Our family will be wearing navy blue tomorrow and cheering for the U.S. Naval Academy in their game against the Maryland Terps.  It's a little different experience for us, since we're Maryland season ticket holders.

My husband Larry is a retired Naval Officer and our family has lived near the U.S. Naval Academy for about 40 years.  Given the sorry state of the Maryland football program (first 10-game losing season in history last year) and our affinity for Navy, we went out to get some new tee shirts for this game.  There will be plenty of other opportunities later in the season for Terps attire.

Regardless of which team wins the season opener for both teams tomorrow, we won't complain.  We might even be equal opportunity fans, finding reasons to cheer for both teams.  It will be hard to break the Terps habit, even though we're dressing for Navy... 

We're looking forward to all the pre-game pageantry, and promise to post some photos on Tuesday.

P.S. - We may have four tickets to sell for the Maryland game the following week, so contact me if you'd be interested in buying them.  I guarantee you they're better seats than any you can buy at the box office or online.

Most of us measure the success of our blog posts by the number of comments, or how much business they generate... but tonight I experienced an unexpected consequence from blogging.

I'm guessing that not many of you read my Memorial Day Tribute to Unsung Heroes, since there were only 2 comments.  It's too bad, because I think this was a rare look into some interesting history - but then, I'm probably prejudiced because it's our family history as well as American history. 

An email arrived in my inbox tonight, via Activerain, from the nephew and namesake of someone I mentioned in that post - one of my dad's crew members who died when their plane was shot down southeast of Paris during World War II.  I had quoted a letter from the boy's mother to my grandmother, upon receiving notice that her son had died nine months earlier. (It's hard to imagine the pain of a loved one waiting all those months for news of their child, isn't it?)

Apparently the family had very little information about the circumstances of the boy's military service or death, and the gentleman who contacted me is eager to learn anything I can share with him.  That happens to be quite a bit, since my grandmother singlehandedly convinced the U.S. government to move his remains to a cemetery near the small village where the plane was shot down so all the crew members could be buried together as heroes after the war ended.  I have all of her original correspondence related to this - not saying I can immediately lay my hands on it, mind you, but I do have it.

Okay, this has nothing to do with real estate, and it's probably more interesting to me than anyone else - but this is a connection that never would have been made without Activerain.   In my mind, it's probably the most important connection I've made through blogging... another unexpected consequence.

PHOTO:  My mom and dad in 1942 before he deployed to Europe to serve as bombadier on a B-17.

It's Back to School Night for Crofton Elementary, this evening (September 1), but each school seems to have its own schedule.  Here are the details:

• Crofton Elementary –  9/1/2010, 6 p.m.
• Arundel H.S. –  9/2/2010, 6:30 p.m.
• South River H.S. –  9/2/2010, 6:30 p.m.
• Nantucket Elementary –  9/7/2010, 6:30 p.m.
• Crofton Woods Elementary –  9/7/2010, 7 p.m.
• Crofton M.S. –  9/16/2010 –  6:30 p.m.
• Crofton Meadows Elementary –  Unavailable (will update this when it becomes available)

Parental involvement is a major factor in our excellent schools, and there's no time better than Back to School Night for you to get started!

Bowie, Crofton, Crownsville, Davidsonville, Gambrills and Odenton, Maryland real estate sales don't always match what you see in the media.

"REAL ESTATE SALES DOWN 27%" read the headlines and led the TV news reports earlier this week.

Was anyone surprised that closings in July were down, since home buyers were bribed into closing in June with an $8,000 tax credit?  Anyone who planned to buy a home this summer (maybe even this year) had big incentive to advance their timetable and buy a home in time to close before June 30.  OF COURSE, home sales were down in July - at least on a global level!

Frankly, I'm surprised the drop in sales wasn't even greater.  But 27% was the percentage for home closings nationwide and we've all heard repeatedly that "real estate is local"...

