The average sold price was up over 8% from February last year ($316.215) to this ($343,867) – a smaller increase than we saw last month, BUT, February’s average price was higher than it was in January 2010.

The 3.8% median sold price increase from February 2009 ($313,000) to this year ($324,900) was unimpressive –  BUT the median price in February was almost $35,000 higher than it was in January 2010.

Okay… I know it’s confusing to read all these numbers in a narrative format, so I put together this chart of real estate statistics for the month of February over five years.  That will help you put this information in perspective.

Now let’s look at the past six months for some of these statistics:

The numbers may appear small on some computer screens.  If you have trouble reading them, click on “View” in the tabs above your browser bar and then click on “zoom”.  When you zoom “in” the images should appear larger.

After all this, would you say that Crofton real estate is still improving?  Here’s my analysis…

Crofton MD seems to be holding its own, when it comes to the average and median sold price.  The days on market, however, have been trending “up” since December and the number of units sold in 2010 have been many fewer than the last few months of 2009.  Not consistently great news, but not bad (given the state of the real estate market in other parts of the country). 

I won’t complain.

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Delaware:

• Bethany Beach
• Dewey Beach
• Fenwick Island
• Lewes
• Rehobeth Beach 

Maryland: 

• Deep Creek Lake 
• Ocean City
• Ocean Pines

Virginia:

• Smith Mountain Lake 

Deep Creek Lake and Smith Mountain are looking very appealing to me, in spite of the fact that we’re usually beach-bound (provided there’s a golf course nearby).  My family may be doing something different this year!

Check out all of these options and be sure to make vacation reservations sooner rather than later.

If buying in one of these resort areas is in your future, be sure to contact me so I can refer you to an experienced real estate pro in the local office who really knows the area and will get you the best possible price and terms.

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FocusOnCrofton.com is your one-stop source for information about Crofton, Maryland, and the surrounding area.  It’s my way of keeping current residents informed about their community and real estate matters while also attracting relocating home buyers to the Crofton area (including Bowie, Crownsville, Davidsonville, Fort Meade, Gambrills, Millersville and Odenton).  Please feel free to contact me any time for more information.

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That’s because April 30 is looming (51 days), and the opportunity for home buyers to get the $8,000 first-time buyer or $6,500 repeat-buyer tax credit will end.  I’m guessing we’ll see a big lull in Crofton area real estate sales for quite a while after that.

While real estate market conditions do favor buyers right now with the tax credit, low interest rates, and high inventory, home sellers aren’t likely to see better conditions for selling any time soon. 

But your home won’t sell if it’s not on the market.   So pick up the phone… call me or your favorite Crofton area REALTOR to find out what it will take to get a contract on your home before April 30, when the tax credit ends.

If you missed my earlier posts about the tax credit, here they are again:

• Early End Likely for Spring Home Buying Season
• IRS Releases Rules for Repeat Buyer Tax Credit
• Begin Your Home Search Online 
• Home Sellers, Find Out What’s Selling in Your Neighborhood

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FocusOnCrofton.com is your one-stop source for information about Crofton, Maryland, and the surrounding area.  It’s my way of keeping current residents informed about their community and real estate matters while also attracting relocating home buyers to the Crofton area (including Bowie, Crownsville, Davidsonville, Fort Meade, Gambrills, Millersville and Odenton).  Please feel free to contact me any time for more information.

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And, unless you get carry-out from Damon’s, your eats probably won’t compare either.  Chances are good that you’ll find something on the menu to suit your taste – whether it’s a full rack of baby-back ribs, the classic sampler, one of their three new burgers, or the daily special (among other things). 

We enjoy dining at Damon’s two or three times a month, and the service is usually as good as the food.  They accept call-ahead seating (410–721–3883) and offer curbside service for carry-out.  In addition to the clubhouse where the TV screens are located, they also have a more quiet traditional dining room with the same menu items.  If you’re looking for a good restaurant near Crofton and haven’t yet dined at Damon’s, you really should give it a try.

By the way, you’ll want to check out Damon’s Courtside Hoopla for an opportunity to win some great prizes with your picks for March Madness.

Great food and service, games and prizes, and March Madness on big-screen TV… what more can you ask for?

Damon s Grill, 2406 Brandermill Blvd., Gambrills, MD 21054

Other Crofton Restaurants & Carryouts

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FocusOnCrofton.com is your one-stop source for information about Crofton, Maryland, and the surrounding area.  It’s my way of keeping current residents informed about their community and real estate matters while also attracting relocating home buyers to the Crofton area (including Bowie, Crownsville, Davidsonville, Fort Meade, Gambrills, Millersville and Odenton).  Please feel free to contact me any time for more information.

