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Sticker Shock in Northern Virginia!

By
Real Estate Agent with Century 21 New Millennium

Sticker Shock in Northern Virginia!

Today I took clients around to look at rental properties and boy were they hit with Sticker Shock in Northern Virginia.

They were from the Virginia Beach area where a nice rental home near their job is between $800 to $900 a month.

Their job location was changing to the Northern Virginia area and now they were looking for a new residence.

Being reasonable, they thought using a 50% increase in housing costs should be good. Figuring $1200 to $1400 we set out. All we found in the $1200-$1400 price range were small, old, poorly presented homes. All but one was a townhome. Some of the townhomes were only two levels. On top of that, the area where we found these homes represented an hour commute to work in the morning and an hour commute back from work in the evening.

I shared with them the city-data web site to find out about the neighborhoods and areas. I also disclosed the Megan's Law sex offender website for Virginia so they could better educate themselves, Always make sure you do your own homework.

In Northern Virginia we have seen the local rent prices increasing rapidly. It is often cheaper to buy than rent in Northern Virginia. If you have decent credit, good income and almost as much to put down as first month's rent and security deposit you could be paying less in mortgage payments than in rent - at least here in Northern Virginia.

For example a $1300 rent payment for a small townhouse in my client's example could be a mortgage payment of $898.09 + $400 for taxes and insurance for a home selling near $200,000. ($200,000 mortgage with a 3.5% interest rate for 30 years). Type in your own numbers in the mortgage calculators at bankrate.com to find out what you can afford.

If you would like to pay your own mortgage instead of paying your landlord's mortgage plus some, contact me and let me see what we can find for you.

If you are suffering from sticker shock I've got the cure.

 

 

Posted by

Naomi Ortega, REALTOR® SRES® 

Licensed in Virginia

Century 21 New Millennium

12581 Milstead Way, #400

Woodbridge, VA 22192

(c) 571.477.4909

(o) 703.491.9570

Web: naomi.ortega.c21nm.com

 

Search for homes in the Northern Virginia area 

Comments (3)

Wayne Johnson
Coldwell Banker D'Ann Harper REALTORS® - San Antonio, TX
San Antonio REALTOR, San Antonio Homes For Sale
Naomi-Having the comparison for the rent vs buy analysis is a great way to get people thinking about financial decisions in a logical way. Housing decisions are part emotion and part logic. Your logical part may get them emotionally excited about the possibility of buying.
Jan 18, 2013 01:28 PM
Erna Neal
The Viking Team, Realty - Winter Park, FL
A Knowledgable Central Florida Realtor

Naomi, yes Buying is usually better and less expensive than renting. Most often its the credit or work history that I see is keeping people from being able to buy and having to rent.

Jan 18, 2013 02:22 PM
Naomi Ortega
Century 21 New Millennium - Woodbridge, VA
Century 21 New Millennium in Virginia 571-477-4909

Wayne,

Yes the emotions of real estate - I have thought about going into commercial real estate - I have heard it is less emotional and I tend to be very practical and logical with my clients. ;)

Erna,

Here we see credit issues also being a problem especially for those who got hit by the fall in the housing market. But for credit worth people, especially young people who haven't fallen into some of those credit pitfalls this is a great time to think about buying instead of renting.

 

Jan 19, 2013 11:43 AM