June 2007 Article History

There are 5 articles published in June 2007. Here are the first 20:

Ha...Ha...Ha...Ha...ha...h Loudoun County Real Estate Activity May 2007 Fairfax County Real Estate Activity May 2007 No real estate bubble bursting here; just a simple market adjustment Pressure at Mortgage Firm: The other side of the story

You will find a complete Index of Articles by Category in the History Archives.

June 15, 2007

Ran across this in my SiteMeter stats search words: ancient merv.

This is what they got linked to: 2 for 2 and we are done. Google is getting soooooo good, aren't they? What the hell will they think of next? Zero in on age from a picture. Hot diggety damn!

No joke.

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June 12, 2007

Loudoun Buyer Intensity
Red Bars: HOT (Sellers Market) Blue Bars: COLD (Buyers Market) Gray Bars: Balanced Market
[click for more detail]

Market commentary for Loudoun County, Virginia. Headings are links to historical charts.

INVENTORY:
Inventory of homes for sale are are up slightly to 3,713 in May from 3,501 in April. New contracts are also up slightly to 498 properties. Inventory absorption rate (new contracts / total active inventory) remains a low 13%. Actual closings (sold) were down by 10 homes.

HOME PRICE APPRECIATION:
Average home price appreciation is down about 5% for the calendar year. Prices are showing some volatility month to month in the +/- 10% range. This is most likely due to the price mix of homes being sold.

DAYS ON MARKET:
Average time it takes to sell is 111 days, down 3 days from last month. As of today (June 12), days on market for re-sale properties is 113 days (see Loudoun Daily Market Watch).

SOLD TO LIST PRICE RATIO:
This ratio remains in the 94.5% range. Successful sellers that lowered their price are still giving buyers another 2 to 3% during negotiations (plus seller subsidies that are not "officially" reported).

NEW CONSTRUCTION:
Data not yet available.Sales of new construction remains in the doldrums. Huge incentives, price reductions, guaranteed home sale to get sellers to the closing table, and increasing incentives to agents bringing qualified buyers. For buyers: finished basements...sun rooms...closing costs...mortgage payments for the first year.

Comment on Loudoun County Real Estate Activity May 2007. Follow this article is off. More articles like this one filed in: Loudoun County Market News

Fairfax Buyer Intensity
Red Bars: HOT (Sellers Market) Blue Bars: COLD (Buyers Market) Gray Bars: Balanced Market
[click for more detail]

This is the continuation of a monthly series of commentary on the housing market in Fairfax County. See Fairfax County Market News and Daily Market Watch graphs. Headings are links to historical charts.

INVENTORY:
Inventory of homes for sale continues to rise, up another 880 homes to 7,980 in May. Net new listings for the month (new listings - new contracts) are up again to 1,908 properties. About 18% of new listings are properties coming back on the market after expiring or being withdrawn.

HOME PRICE APPRECIATION:
Average home price rose 3.4% from April to the $546,000 level. Median price dropped 3%. For 2007, average price appears to be up and down month to month in the +/- 3% range.

DAYS ON MARKET DOMP:
Average time it takes to sell declined 5 days to 79 days. The Daily Market watch shows this measure declining a bit more to 74 days as of June 12th. Selling activity remains constant at about 1,100 homes per month. New listings show a definite decline since mid May and homes being withdrawn from the market are up 60% since the low in March.

SOLD TO LIST PRICE RATIO:
This ratio remains in the 95 to 96% range. I suspect sellers have adjusted asking prices downward based on sluggish demand.

NEW CONSTRUCTION (chart not yet available):
Data not available.

Comment on Fairfax County Real Estate Activity May 2007. Follow this article is off. More articles like this one filed in: Fairfax County Market News

June 4, 2007

The Loudoun Single Family Detached Home Prices chart is updated with May, 2007 sold data. There is very little change from April. Of specific note is the sold price to assessed value ratio. On average, homes are now selling at 93% of the assessed value. The average seller subsidy is running at about $8,000. Net-net: homes in Loudoun County are selling for about 91.5% of assessed value. This is the spring surge that looks like a flat basketball...I mean flat. No bounce and no drastic drop in price. In fact, we are selling at about 91% of May, 2006 values.

From the Loudoun Daily Market Watch, we see listing activity leveling, withdrawals rising and sold properties remaining constant at about 400 per month. If this trend continues, inventory should start decreasing again.

Comment on No real estate bubble bursting here; just a simple market adjustment. Follow this article is off. More articles like this one filed in: Loudoun County Market News

June 1, 2007

On May 9th I published this article: What flavor loan is in your future? about the subprime lending mess. The article pointed out the advertising still being done universally (email spam, fax spam, print ads, television, etc) touting mortgage loans with low starting rates, no credit, bad credit, bankruptcy and no income verification.

I also pointed to an article from The Washington Post titled "Pressure at Mortgage Firm Led To Mass Approval of Bad Loans" that depicted the intense internal pressure resulting in bad behavior inside bankrupt New Century Financial. I received a comment from an employee working in the same office that paints a different picture than the one the Post writer painted in his article. This comment comes from Duane Hamm and warrants being featured on the front page. Here's his comment:

I had the misfortune of working with Maggie Hardiman as the appraisal clerk (my job was to assist her and the other appraisal reviewer) in the New Century branch she's talking about in this article and I have to say that not only is every word she said in that article a lie, she left out the fact that she was a difficult unreasonable monster to work with. She would reject loans because there was a shadow on the roof from nearby trees or in some cases simply because she didn't like the appraiser. I remember one time she had me spend all day gathering information on a certain appraiser she knew personally in order to get him blacklisted from New Century. When the information I provided showed he was a competent appraiser she got mad and accused me of working against her.

Paranoia was a common theme with her. Whenever anyone disagreed with her she would accuse the whole office of being against her.

Yes, it's true that when she would reject something, they would bring it to the other reviewer. But again, she neglects to mention that he was a well respected, competent appraiser with years of experience. And he didn't always overturn her decision, just the insane ones. While we're on that note, I should mention that whenever he rejected an appraisal, she would seek out the account executive and do anything in her power to accept it just to spite him. Since he only rejected appraisals for legitimate reasons that means many loans that never should have made it out did because of her.

I'm not normally one to celebrate another person's misfortune but the day she was fired was a great day for me and my job became so much more enjoyable after she was gone. The whole office breathed a sigh of relief that day.

I'm not saying things like this don't happen or that my office was perfect, and I wasn't aware of every single dealing in that office. I can only say that what Maggie Hardiman says in this article is completely false and I can't stand by and see my former co-workers and friends slandered like this.

I could go on but I'll leave it at this. If anyone is interested, you can email me at duanehamm@yahoo.com and Maggie if you read this, shame on you.

One last thing about Maggie, Google "Margaret Hardiman" "Hopkinton" for a nice little story about the nightmare she put a small RI town through in her next job.

I did Google Ms. Hardiman as Duane suggested and found nothing conclusive other than a swarm of controversy around her job and local Hopkinton, R.I. politics. Ms. Hardiman was fired in July, 2006 from her position as tax assessor and since filed grievances alleging unlawful termination, civil rights violations and a hostile work environment. I could not find any additional reporting as to the outcome.

So, What is the truth? It is always what one perceives it to be. What is a reporter's responsibility to vet all the actors in a sensational story? I'd say imperative to be balanced reporting. But, balance is always what one perceives it be.

Note: Mr. Hamm's opinions are completely his own in his own words.

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