F2 Real estate trends
The Washington Post regularly tracks housing sales and prices throughout the Washington area each Saturday in the Real Estate section, comparing information collected for each residential Zip code from each time period last year with that for the corresponding time period in 2008. The chart and map this week compare single-family house and townhouse sales figures in the District of Columbia from January through December 2008 with those for the corresponding period in 2009, showing the total number of sales, the median prices and the changes in the medians. The median is the point at which half of the sales prices were higher and half lower. Condominiums were excluded. The sales and price information, collected by The Washington Post, is based on sales recorded in local government offices. That information is in the chart on the right. It excludes some types of transactions, particularly those that are not at market price. As with any statistical compilation, the greater the number of transactions, the more reliable the statistical trend. Moreover, at any given time there may be more sales activity in certain market niches or price ranges, for instance starter homes or high-priced houses, than at other times, and this may influence a median price from year to year. The map provides a snapshot of price trends throughout the geographical area covered by each week’s information.
ON THE WEB
For up-to-date home sales and tax assessments, real estate news and community profiles, visit
www.washingtonpost.com/realestate.
20012 20012 20015 20015 Chevy Chase Tenleytown 2001 20016 Palisades alisades
C veland ark
Cleleveland Park
2000 20007 Georgetown wn 200
Percent change in median house price
–3% to –8% 3% or more
No significant change –9% to –14%
–15% to –20% Data not available
–21% or more
SOURCE: Full-value transactions as reported by the District
Congr
Congress Heights
20032 Heights
200
BY DAN KEATING AND NATHANIEL VAUGHN KELSO — THE WASHINGTON POST
20037 enleytown 20008 20008
Adams Morgan
20010 20009
2001 200 20036 20005 20005 20006 20006 MalMalMalll Mall
Southwest 20024
Southwest 200
Chevy Chase 20011
20011 Pe
Petworthorth
Columbia Heights
Columbia Heights
20001 Shaw
20001 Shaw
2001 20017 Brookland ookland 20018 20018 Langdon Langdon
Trinidad 20002
Capitol Hill Southeast
Capitol Hill Southeast
2000 20003
Anacostia 20020
Ta oma Takoma FFX.
ARL. CO.
CO. ALEX.
P.G. CO.
VA. D.C.
KLMNO
MONT. CO.
MD.
SATURDAY, JULY 31, 2010
District of Columbia January through December 2008
sold Dean ood Deanwood Benning Benning 20019 20019
20001 20002 20003 20005 20007 20008 20009 20010 20011 20012 20015 20016 20017 20018 20019 20020 20024 20032 20036 20037 TOTAL
150 $425,000 333 414,750 196 535,250 4 820,700 199 1,075,000 84 1,090,000 96 677,000 108 528,000 290 375,000 73 550,000 138 870,000 209 885,000 87 360,000 62 362,500 93 245,000 74 275,000 10 700,000 29 233,750 1 1,095,000 3 932,000
2009
Zip homes purchase homes purchase in median code sold
Total Median Total Median Change price
price price
155 $410,000 -$15,000 347 428,000 189 535,000
13,250 -250
4 637,500 -183,200 184 930,325 -144,675 101 1,050,000 81 675,000
115 435,000 -93,000 289 366,000
-9,000
73 517,500 -32,500 138 785,500 -84,500 190 850,000 -35,000 74 299,750 -60,250 81 340,000 -22,500 129 224,000 -21,000 63 270,000
-5,000
9 640,000 -60,000 33 218,170 -15,580 3 1,335,000 240,000 7 679,000 -253,000
2,239 $520,000 2,265 $489,000 -$31,000
-40,000 -2,000
REAL ESTATE MATTERS Refinancing a rental property by Ilyce R. Glink and Samuel J. Tamkin
I have a rental property that I bought five years ago for $170,000 but now is valued at $120,000. I have a mortgage at 6.75 percent with about $45,000 in equity on the property. I am not in financial difficulty, but I would like to take advantage of low interest rates. Is it possible to refinance my rental home? If so, any tips would be appreciated. You should be able to
AMY REININK FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
Laura and John Whitbeck live in the Lansdowne development with their 5-year-old daughter, Madison. John Whitbeck is the president of the Lansdowne Homeowners Association Board of Directors.
Extra distance from D.C. means extra value to Lansdowne buyers
live continued from F1
houses that were a few decades old.