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I’m looking forward to touring the professionally landscaped gardens, viewing over 400 home improvement projects, and even shopping for plants, crafts and unique garden accessories.  I can’t think of a better way to nip “spring fever” in the bud, can you?

The show is taking place less than an hour from Crofton, at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium.

Click here to buy tickets.

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Or, if you really want to go all out, it would be a privilege to help you purchase “Evermay Estate” – the last remaining private estate home in Washington, D.C., situated in Georgetown (of course) and overlooking Rock Creek Park.  It’s listed with Jeanne Livingston of Long & Foster REALTORS for $29,500,000.

We all like to daydream, don’t we?  And who knows… you could have the winning lottery ticket this week.  Someone has to win!

If you promise to call me in the event you’re interested in buying the property (or if you know someone or some organization who might like to buy it), I’ll share the link with you to the website that Jean has created for this stunning property:

Evermay Estate for Sale in Washington, D.C.

In the event that property is beyond your budget, you’ll find more than fifty homes priced between two and twelve million dollars in Anne Arundel County MD when you click on the link in the first paragraph of this post.  Many of them are waterfront homes for sale.

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If you’ve been following me on Facebook, you already know that my husband Larry had both knees replaced last month.  He’s recuperating right on schedule, and now he’s getting around with a cane after just three weeks.

It’s been an interesting journey for the entire family, and I can attest to the five stages they told him (and us) to expect:

1. Anxiety. 
2. Oh my goodness… what have I done!?!?!? 
3. Okay, this hurts but I can handle it.  
4. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. 
5. Why did I wait so long?

This is not too different from the emotional journey some of my clients experience when their home value is lower than their mortgage balance.  In other words, a short-sale is their solution to a problem – somewhat like knee replacement was a solution for my husband’s knee issues.

So let’s look at those five stages from the perspective of an “under-water” homeowner:

1.  Anxiety. Making the decision to begin the short-sale process and choosing the right REALTOR to represent you. 

2. Oh my goodness… what have I done!?!?!? – Completing all the paperwork required for a short sale is time-consuming and emotionally difficult, as you spill out every detail of your personal financial history.

3. Okay, this hurts but I can handle it.  The wait for approval by your lender – many weeks and sometimes months.

4.  I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.  Short-sale approval by your lender!  (Now you can “just” deal with normal seller concerns such as appraisal, home inspection, and title search.)

5. Why did I wait so long?  Settlement. 

Once the short-sale is behind you and you’re “back on your feet”, in a manner of speaking, it is such a relief.  Now you can begin to rebuild your credit and your life.  This is, indeed, a question you’ll be asking yourself… Why did I wait so long?

A short sale is something no one wants to face, but it is a fact of life for many people today. Your neighbors, your relatives, prospective buyers… they WILL understand that your situation is a result of market conditions and not a flaw in your character or a failure on your part. 

They won’t judge you, so stop worrying about that and pick up the phone to call me or another Crofton area REALTOR for help.

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FocusOnCrofton.com is your one-stop source for information about Crofton, Maryland, and the surrounding area.  It’s my way of keeping current residents informed about their community and real estate matters while also attracting relocating home buyers to the Crofton area (including Bowie, Crownsville, Davidsonville, Fort Meade, Gambrills, Millersville and Odenton).  Please feel free to contact me any time for more information.

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Anne Arundel County, Maryland
Howard County, Maryland
Prince George’s County, Maryland

Our regional multiple listing system, The Metropolitan Regional Information Services, Inc. (MRIS), tracks real estate sales and periodically makes the numbers available to members.  You’ve seen my monthly reports for Crofton and other nearby zipcodes here on Focus On Crofton and my Maryland Real Estate Blog, and you know that I like to use this information to compile charts and graphs of several years or several months to help you put those numbers in perspective. 

For this year-end report, I’m approaching the real estate market on a more macro level – with a county-wide report which includes the three counties where I list and sell homes.  These numbers represent only properties that were listed on MRIS (the majority of real estate sales), both detached and attached homes, in a broad price range ($100,000 – $5 million).  

Days on Market have leveled off for Anne Arundel and Prince George’s Counties and even dropped slightly in Howard County.  Of course, 2005 was a record year, so I don’t think it’s realistic to expect those levels again for a very long time… maybe decades.

Sold Prices (both average and median) are lower now than any of the four previous years but, fortunately, the drop has not been nearly as dramatic as other parts of the country have experienced.  I speculate that the BRAC factor and government jobs throughout the region have helped this area in that regard.

