Columbia Maryland 21045 Sales Since July 1, 2010

To find out how much your home is worth, call us at 301-785-5889 or contact us today!

Columbia Maryland 21044 Sales Since July 1, 2010

To find out how much your home is worth, call us at 301-785-5889 or contact us today!

Ellicott City Maryland 21043 Sales Since July 1, 2010

To find out how much your home is worth, call us at 301-785-5889 or contact us today!

West Friendship Maryland 21794 Sales Since July 1, 2010

To find out how much your home is worth, call us at 301-785-5889 or contact us today!

Poolesville Maryland 20837 Sales Since July 1, 2010

To find out how much your home is worth, call us at 301-785-5889 or contact us today!

Once the movers walk out the door with your worldly possessions, it’s usually a good idea to have a professional cleaning service come in and scrub your empty house from top to bottom. You want to leave it as clean and shiny as possible for the new owners. This means remembering to clean all the storage spaces, as well as the living areas.  At the final walk-through, the buyers will feel much better about their purchase if the house is spotless.

The good karma should continue all the way to settlement, and everyone will part friends!

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Market Update

Housing activity continues to remain above year-ago levels despite some setbacks resulting from the now-expired tax credit. Improved stability in home prices with similar levels of distressed properties seen last year offers a hopeful sign the market is holding its ground. However, the economy still has a considerable way to go to achieve its full recovery.

Consumers are saving more and being picky about how they spend their money. While a higher savings rate means less spending in the near term, this is a positive sign that households are taking control of their finances to build some cushion that can be used to pay down debt and/or support future spending.

Existing home sales marked the twelfth consecutive month of year-over-year increase in June. On a monthly basis, sales activity eased 5.1% from May. The moderation in home sales reflects “understandable swings as buyers responded to the tax credits,” according to Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist. He anticipates such impact to show up in the next two months.

June’s median home price increased for the fourth consecutive month. Distressed homes, accounting for 32% of sales last month, continued holding home prices at highly affordable levels for the time being. While distressed sales hovered around the same level as a year ago, the gain in home prices is pointing to a sustained stability in the making.

Interest Rates

Mortgage rates set a new record low in July as consumer confidence softened and unemployment remained elevated. This presents a great opportunity for buyers and investors. Coupled with lowered home prices and a robust rental market, investors are finding their way to cash-flow opportunities. As recovery gains deeper roots, rates will need to rise to keep inflation in check.

Rates as of August 6.

This Month’s Video

Topics For Home Owners, Buyers & Sellers

Consumers Beware: New Credit Card Tricks

On May 22, 2009, President Obama signed into law the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure (CARD) Act of 2009, marking a turning point for American consumers and ending the days of unfair rate hikes and hidden fees. While the new law offers significant safeguards, consumers still need to be vigilant against new practices designed to outflank the new rules.

Stay as informed as possible, read your statement , report any irregularities immediately, and watch for these tricks.

• Shortened Billing Cycle: The CARD Act requires companies to allow a window of at least 21 days from when a statement is mailed and when payment is due. Cardholders are reporting being shortchanged on billing cycle time and then being assessed late-payment fees.
  Advice: Watch out for shortened payment dates.
• Sunday Due Dates: The CARD Act stipulates if a creditor does not receive or accept payments on weekends or holidays, then the date is extended and late-payment fees shouldn’t be triggered. However, some banks say they’re open for business even when there’s no mail delivery.
  Advice: Don’t assume you are safe.
• Low-Limit Cards: The CARD Act says a card’s total annual fees can’t exceed 25% of a borrower’s credit line. However, some issuers may be evading the fee restrictions by charging an up-front processing fee that doesn’t fall under the 25% cap.
  Advice: Watch out for processing and other fees.
• False Inactive Fees: Issuers will no longer be able to charge inactivity fees or extra charges for people who don’t spend a certain amount each year, effective August 22. However, some issuers are charging an annual fee that’s waived if cardholders reach a certain spending threshold.
  Advice: Watch out for conditional annual fees.
• Rebate Offers: Some credit cards offer refunds on finance charges when customers pay on time. However, rebate offers aren’t governed by the CARD Act, and such offers can be revoked suddenly and for any reason, leaving cardholders stuck with higher charges.
  Advice: Rebates may translate to real savings in finance charges.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Contact Kittleman Realty Group,

your local real estate expert,

for information about what’s going on in our area.