“I was very impressed with the
newness out here, and just with how beautiful the community is,” Beckley said. “The common areas are accessible and user-friendly. All the amenities are close to state-of-the-art. It just felt like the kind of new development I could not find in Maryland.” Though Lansdowne on the Po- tomac is relatively new, it has al- ready established a bevy of tradi- tions, including a Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving, an Oktoberfest in the fall and a holiday party in winter. The homeowners association sponsors a summer concert se- ries in the neighborhood’s amphitheater on Saturday nights throughout the summer. “Everyone brings lawn chairs and sits in the amphitheater to listen to these great local bands,” Whitbeck said. “Local vendors come with food, kids run around and play, and it’s just a great fam- ily activity.” Though the association’s board
of directors is made up of neigh- borhood residents, they pay a full-time general manager and
other staff members to handle such things as adherence to cov- enants, facility maintenance and groundskeeping. Residents say having such a highly organized homeowners association has pros and cons. “What’s great is that we have a cohesive, consistent community that’s well maintained,” Beckley said. “The downside is that it can be restrictive at times.” Other drawbacks to living in
Lansdowne on the Potomac are mostly related to the distance from downtown Washington — a roughly 40-mile trek. Before moving to Lansdowne, “I was much more centrally locat- ed in Maryland, but it’s a trade- off I was willing to make,” Beck- ley said. “This place is a good fit for someone who doesn’t mind going further out. You really can get a heck of a lot more house for your money than you can closer to D.C.” The neighborhood is a bit far from Washington, but that doesn’t mean it’s void of enter- tainment options, with shop- ping, restaurants, movie theaters and other diversions convenient- ly located. “The number of retailers we have nearby is amazing,” Beckley
said. “We have a Wegmans, a Costco, a Bonefish [Grill] and all sorts of other good restaurants and high-end shopping within a few miles.”
Plus, Whitbeck said, being re- moved from Washington isn’t necessarily a bad thing: “We have the accessibility of a
typical Northern Virginia sub- urb, but we’re tucked away far enough that we get an escape from the hectic life we all live in the D.C. area.” That’s one of many factors that contribute to a sense that the neighborhood is family-friendly, which helped draw Lisa Picciolo to Lansdowne on the Potomac six years ago.
“I really liked that there were
so many families with kids,” said Picciolo, 41, a real estate agent with Weichert’s Gierer-Picciolo Team and a mother of twin 7- year-old boys. “There’s a great sense of community among the families here.” That’s a draw even for resi- dents who don’t have kids. “It’s a bedroom community, and it feels like a bedroom com- munity — friendly and quiet,” Beckley said. “This place is a breath of fresh air.”
realestate@washpost.com
refinance a single-family rental property as long as you have at least 25 percent equity in the house and have a credit score of at least 700. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are both refinancing rental properties, and although Fannie Mae will allow you to own as many as 10 properties, most lenders will let you own only four, including the one you live in.
But don’t expect to get an interest rate in the 4 percent range. You might get something at 5 to 5.5 percent range — which is still a lot less than what you’re paying. And although Fannie and Freddie are buying residential rental property mortgages, not every lender is doing them. So you’ll have to start shopping around to find a lender who can help you. I’m not particularly
knowledgeable about many financial ventures, but I want to understand whether I can help a friend who has a house and owes more than the property is worth. He took out a second mortgage, ran up his credit cards and has several liens against the property. His ex-wife was in bankruptcy before they got together. Now his home of 34 years might be pulled away from him. He has severe credit problems and is not old enough for a reverse mortgage. Are there any programs that might help him save his home? What would happen if I paid him for half of his house? It’s clear that you are a thoughtful and generous person, and your friend is lucky to have you in his life. However, what you’re proposing could easily destroy your financial stability, so you’ll want to take every precaution to protect yourself. Start by speaking with a knowledgeable real estate
attorney who can help you look much further into your friend’s investments, debts,
homeownership problems and so forth. It’s great that you want to help, but you don’t know what kind of financial quicksand you might be stepping into, and you need to make sure you help in a way that doesn’t wind up hurting you. I can’t recommend that you extend any help until you have a very clear picture of what your friend is facing financially. Before putting one dime toward this problem, invite your friend to review the situation with you and your attorney. Try to figure out why he is in so much debt, how far underwater the house is and what options and opportunities exist to help him out.
See if he has any other assets, and discuss when and how he might pay back a loan from you. Focus on what kind of deal you can make for your dollars — one that ensures you will get back every cent you invest if you decide to do that. Whether you choose to give your friend a gift to help him out of his problems is your choice. But if you expect repayment, you need to know more, and you need to have a discussion about your expectations for repayment in the future.