Units Sold is a category that seems to have bottomed out and shown a slight bump from 2008–2009 in Anne Arundel and Howard Counties and a significant increase in Prince George’s County: 

• Up 8.75% in Anne Arundel County
• Up 7.64% in Howard County
• Up 42.98% in Prince George’s County

My crystal ball is a little fuzzy, as to what we should expect in 2010, so I can’t realistically declare that the worst is over.  I’m cautiously optimistic, however, that we will hold steady or show a slightly (less than 10%) improvement in these areas.  Frankly, though, it could go either way depending on interference in the market by the federal government.  If unemployment numbers go up, for example, the real estate market will suffer. 

The economy and politics are just two examples of factors outside our control that impact the real estate market.  That’s why it’s so very important for you to maximize the factors that are within our control by choosing an experienced real estate professional to help you buy or sell a home.  But that’s a topic or another day…

If you’d like information more specific to your immediate neighborhood, click on Market Snapshot.  For an accurate estimate of your home value, an inspection of your property will be necessary to ascertain its interior and exterior condition, size, features, location and other factors, as they relate to other properties currently on the market and recently sold. 

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FocusOnCrofton.com is your one-stop source for information about Crofton, Maryland, and the surrounding area.  It’s my way of keeping current residents informed about their community while also attracting relocating home buyers to the Crofton area (including Bowie, Crownsville, Davidsonville, Fort Meade, Gambrills, Millersville and Odenton).  Please feel free to contact me any time for more information.

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Signing up for a membership at Gold’s Gym in Crofton was Step #1 for me.  That was about 10 days ago.  I even went so far as to call about scheduling my orientation with a trainer, but they didn’t have anyone available when it was convenient for me.  (Does it sound like I’m making excuses?)  Okay, I admit it… I could probably figure out a treadmill on my own and start doing some cardiio now, even before that orientation.

There’s no shortage of places for Crofton area residents to work out nearby.  Besides Gold’s Gym, there’s Lifetime Fitness in Gambrills, SportFit in Bowie, and a number of other facilities. 

If I had small children, I’d probably choose SportFit because they offer day camp for school age children whenever there’s a school holiday… that would be a tie-breaker for me.  But I don’t have small children at home any more and I chose Gold’s Gym because it’s the closest and least expensive (thus eliminating two excuses for not joining).

There’s an ideal walking/jogging route of about 3 1/2 miles around Crofton Parkway for those who prefer a less structured workout.  And you’ll find a paved par course at Crofton Park, off Route 424 (Davidsonville Road), west of Crofton Junior High.

Does it count that we have two golf courses in Crofton plus several tennis courts and swimming pools?  Really, there are many options for working out here in the greater Crofton area.

I’ve finally run out of excuses for not getting enough exercise, and misery loves company.  Will you join me at Golds Gym in Crofton?

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My two sons need your help to name their new business and you could win $500 if your suggestion is selected. I told the my FocusOnCrofton readers could probably come up with some good ideas, and there might even be some folks here who would like to become beta-testers of their product as it comes out of development.

Here’s a little background…

Do you know where your kids are?  

They may be sitting right across the room from you at this very moment either texting or playing electronic games on their phone.  …Or perhaps chatting on Facebook (instead of working on homework) at their computers.  That seems harmless enough, right?  After all, they’re in the same room with you so they couldn’t be exchanging inappropriate texts or emails…

Do you respect their privacy, or do you occasionally pick up their cell phones and take a quick glance at their recent activity - for example, the nature of their text messages?  My son did that one day, and discovered that his 15-year old son was being solicited by a sexual predator - a 43-year old middle school teacher who (’til this moment) had never been caught.  

This individual had “friended” him on Facebook and they subsequently developed an online friendship which spilled over into texting. Fortunately, my son interrupted this so-called friendship before it evolved into anything more serious. (Other families were not so lucky, it turns out.)

Now this former teacher is sitting in solitary confinement in a Maryland prison for 8 long years (32 of his 40-yr sentence was suspended at sentencing), after a plea deal acknowledging guilt to one count of sexual solicitation of a minor (my grandson) and three counts of third degree sex offense (other children discovered during investigation of the solicitation charge).  He will be on probation for five years after his release and he will forever be required to register as a sex-offender.  

One observant parent brought an end to this man’s years of preying on children and teens.   

As a result of that experience, my two sons are starting a business to:

1) Educate parents about the danger of un-supervised communication technology in their kids’ hands and

2) Develop new technology that will track traffic on designated phone and Internet accounts to alert parents know if their child’s online communication is “inappropriate”.  

This is an early stage start-up with lofty goals, the first round of funding under their belts, and much work to be done. Naming the company was not their first priority, but now the time has come… and I told them FocusOnCrofton readers might be able to help.

If you want to post a name suggestion in your comment, I will pass it on. BUT you must submit it online at NamingForce.com to be eligible for winning the $500.  You can also view other name suggestions at that site.

Thanks everybody!

Originally posted by the author at Maryland Real Estate Blog.com

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