Ken Montville -- the MD Suburbs of DC

This home is located within minutes of Andrews AFB in a quiet, tree-lined community called Chirs-Mar. It'll only take one look to fall in love with both this house and the neighborhood of Colonial style homes with perfectly manicured lawns.

-- Minutes to Andrews AFB
--New Roof in 2008
--New Carpet and Flooring throughout the house
--largest lot in the neighborhood with spacious, fenced back yard
--Attached one-car garage with extra long driveway
--Seller says "Sell this house!"
--$7,500 Tax credit for first-time homebuyers

Loan limits for the VA loan program have increased to $812,500 in the two MD Suburbs of DC areas I serve most -- Prince George's County and Montgomery County. They have also increase, though not as high, in Anne Arundel County and Howard County to $537,900.

This opens up a world of possibility for veterans seeking to purchase a home in the Metro DC area. The VA Loan program is about the only zero down payment mortgage available. The best part is that, if you qaulifiy for the loan you get the great interest rates available to vets.

I write in more detail about the ins and outs of the new loan limits in this blog post.

Check it out. The loan limit increase is currently temporary through the end of 2009 and it's available only for purchases (no re-fi's) but it's a great, great deal for our military and dependants!

Recently, I've been running into folks who are not "in trouble" or "underwater" with their home. The payments are current. Income is good enough to keep the payments current. Yet, they can't sell their home! Or, at least, they can't sell it and make enough money to buy something else.

Why not?

Well, it seems that some folks saw the huge run up in home prices and decided to refinance and/or take some home equity lines out so they could have some cash. Lots of reasons for cash:

• vacations
• remodeling
• toys (of the adult and child variety)
• tuition for the kids
• medical bills

..all kinds of things. I go into more detail in this post about the costs of selling a home even if you decide to do For Sale By Owner. You see, contrary to popular belief, the fee to the Realtor is not the only cost associated with selling you house.

The bottom line, though, is that if you've already taken your equity out of your home, chances are very good you can't do it twice. You may not be underwater but you're not going to be able to sell you home either.

Best to sit tight. Continue to pay your mortgage. Keep your credit good. Save.

A couple of posts back I wrote about a great end-of-year settlement for a nice Split Level in College Park Woods. The house hadn't been on the market that long and the previous owner had kept it in good shape.

Now, just days after that one settled an offer cam in on another listing "across town" from College Park Woods near the Town of Berwyn Heights. We're really just talking a couple of miles here. Still a great neighborhood with great access to the University of MD and major employers as well as major commuter routes and METRO.

You can read more about the experience here.

I'm beginning to wonder if College Park is not undergoing some kind of renaissance or if it just so happens that there is a kind of "perfect storm" of circumstances: low mortgage rates, low home prices, and Sellers with equity in their home.

Right now we're in the home inspection phase. We need to get past that and the appraisal. Then it should be smooth sledding.

I don't know if it's the interest rates, people getting tired of renting, a perception that home prices are pretty darn low (relative to recent home values) or what but homes are selling. At least a couple of my listings.

I serve a community near the University of MD called College Park Woods. It's a nice subdivision of single family homes built in the mid '60s. Community pool. Community park. Close to METRO and some fairly big employers (USDA, NASA, Archives, to name a few). So the location is good, the prices reasonable.

Yet, because of the "meltdown" and subsequent tightening of mortgage standards sales have slowed down pretty significantly and short sales have started to pop up.

Yet, if a Seller is not "in trouble" with their mortgage and actually have some equity they can sell their home. I went to settlement with one of my Seller clients on December 30th. It was a nice year-end gift that she was tickled to receive. The home was in good condition, the price was right and the Seller was willing to make repairs and negotiate on financial terms. I wrote a little bit more about this on this post.

The Buyer made creative use of FHA financing. It was a father/son deal where the owner occupant couldn't possibly qualify by himself but the co-signer (the father) was plenty qualified and FHA guidleines did not require him to actually live in the house. The buyers got a lot of the perks of FHA financing:

1. low rate
2. 30-year fixed
3. low down payment (3% in 2008)
4. the $7,500 first time home buyer credit (the son's first home)

So it all worked out wel for all concerned.

Hey, it ain't over 'til the fat lady sings and she ain't close, yet.