You Have to Kiss a Lot of Frogs . . . Before You Find Your Handsome Prince - 09/26/11 09:09 AM
This is the popular moral of the fairy tale The Frog Prince by the Brothers Grimm.   The princess is encouraged to seek out true love, but in the process may have to endure some ugliness along the way.  I have found that there is a moral here for home buyers and sellers as well. 
 
From the buyers perspective it may take viewing quite a few homes before “true love” is discovered.  I think back to the purchase of our town house in McLean about 2 years ago.  The process started way before the day we actually made the offer.  … (0 comments)

DC Metro Area has best Real Estate Market in the U.S. - 09/22/11 07:21 PM
The S&P/Case-Shiller 20-City Composite Home-Price Index was released for February 2011 and shows that Washington D.C. metro area is the best place in the U.S. to own real estate.  The one-year change in home prices for the D.C. metro area was positive 2.7%, the only one in the 20 city index that did not show a negative change.
You can read all about the gloom and doom of the national real estate market in the Wall Street Journal article:  Homes Prices Near Recession Low of April 27, 2011.  It states that home prices are expected to continue to fall nationwide.  “There is very … (0 comments)

My BlackBerry fell in the Sewer - 09/20/11 09:10 AM
It happened in the blink of an eye and a million thoughts ran through my head as to what was lost and how to recover.  Thankfully Andy, my husband, was with me so I had someone to commiserate with.  How could I have been so careless!  Immediately I started thinking of strategies on how to recover the blackberry and how to recover all of the data stored in the device.
 
Part 1 of the saga involves retrieving the blackberry.  Fortunately it slid into the sewer right where a manhole cover is located, so the first order of business was to … (8 comments)

Mortgage Interest Deduction Circa 1913 - 09/15/11 09:47 PM
The Mortgage Interest Deduction has been a part of the United States Income Tax system since 1913 – that is almost 100 years of benefiting the American Dream of Home Ownership.  It is also currently on the chopping block.   What would happen locally if this deduction were eliminated from tax code?  I believe, as many others do, that it would have an immediate and significant impact on home values.  For most families and individuals their home is the greatest asset they own!
Peggy Fox with WUSA- 9 television interviewed me on this topic recently.  We used an example home that the … (0 comments)

Huckaby Briscoe Conroy Realty Group Recognized by Wall St. Journal on 2011 Top Realtor ® Team List - 09/11/11 07:31 PM
The Wall St. Journal and REAL Trends, Inc. released the 2011 list of top real estate agents and their teams on September 7, 2011.  The categories for consideration are:  Top 250 teams by number of transactions; top 250 teams by sales dollar volume; top 250 real estate professionals by number of transactions; top 250 sales professionals by volume.   The Huckaby Briscoe Conroy Realty Group was recognized as one of the Top 250 teams by sales dollar volume.  The National Association of Realtors ® claims there are approximately $1.2 real estate professionals practicing in the United States.
 
The reason to hire … (0 comments)

Property Acquisition Allows Therapeutic Riding Center to Better Serve Community - 09/06/11 12:51 PM
Property Acquisition Allows Therapeutic Riding Center to Better Serve CommunityGreat Falls, VA:  Lift Me Up! Inc. a 501 (c) (3) charitable organization based in Great Falls, VA is pleased to announce its purchase of a three-acre parcel at 9700 Georgetown Pike. This addition doubles the organization's existing acreage and creates a permanent home for its program. Lift Me Up! has provided therapeutic riding services to the area for more than three decades.
"This purchase secures a permanent location where we can continue providing exceptional therapeutic riding services," says Georgia Corey, the program's director and advanced riding instructor.  "Our location has been … (0 comments)

Humpty Dumpty and Real Estate Recovery - 09/04/11 09:47 PM
What I believe is holding the housing market back in the Northern Virginia area is the lack of consumer confidence.  This crises of confidence reminds me of Humpty Dumpty.  If you recall the nursery rhyme: 
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the king's horses and all the king's men Couldn't put Humpty together again.
 
The Northern Virginia real estate market from 2006 to present “had a great fall”.  It was logical and necessary that a correction was in store.  The market area had experienced 5 years of double digit appreciation in housing … (1 comments)

 

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