301-785-5889

Newsletter Contents

1. Market Update

2. Interest Rates

2. Video

3. Topics for Owners, Buyers & Sellers

Brought to you by KW Research. For additional graphs and details, please see the This Month in Real Estate PowerPoint Report.

The opinions expressed in This Month in Real Estate are intended to supplement opinions on real estate expressed by local and national media, local real estate agents and other expert sources.  You should not treat any opinion expressed on This Month in Real Estate as a specific inducement to make a particular investment or follow a particular strategy, but only as an expression of opinion.  Keller Williams Realty, Inc., does not guarantee and is not responsible for the accuracy or completeness of information, and provides said information without warranties of any kind.  All information presented herein is intended and should be used for educational purposes only.  Nothing herein should be construed as investment advice.  You should always conduct your own research and due diligence and obtain professional advice before making any investment decision.  All investments involve some degree of risk.  Keller Williams Realty, Inc., will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on information contained in This Month in Real Estate.

May 2010 Summary:

Source: RBI

By having seven schools in the top 100, MCPS breaks its own record of six, set in 2008. Last year, MCPS had four schools in the top 100.     The seven high schools are Richard Montgomery (33), Poolesville (59), Bethesda-Chevy Chase (63), Winston Churchill (75), Thomas Wootton (83), Walt Whitman (85), and Walter Johnson (95). The remaining MCPS high schools all finished in the top 3 percent of all schools in the nation.

MCPS is the only Maryland district with schools in the top 100.     “The Newsweek report is another confirmation that the reform efforts we have put in place the past 11 years are having a very positive impact,” said Patricia O’Neill, President of the Montgomery County Board of Education. “We have made a commitment to giving all students access to college-level work, so they are better prepared for the rigors of post-secondary classes.”    Several MCPS high schools made significant gains on the list from last year, most notably Poolesville High School, which jumped from 305th to 59th this year. The list is based upon the “Challenge Index,” developed by the Washington Post, which put out a ranking of Washington-area schools earlier this year. MCPS had five schools in the top 10 on that list.

Receiving a college ready score on an AP or IB exam has been identified as one of MCPS’ “7 Keys to College Readiness,” a series of K-12 benchmarks that lays out a pathway to college preparedness.     Students who succeed in rigorous classes, like AP, are more than three times as likely to get a bachelor’s degree than those who do not, according to college completion data.  Among MCPS students in the classes of 2001-2004, only 25 percent of those who did not take an AP exam earned a bachelor’s degree.

But among those students who took at least one AP exam, 60 percent earned a degree, and among those who scored 3 or higher on at least one exam, 76 percent earned a bachelor’s degree.    “By providing broader access to rigorous classes, we are giving our students a distinct advantage in college,” Superintendent Jerry D. Weast said. “Simply taking an AP class more than doubles a student’s chances of earning a bachelor’s degree, which leads to higher lifetime earnings and greater success in the workplace.”
The Newsweek list is the latest in a string of accolades about the performance of MCPS students:

• MCPS has the highest graduation rate among the nation’s large school districts, according to a report released by Education Week on Thursday. The MCPS graduation rate of 83.1 percent is significantly higher than the state and national rates.
• The class of 2010 has earned $232 million in college scholarships so far this year, an all-time record for the district and nearly $50 million more than last year.
• MCPS has been named one of five finalists for the $1 million Broad Prize for Urban Education, which recognizes large school districts that raised student achievement and narrowed the achievement gap.

America’s Best High Schools Rankings for All MCPS Schools

Source: Newsweek’s America’s Best High Schools 2010

See frequently asked questions about the list.

Source: MCPS, http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/press/index.aspx?page=showrelease&id=2783

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