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April is fair housing month
Tuesday, April 2, 2013

equal-house-oppApril 2013 marks the 45th anniversary of the 1968 landmark Fair Housing Act. The Fair Housing Act prohibited housing discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, or handicap. Every April, REALTORS® celebrate Fair Housing Month to reaffirm their continuing commitment to fair and equitable treatment and a professional level of service for all in their search for real property.

495 Express (toll) lanes open for free April 6-7
Tuesday, April 2, 2013

495_freetravel_weekendShowing houses in Northern Virginia this weekend? 495 Express Lanes announced Monday that all drivers can travel for free on the Express Lanes from April 6 to 7.

Study: Zoning contributed to housing crisis
Friday, March 29, 2013

Add to the never-ending List of Things That Caused the Housing Market Collapse: zoning. Specifically, zoning for too many large, expensive, single-family homes.

That kind of policy, according to a paper in the journal Housing Policy Debate, left people who wanted to live in an area with a choice of either living elsewhere or being lured by the promise of low/no payments and the idea that they could refinance when their ARMs reset.

Naturally, they chose the latter, and the data show the result: Communities zoned for those larger homes were much more likely to see foreclosures. (And that, of course, drove down property values, making it harder for people there to refinance..)

Spring buzzing season approaches
Friday, March 29, 2013

Every 17 years, cicadas emerge from the ground for a few months of mating frenzy — the spring break of the insect world. Then they go back to living underground.

There are different colonies or ‘”broods” of cicadas across the country, and this spring Brood 2 will emerge. And Brood 2 is in Virginia (as well as Connecticut, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C.)

If it’s anything like when Brood X emerged in Ohio (when I was living there) get ready for a very, very loud spring. It was . impressive, to say the least.

I took this picture in my backyard in 2004:

Eastern Shore Realtor raises money for volunteer firefighters battling arsonist
Thursday, March 28, 2013

imageSince November 2012, an arsonist has been plaguing the Eastern Shore, setting more than 70 fires in abandoned and unoccupied buildings.

He (or they) have eluded police and are driving the local volunteer firefighters nuts — these are folks with day jobs and are often out all night fighting fires.

An Onancock Realtor is saying thank you — and while raising some awareness (and money) by selling T-shirts.

Look at all the good news about Virginia’s infrastructure
Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Let’s play the glass-half-full game, and see all the positives in what the American Society of Civil Engineers’ “2013 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure” had to say about Virginia!

First off, we didn’t fail overall. We got a D+!

Fewer than 10 percent of our bridges (9.1%) are considered “structurally deficient” — only about 1,250 are in danger of collapse! (And only 17.6% are “functionally obsolete".)

Bravo for history! Our bridges are among the oldest in the nation — more than half are at the end of their designed life!

Shadow inventory isn’t a problem… is that a problem?
Wednesday, March 27, 2013

A new CoreLogic report says that “shadow inventory” (homes in the foreclosure process that will presumably enter the market soon) is down — in January it was 18 percent lower than a year ago. And it’s continuing to drop.

For a while, there was much being made about shadow inventory and how it was going to flood the market, lower prices, and stall the recovery. (We argued against that a-plenty, but there were still a good number of pundits who spread the fear.)

VAR fights (and wins) for a smaller grantors tax increase
Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Some last-minute work by VAR has paid off: In his proposed amendments to Virginia’s transportation bill, Governor Bob McDonnell has asked that the proposed grantor’s tax increase in Northern Virginia be reduced from 25 cents per $100 to only 15 cents.

The bill passed by the General Assembly included a regional package for Planning District Commission 8, which includes a large portion of Northern Virginia. To help raise approximately $30 million for congestion relief, the bill (HB 2313) raised the grantor’s tax in the region by 25 cents per $100.

Every housing program in Virginia in one place
Monday, March 25, 2013

Lots of cities, towns, and counties have affordable-housing programs — anything from help paying for fuel to assistance with buying a first home, to everything in between.

Who has what? What’s available in your area? What kinds of programs have these places tried?

Vote for Virginia REALTOR® Alex Belcher
Monday, March 25, 2013

Alexander Belcher of MacDoc Realty in Fredericksburg was named one of the finalists for Realtor magazine’s annual "30 Under 30" — a group of "rising young stars in the real estate industry."

The magazine is looking for not just successful people, but those who have "demonstrated skill, success, creativity, and leadership in their careers."

Belcher is among the 50 finalists, of which 20 will be culled by the June issue of the magazine.