Let's look at units sold in the greater Crofton area during July 2010, keeping in mind that real estate sales were down 27% nationally:

Bowie (20715):  25

Down 8.7% from July 2009; Down 24% from June 2010

Crofton (21114):  25 

Down 24% from July 2009; Down 17% from June 2010

Crownsville (21032): 10

Up 25% from July 2009; Down 86% from June 2010

Davidsonville (21035):  1

Down 83.3% from July 2009; Down 75% from June 2010

Gambrills (21054):  13

Up 333% from July 2009;  Nearly doubled from 7 in June 2010

Odenton (21114):  32

Up 23% from Juy 2009; Down only 6% from June 2010

SOURCE:  MRIS.  All information is deemed reliable, but not guaranteed.

As  you can see, there are huge differences even between adjacent zipcodes.  This chart confirms once again that "all real estate is local."  Those national statistics released by NAR and sensationalized by the media really have little, if anything, to do with real estate in our own local communities.

If you want to know what's happening in local real estate - i.e., Bowie, Crofton, Crownsville, Davidsonville, Gambrills, or Odenton - give me a call or click on the link below.  I'll be glad to localize the numbers even more - to your own immediate neighborhood.

The Crofton area is about to see some major changes with the construction of Village South at Waugh Chapel in Gambrills. 

I can just imagine what that complex will do to traffic on Route 3 between Crofton and Severna Park, can’t you?

Things have certainly changed around here since we moved to our first Crofton home in 1970.  We really didn’t mind a bit that buying groceries or filling up the car with gas required a drive to Bowie.

I happened to be serving on the Crofton Civic Association Board of Directors when developers proposed the retail centers where Giant and Kmart are located.  Vocal residents didn’t think we were doing enough to stop this commercial growth, so they showed up at meetings to protest, and anonymous residents mailed threats… no one would admit to seeing a need for these developments.  

Evil visions of Route 3 in Waldorf danced through the heads of Crofton residents.

Now, of course, we take those commercial areas in stride –  and I have to laugh whenever I see one of those one-time protesters in line at Kmart.  

Forty years later, here we are… Target, Petco, Wegmans, PNC Bank, Dick’s, Bank of Annapolis, and other retailers and businesses large and small are headed our way – the latest and largest commercial development in the Crofton area.  It’s way beyond the talking stage.  In fact, ground-breaking for Village South will take place Monday at 10 a.m., to be specific.

I’ll probably be muttering some things under my breath while sitting in traffic on Route 3 five years from now, along with other Crofton residents, but I’m sure we’ll all learn to live with that traffic. 

And we’ll no doubt be shopping at Village South, too.

Posted originally by Margaret Woda at FocusOnCrofton.com

Oldies But Goodies Cocker Spaniel Rescue needs your vote by Sunday, August 22, to win a grant of $10,000.  (How to vote is below.) 

... In fact, you can vote once a day between now and then.

My daughter and I attended an Adoption Show at Annapolis Petsmart, after I wrote about it for FocusOnCrofton.com, and we left without adopting a dog that day.  But we left with something else:  incredible respect for the volunteers at Oldies But Goodies (OBG).  What an incredible job they do! 

This is a cocker spaniel rescue organization without a physical facility - they rely entirely on foster families for interim care for the dogs they rescue from puppy mills, abandonment, shelters, foreclosures...  This foster care could be long-term, temporary, vacation, weekend or even hospice care in a loving home environment until the displaced dog can be placed in a permanent home.

Other volunteers do everything from bathing and grooming the dogs to transporting them...  from handling all the administrative tasks to public speaking and fundraising.  More than 100 volunteers are located in Maryland, in spite of the fact they're based in Newington, Virginia, and they have more than 100 additional volunteers in Virginia.

Oldies but Goodies could really use this prize money, so please help them with your vote.

How to vote:

1. Click on the All-Star Animal Rescue Site $100,000 Shelter Challenge
2. Do not enter a shelter name.
3. Enter the state as VA (Virginia, because the mailing address is in Virginia, even though they also serve DC and MD)
4. Enter the city as Newington
5. Click on SEARCH
6. "Oldies but Goodies (Northern Virginia) Cocker Spaniel Rescue" will come up on the screen.  Click on VOTE
7. On the next page that appears, confirm your vote by correctly identifying the animal in the picture.

