ABCDE REAL ESTATE saturday, july 24, 2010 WHERE WE LIVE
Country roads Town Creek in St. Mary’s County, Md.: A country town (for now) that has the right stuff. F2
Green Scene A little landscaping can go a long way when you’re trying to sell your house E4 House Lawyer Before going to settlement, learn the basics of all the legal terms E4 Housewatch Finding the balance between building green and losing greenbacks F2
E AX DC MG PG VN VS R
MORTGAGE RATES How low can they go?
4.56% m30-year fixed for the fourth time in five weeks. F2
6washingtonpost.com/realestate Searchable listings of home sales and tax assessments, plus a mortgage rate calculator, community profiles and updated real estate news
loan rates fell
National housing slump
hangs on
Panel offers rosier view of market in D.C. area
by Sonja Ryst
The housing bust isn’t over, but the worst is past, according to economists participating in a U.S. Chamber of Commerce panel this week.
Despite a period of “relative sta- ‘Mad’ house
Their everyday life looks a lot like Don Draper’s
by Elizabeth Razzi Special to The Washington Post
“I
t’s the first time in our lives we’ve been hip. And it came to us — we didn’t go to it,” said Melissa Talley, 51, winner of The Post’s Mad Men Look con-
test. Talley and her husband, Christopher
Naughten, also 51, have furnished their 1953 Silver Spring house with original mid-century modern pieces, capturing much the same atmosphere depicted in AMC television’s “Mad Men” series. The show may be about the exploits of people working at a Madison Avenue advertising firm, but its faithful depictions of the styles of the late 1950s to ’60s — down to the gold-leaf trim on cocktail glasses and the ubiquitous ashtrays — threatens to steal the spotlight in each episode. The winning couple’s son, Patrick
Naughten, 23, who holds a degree in art history, submitted an entry on their be- half. “They were away [one] weekend, so I had some fun and took some shots,” he said. Talley has been a collector of mid-
century modern furniture for years, buy- ing pieces at yard sales, auctions and es- tate sales and accepting hand-me-downs from friends. With Patrick as an ac- complice, they weren’t above dumpster diving, either. “I learned it from the best,” Patrick said. “I was the one to pull it out of the pile and put it in the back of the car.” The family was already living in Silver Spring when, in 2007, they discovered the vacant single-level house up for sale on Midland Road. Talley practically stalked it. “I was there half a dozen times, peering in windows,” she said. “Every single thing I’ve ever collected or dumpster-dived would be perfect,” she added. “It’s like sea monkeys — add water and, boom, we’ve got the whole environment.” They especially liked that previous owners had not renovated away the 1950s look. No one had painted the cypress pan- eling or replaced the windows. “They never destroyed the original character of the house,” Talley said.
mad mencontinued on E2 TOP, ABOVE PHOTOS BY BILL O’LEARY/THE WASHINGTON POST
FIRST PLACE Patrick Naughten, left, entered his family’s Silver Spring house into The Post’s Mad Men Look contest. Here he’s with his sister Martha, his mother, Melissa Talley, and his father, Christopher.
bility” in home prices in the past year, Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, said he ex- pects further price declines. “The housing crash is about over, but not quite,” Zandi said. After some improvement, the percentage of homes that are los- ing value is on the rise again, ac- cording to analysts at the real es- tate Web site
Zillow.com. In May, 57 percent of U.S. homes were worth less than a year earlier. That’s up from 52 percent in April. However, the Washington area has fared much better than the country in general. In May, 36 per- cent of homes here were worth less than a year earlier, according to Zillow’s data. That’s an im- provement from 47 percent in April. The Washington area has ben-
efited from economic sectors, such as government, education and military-related businesses, that have done well recently, said Stan Humphries, chief economist at Zillow. He expects the regional stabilization that occurred in 2009 to continue. “We’re cautious about saying they’re out of the woods,” he said, but the area is
housingcontinued on E2
THE NATION’S HOUSING KENNETH HARNEY
How to score a better deal on a mortgage
C
all it the great real estate dis- connect of 2010: Mortgage rates have been at half-centu-
ry lows and home prices have sta- bilized, but applications for mort- gages have declined most weeks during the past three months, as measured by the Mortgage Bank- ers Association. What’s going on here? Shouldn’t
SECOND PLACE Michael Shapiro of Bethesda caught the Post judges’ eye with a mix of vintage and new furnishings, left.
THIRD PLACE Judges particularly liked Kathy Smith’s Bertoia chairs, center. Smith lives in a mid-century modern home in Hollin Hills.
SPECIAL DON DRAPER AWARDPaul Delmerico, right, of Winchester, Va., earned recognition for his style — and his vintage television.
COURTESY PHOTOS
on
washingtonpost.com The Mad Men Look
To see reader-submitted shots and a photo gallery of the winning home in Silver Spring, go to
washingtonpost.com/madmenlook.
30-year fixed-rate loans well below 5 percent be flying off the shelf? Economists say part of the reason is the expiration of the federal home-buyer tax credits, which en- couraged thousands of buyers to accelerate their transactions into the early spring months to qualify for the April 30 contract deadline. But other key factors are at work: More stringent underwrit- ing standards imposed by private lenders, declining consumer credit scores in the wake of the recession, and rule changes by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration have combined to make qualifying for a new mortgage more challenging than it has been in years. Take credit scores. Although most lenders have raised the bar on minimally acceptable scores, Fair Isaac, creator of the widely
harneycontinued on E2
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