MD 20906

14302 ASTRODOME DR #74, SILVER SPRING, MD 20906

Overview Maps Photos Features Description Video Market Report Neighborhood Market Stats

$174,999 Condominium Main Features 3 Bedrooms 2 Bathrooms 1 Partial Bathroom Interior: 1,815 sqft Location 14302 ASTRODOME DR #74 SILVER SPRING, MD 20906 USA

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Sirous M Jafari Real Pros (301) 881-2000 sirous@realprosdc.com http://www.realestatefreesearch.com/ Listed by: Real Pros

Our recent listings 14302 ASTRODOME DR #74, SILVER SPRING, MD 20906 18901 Smoothstone Way, Apt. #1, Gaithersburg, 20886 3521 MADISON PL HYATTSVILLE MD 20782 5816 31ST PL HYATTSVILLE MD 20782 14018 VISTA DR 53-B LAUREL MD 20707 Subscribe to our listing feed

Nearby properties for sale

Speak Intelligently about the Home Sales Numbers

It is crucially important that, as experts in the real estate field, we can articulate what is actually taking place in the housing market…especially when news headlines are causing confusion. That is definitely the case right now when it comes to existing home sales numbers.
Overall, sales volumes are down. We realize that. However, a closer look at the numbers show that certain categories and price ranges are down while others are up.
Below is CoreLogic’s breakdown of recent sales compared to last year by category. As we can see, distressed property sales are down while non-distressed property sales are up.

Now let’s look at NAR’s breakdown of recent sales by price point. As we can see, lower priced homes (distressed properties?) are down while every category over $250K increased.

Let’s make sure we promote what is actually happening with home sales to consumers in our markets.

The most recent projection by Freddie Mac calls for 30 year fixed mortgage rates to hit 5.7% by the end of 2015.

 

A New Season for Housing Will First-Time Buyers Face Challenges?

A New Season for Housing
Will First-Time Buyers Face Challenges?


Spring is officially here. The warmer season will hopefully bring a much-needed warm-up to the housing market, which suffered from the harsh winter weather.

Weather, tight credit, and higher home prices were the cause for stagnant housing in recent months, according to the National Association of REALTORS^® (NAR). February Existing Home Sales fell by 0.4 percent from January to 4.60 million units on an annualized basis. While this figure was in line with estimates, it was still 7.1 percent less than the number of Existing Home Sales registered one year ago.

Weather was also blamed for lower-than-expected Housing Starts in February, reported at 907,000. Housing Starts have been declining since November's annual rate of 1.101 million—the highest since 2008. However, Building Permits, a sign of future construction, increased by 7.5 percent in February to 1.018 million, well above expectations.

Better readings are anticipated in future housing reports, as the weather becomes milder around the nation.

Housing Out of Reach for First-timers?
It seems first-time homebuyers are being squeezed out of the market due to rising home prices and tighter lending requirements.

First-timers accounted for 26 percent of purchases in January, down from 30 percent a year earlier, according to the NAR. This figure is the lowest the NAR has recorded since it began monthly measurements in October 2008, according to Bloomberg.

Strong housing markets are indicated by robust constructions starts, new home sales and first-time homebuyer volume. A worrying trend is that there is insufficient inventory for average priced homes, with home sales over $250,000 increasing by 8.2 percent, and those under $250,000 decreasing by 10.7 percent, according to the NAR.

Prices on the Rise
U.S. home values continue to rise as buyers compete for a limited supply of properties for sale. Prices climbed 12 percent in January from a year earlier, the twenty-third consecutive gain, said Irvine, California-based CoreLogic Inc. last month.

Analysts assert that there aren't enough homes on the market, with recovery efforts since 2008's housing bubble focusing too much on the financing side, and not enough on the physical side. Conditions could improve as building permits are approved and housing starts slowly pick up the pace.

Predictions for 2014: Sales Will Surge

Many housing pundits are calling for home sales to do slightly better in 2014 than they did in 2013. To the contrary, we strongly believe that home sales will skyrocket with increases of 10-15% in 2014. Here are the three categories of buyers we believe will create this strong demand.

The First Time Buyer

The Urban Land Institute recently released a report, Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2014, projecting that 4.48 million new households will be formed over the next three years. Millennials will make up a large portion of these new households. With the economy improving, we believe they will finally be moving out of their parents’ homes and, when they compare renting versus buying, many will choose homeownership.

The Move-Up Buyer

Over the last several years many homeowners were trapped in their home by negative equity. This prevented them from moving up to the home of their dreams. Zillow has justrevealed that home equity increased by $1.9 trillion dollars in 2013 an increase of 7.9% in the last twelve months. With home values rising, this pent-up demand will finally be released and move-up properties will be in high demand.

The Immigrant Buyer

No one knows what will happen with immigration reform. However, we do know what such reform would have on housing demand. A recent study released by the Immigration Task Force of the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) found that immigration reform, if passed, would dramatically increase demand for housing units; increasing residential construction spending by an average of $68 billion per year over the next 20 years.

We realize that our projections are based on three situations that are still uncertain. However, we believe that these issues will come to fruition and thereby dramatically increase demand for homeownership.