Oldies but Goodies Cocker Spaniel Rescue is in the Top 10 nationally, as of August 20, but out of the big money.  Maybe your vote could help them move up in the rankings. 

Hopefully you'll be willing to vote, even if they're not in your local area.  And be sure to "Like" this post so it appears in your Facebook newsfeed to help get them additional exposure.  Thank you!

Only one home sold in the 21035 zipcode last month, down from six transactions in July 2009.  When it comes to "units sold" - i.e., sold and settled - this was the worst July of any I've tracked

With only one transaction, all the other statistics are practically meaningless, so it's impossible to draw any conclusions regarding a trend.

If you're thinking of buying or selling a home in Davidsonville, it will be necessary to look at the year-to-date statistics for help in understanding the real estate market:

The best months, as you can see, were March and April, representing the closings for contracts most likely written in February and March.  That looks to me like seasonal improvement in the market, enhanced by the offer of a tax credit. 

With so few sales, there won't be any easy answers for pricing your Davidsonville home by using the competitive market analysis approach,either.  It's going to take an agent with years of experience to sell your home... and the instincts that are developed through selling homes in times of inflation and recession, high interest rates and low, war and peace. 

To view earlier market reports or request a property value analysis, you can contact me at (301) 346-2923 or email mwoda@mris.com.

Did you see Al Raymondi's I have a Suggestion for a newbie welcome button last month?  His idea was a good one:

"As a way to try to encourage new members to be more active here on ActiveRain I would suggest a new button at the top of our home page for the 'newbie roster'.  Clicking on it would bring up the roster of the members for the last 30 days or the newest 100 or whatever makes sense technically."

He went on to say that "Current members could use the button to say hello or welcome to ActiveRain to new members, encourage them or give them hints etc."  Several folks commented in agreement that this would be a nice feature to add to our homepage.

We actually have a link on the Activerain homepage that serves this function, but it's not labeled clearly.  That's probably why many members aren't aware it exists.  Here's what the link to a list of Activerain Newbies looks like:

When you click on the highlighted link, which appears near the bottom of the right column on the homepage, you actually get a list of New Members Today (NOT "Top Members Today" as the link is labeled).  In fact, there's a calendar that allows us to view new members on any day since 2006.  The recently re-designed page looks like this:

Al, I agree you have a great suggestion, and the function is not one that requires the busy Activerain developers to spend days, weeks, and months creating.  They just need to identify the link more clearly so members can easily find Activerain Newbies.  We want to say...

Spouses of deceased veterans could soon become eligible for VA financing, if Congresswoman Virginia Foxx of North Carolina has her way.  She sponsored a bill known as The Disabled Veterans' Surviving Spouses Home Loans Act, to extend eligibility for a VA home loan to spouses even if the veteran's death was not directly service-related.

According to an article in the Winston-Salem Journal, Foxx's bill has been endorsed by the Disabled American Veterans and American Legion, among other groups. This seems to me like something the National Association of REALTORS and Mortgage Banker's Association might be able to support, as well. 

The current status of the bill is that it's been referred to Committee, so let's hope it gets out in time for a vote this year.  There just might be some potential home buyers our there who fit into this category, and the only thing keeping them out of the market is lack of financing.

Thank you, Virginia Foxx.  In spite of the fact that Maryland is home to many active duty and veteran military families, it doesn't appear that anyone from Maryland is among the 34 others in congress co-sponsoring this with you.

Crofton residents love Homestead Gardens... love good food... love the blooming baskets in Annapolis...

You're in luck, because August 28 is the day of the Tomato Festival at Homestead Gardens, complete with a chili cookoff and a salsa contest (along with live music and entertainment) - and it benefits the Bloomin' Annapolis Program.

Martha Brown, my friend and colleague at Long & Foster, posted a blog about the event that I think you'll enjoy reading.  'See you there!