If your friend can’t — or won’t — share every detail about his finances, including who owns what and who charged up the liabilities he and his ex-wife now owe, then you should offer moral support, point him in the direction of the nearest HUD housing counselor (888-995-HOPE) and keep your dollars in your pocket. There are programs out there to assist homeowners struggling to make their mortgage payments. The federal Home Affordable Modification Plan (HAMP) is an effort to assist homeowners, but it has fallen short of expectations, and few homeowners are actually benefiting long-term. Some mortgage lenders have their own plans to help borrowers, and your friend should call his lender first. In addition, if your friend has the stomach for it, he can call his credit card lenders and work out a payment plan with them, but he’d have to stop charging more items on his credit cards. Your friend might want to talk to a counselor at
Credability.com (formerly Consumer Credit Counseling Center of Greater
REAL ESTATE NOTES Mortgage rates again fall to record low
Mortgage rates dropped to the lowest level on record for the fifth time in six weeks, making home-buying and refinancing — for those who can get loans — the most attractive it has been in decades. The average rate for 30-year
fixed loans this week was 4.54 percent, down from 4.56 last week, mortgage company Fred- die Mac said Thursday. That’s the lowest since Freddie Mac began tracking rates in 1971. The last time rates were lower was during the 1950s, when most mortgages lasted only 20 or 25 years. The average rate on the 15-year
fixed loan dropped to 4 percent, down from 4.03 percent last week and the lowest on record. Rates on five-year adjustable-
rate mortgages averaged 3.76 percent, down from 3.79 percent a week earlier. Rates on one-year ARMs fell to an average of 3.64 percent from 3.70 percent. The rates do not include add- on fees known as points. One point is equal to 1 percent of the total loan amount. The nation- wide fee for loans in Freddie Mac’s survey averaged seven- tenths of a point for all loans. Rates have fallen since the
spring. Yields on U.S. Treasury bonds have dropped as jittery in- vestors seek safer investments. Mortgage rates tend to track the yields on Treasurys. The Mortgage Bankers Associ-
ation’s index of home loan appli- cations fell 4.4 percent in the week ended July 23, approaching the 13-year low touched earlier
this month. The portion of appli- cations for home purchases rose 2 percent last week from the pre- vious week, but fewer people ap- plied to refinance. Many don’t qualify for a loan or don’t have the cash to pay for closing costs. And rates have been low for so long that many have already refi- nanced.
At the current 30-year rate, monthly payments for a $100,000 loan would be about $509, down $43 from a year ago. Sales of previously occupied homes fell 5.1 percent in June. New-home sales jumped last month, but it was the second- weakest month on record and it came after sales tumbled in May. — From news services
SOURCES: Freddie Mac, Federal Reserve, Federal Housing Finance Agency Adjustable-rate-mortgage indexes
Tis chart is designed to show trends of some of the more common indexes used to set the rates on adjustable mortgages. Borrowers facing adjustments can use the numbers below to figure their new rate, assuming no caps or other special limitations. Data on 30-year, fixed-rate loans are included for reference.
MONTHLY AVERAGES
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
% FHFA mortgage rate
30-year, fixed- rate mortgages
Atlanta) or another reputable credit counseling center officer to work through the various options that might be available to him. I have a 30-year fixed-rate
mortgage that I took out in 2003. Until recently, I was paying a few hundred dollars extra each month toward the principal balance. I think I have about 16.5 years left on it, and my balance now is about $106,000. I’d love to take advantage of historically low rates, but I think I waited too long to make a move. If I refinanced to a 15-year loan now, I guess I’d only cut off a year or so, and I think my payment would be about the same. Any thoughts? If you cut a year or two from your mortgage, you’ll still save thousands in interest. You might also give yourself more of a tax deduction in the next few years. I think it might be worth doing, but you have to do the numbers. You should be able to
refinance a 15-year loan at about 4 percent (as of late July). That is probably quite a bit lower than what you’re paying now. In 2003, your interest rate was probably in the high 5 percent range. If the payments are the same, you’re still saving 18 months’ worth of payments, so the trick will be to keep your closing costs as low as possible. If the payments are less than what you’re paying now, you can add them in and shave even more time from the loan term. But you’re right: If you save, it might not be by all that much. But you won’t know for sure until you run the numbers. Note also that if you refinance, you’ll have the pressure to make at least the same payment, so if times get a bit tougher for you, that could be a problem as well. Pull out the pad and paper or go to the computer and work out the numbers. You might also want to sit down with a good mortgage lender or mortgage broker and see what your savings might be and what it would cost you to refinance.
Ilyce R. Glink is an author and nationally syndicated columnist. Samuel J. Tamkin is a real estate lawyer in Chicago. If you have questions for them, write to Real Estate Matters Syndicate, P.O. Box 366, Glencoe, Ill. 60022, or contact them through Glink’s Web sites, www.
thinkglink.com and www.expertreal
estatetips.net.
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2009 2010 THE WASHINGTON POST
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