The sales activity at the Fountains of Mclean has great in the first half of 2010. There were 18 homes sold the first half this year versus 23 homes sold in all of in 2009. The lowest price were two 1br/1ba units that sold for $202,000. The highest price was a 2br/2ba property at $337,000.
The sales mix has changed this year. In 2009 about 35% of the sales were foreclosures or short sales. Up to this point in 2010, only 6% of the sales were foreclosures or short sales. More specifically, no foreclosures and one short sale the first half of this year.
The 2009 average price for a 1 bedroom unit was $210,042. The 2009 average price for a 2 bedroom unit was $309,150.
In the first half of 2010 the average price for a 1 bedroom unit was $216,979 and for a 2 bedroom unit it was $309,000. So, prices were up a little bit on average but would be safer to say they have stabilized as we will need more data to see the trend clearer.
Homes on average sell for 96.0% of the original list price. They sell on average for 97.0% of the final list price. So, if you are looking to purchase at the Fountains of Mclean, you may be able to get a slight break in price.
There are 4 pending home sales at the Fountains at Mclean as of 07/11/2010. All are 1 bedroom units with asking prices in the $210,000-$245,000 range. One of them appears to be a short sale.
Seven homes are currently available for sale at the Fountains at Mclean (three 1-bedrooms at $220,500-228,888 and four 2-bedrooms at $329,900-$349,000.) If you would like the current list of homes for sale, please email me.
To get a better understanding of the overall price curve in the neighborhood, we need to do some comparison on a model basis. Below is a graph showing the price trends for all the models over the last few years. I also put in a graph for one and two bedroom units in general. I broke up the first half into quarters to try to see if there is a trend emerging for the year.
As can be seen from the above graph, the average sales price seems to be trending upwards slowly from a low in 2008-2009. Some would say the reason for this is the homebuyer credit. As it expired April 30th, we should start to see whether that is the case towards the end of the year.
A growing concern at the Fountains is that the investor ratio has been increasing (number of non-owner occupants.) Lenders are hesitant to give loans in developments where this rate is too high (generally 50%.) It seems to now have reached a level where purchasers often need a 20% down payment to qualify for a mortgage. FHA loans seems to be unavailable in the community at this time as well.
The current stable prices would likely change if there were a lot of foreclosures coming up. So, looking at the upcoming foreclosures on Realist, I found 0 pre-foreclosure, 6 recent or upcoming auctions and 1 bank owned property. Few, if any, of those will have been listed yet - so over the next months I would expect there to be multiple foreclosures coming on the market. We may still end up with a lower number of foreclosures than in 2009 though.
Moving on to rentals, rents seem to have remained pretty steady. With 37 units rented on the MLS last year and 18 the first half this year, the competition for tenants should be the same as last year. There are currently 10 properties listed for lease, ranging from $1,200 for a 1br/1ba to $1,995 for a 2br/2ba.
For investors the GRM is getting slightly worse for 1 bedroom units and inconclusive for 2 bedroom units(seems to be pretty steady from last year though.) With some slow appreciation in price and slow depreciation in rents the rent to price ratio should be getting worse as well.
The Fountains at Mclean is a great neighborhood with reasonable prices that would make a wonderful home. If you would like to discuss selling or purchasing, please give us a call at 703 560-3424.
Are Andresen
Broker, Soldsense Realty LLC
"Your sixth sense in real estate"
Disclaimer: The data above is not guaranteed in any way and may contain errors and omissions and is based on MRIS data only. The analysis is my opinion only - always do your own research.
