DEC 09 Newsletter
Nalls Home Partners Regional Sales Trends Our Listings Please Click Here for the Virtual Tour
Wishing You and Your Family a Happy and Healthy Holiday Season!
December 2009
Dear Nalls Home Partners Clients, Friends and Family:
For most folks, the holidays leave little time for thinking about real estate. We always get one or two calls in January that the house felt a tight with all the extra entertaining and guests, but mostly it's a time when people are too busy living in their homes to think about buying or selling them. That's okay, it gives us a little extra family time as well!
Whatever your family's tradition, all the winter solstice holidays share the same message of hope and promise at a time when the days are short and it seems almost impossible to believe that it will all be warm and green again. This is particularly welcome this year when the everyone is feeling the pressures and exhaustion of two years of recession. In our business, although it has been a good year overall, we have had to give our share of less than wonderful news and we are as ready for this to be over as anyone.
But just as there are lights on a Menorah, a Christmas tree or on Santa Lucia's crown, so there is starting to be light on the economic horizon and the promise of a new day. There are real indications that the economy is rebounding and that our area home prices are stabilizing. Not everywhere and not at the same rate for everyone but there are signs all around us that the worst is behind us. Job figures are promising and consumer confidence is growing. Record low interest rates that are hard to pass up should stay low at least until March/April and there are some great tax credit programs (see below). Housing inventory in our area is falling and we are even seeing some rebound in prices. I am confident that the worst is behind us.
Here's to a Happy New Year and a Great Spring Market!
All the best -
Barbara and Tom
'Tis the season and time again to brush off our chit-chat skills and make small talk with friends and coworkers at holiday parties. Real estate has always shared a top spot - with the weather and where are your children are going to school? - as a favorite cocktail party topic. Which means that we are in for the usual blizzard of partial and mis-information it generates. If you ever want a second opinion about something a neighbor or friend is telling you about home values, etc. we are only a phone call away and always glad to hear from you.
A big topic this year - and one of the most confusing - is the extension of the FEDERAL FIRST TIME HOME BUYERS TAX CREDIT. Among other things, it is no longer only first time home buyers that qualify and it has been substantially overhauled to include much higher income limitations and home values. I heard a great discussion about it and the DC FIRST TIME HOMEBUYERS TAX CREDIT on the Kojo Nnamdi Show on WAMU Monday and am including the link so you can listen online. Because it was in a question and answer format, the implications for buyers and sellers were clear and easy to understand.
Existing-Home Sales Record Another Big Gain, Inventories Continue to Shrink
(Information from the National Association of Realtors®)
Washington, November 23, 2009
Existing-home sales - including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops - surged 10.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate1 of 6.10 million units in October from a downwardly revised pace of 5.54 million in September, and are 23.5 percent above the 4.94 million-unit level in October 2008. Sales activity is at the highest pace since February 2007 when it hit 6.55 million.
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Bright, updated 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath townhouse in a pretty courtyard on the quiet side of popular Kenwood Forest! Generous room sizes, hall/foyer entrance, main floor powder room, spacious living room, separate dining room with French doors to huge new deck, table size kitchen, large master bedroom and two additional bedrooms, two renovated full baths upstairs. Hardwoods though-out, full attic with pull down stairs for storage. Easy condo living - all exterior maintenance and groundskeeping covered in one low fee - leaving you your weekends to enjoy the new farmer's market and all the rest that downtown Bethesda has to offer just two blocks away. That means Metro too! Welcome Home!
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Dates and Times
December 4-13, 2009 (Friday through Sunday nights) and December 18-January 2 (every night except Dec. 24, 25, and 31) from 6-8:30 p.m.
Nov. 27 through Dec. 20: Saturdays & Sundays, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday & Saturday evenings 8 p.m. to 11 p.m., Fridays 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. After Dec. 20: Saturdays and Sundays from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. For more information, call
(301) 634-2222.
The Glen Echo Park Partnership for Arts and Culture presents its annual Holiday Art Show and Sale. The exhibition, in the Popcorn Gallery, features works by resident artists, instructors, and other featured artists. The show will include jewelry, glass, ceramics, photography, painting, and more. Browse and buy fine artworks for everyone on your holiday shopping list.
