11806 Mentone 20906
12725 Hathaway 20906
10108 Brunett
1607 Myrtle Road
The first one I went to was kind of gross. Actually, it was mostly very nice and airy with hardwood floors and some great picture windows, but the kitchen was just gross. And the family seemed to be hiding out downstairs so I just got out of there. There was a younger couple talking to the realtor that seemed pretty serious about the house. Asking price is an even 300 which of course seems high to me.
As I was driving around I reflected on the difference between genteel shabbiness and plain old shabbiness. If I made a point to observe carefully, I could probably point out what factors make one street seem like aging hippies live there, and another street feel like a pit bull might be running around without a leash. Security doors always make me feel like I'm in a bad neighborhood. Whereas a scraggly, overgrown perennial garden just says "no HOA, hooray." 20906 seems to be mostly the latter variety of shabby, but you feel like it could easily turn into the pit bull kind of shabby. The streets are very rough which makes me think that the township (or however that works in Silver Spring) doesn't have enough money.
The house on Hathaway had some charm, but it was very small. There is a very nice addition on the back and the backyard is very appealing. The kitchen was terrible, a galley kitchen that would need new appliances. If you look it up online you can see that it has original unpainted wood molding. The realtor told me that it was a foreclosure and that they would not fix anything. Asking price is 226. Feh. The house is very close to Wheaton High School.
I headed down to 20910 and stopped by Brunett Ave. This house was very nice. The kitchen was renovated, with those tall kind of cabinets which are of no use to me because I'm short. Oddly, the appliances were old, but if I were interested in that house I probably wouldn't let that stop me. I just wonder why they didn't spring for new appliances. Typical rambler, three small bedrooms. The finished basement is pretty decent. The second bathroom is in the basement, which I always think is pretty sucky. I kind of feel that houses with a bathroom in the basement shouldn't get to claim an extra bath. There is a pretty nice deck. The yard is almost nonexistent, but some people might like that.
The realtor at that house was actually pretty cool. As we were talking we got on the subject of distressed sales (of course) and he said that he is getting the sense that the banks are starting to relent and actually get moving on short sales. He felt that the banks' attitude was to "punish" the delinquent homeowners and his take on it was that they may be coming around to realizing that they're not getting anywhere by sending that particular message. I guess the tide is just so large that there really isn't a viable strategy for banks to try to make a short sale an unattractive option for homeowners.
I stopped by the house on Myrtle simply because I was on my way back to my neighborhood (Rockville) and I saw the sign. This house had a lot of charm but of the 577 asking price just feels like a big old F you to me. I don't know if that's even normal for the neighborhood or what, it just offends me somehow. Even by today's screwed up standards, this pleasant house does not live up to what I feel the .5 million dollar range represents. But a lot of open houses seem to be like that, they often seem to be some of the most mispriced even for a bubble. The basement on Myrtle has a small kitchen and some bedrooms so it's a functional basement apartment (though I imagine not legally) The house had a good feel to it and I like the neighborhood.
I drove back towards Rockville on Forest Glen, winding through the Capitol View Park neighborhood, which definitely has the genteel type of shabbiness going on. When I got to Plyers Mill close to Connecticut, I turned right just to take a turn through that neighborhood, which seems pretty nice to me, probably totally out of the question in terms of affordability. I turned around, got on Knowles, and almost stopped at another open house just off 547. As I pulled up, I realized that the house suffered from being probably the most expensive one in the neighborhood as it was overwhelmingly huge, dwarfing the neighboring houses. Plus it was 10 of four by that time so I didn't bother.
I'm hoping prices start to get better by spring, which is when we plan to start seriously looking. I think it would be more ideal to wait until around 2012 but for various reasons that is becoming impractical for us. We are socking away a lot of cash and technically, even by traditional standards could qualify for the 577K house. But it just feels all wrong to me. I want to have low fixed costs and I'm not looking to live in a showplace (which to me, a 500K house should be) I never got anchored psychologically to bubble prices. Right now I see that there are places that are decent that are in a semi-reasonable place in terms of price, but they are in "eh" neighborhoods. How will these places be affected when all of the shadow inventory comes out of the woodwork? I can handle that we might overpay somewhat if we buy in 2010, but I don't want to be stuck in a neighborhood that I no longer like. And the amount I can handle overpaying would be in the lower tens of thousands, not another 100K. Which still seems possible at this point in spite of the good economy here in the DC region.
Thanks for the write-up, FYI I think the last 2 homes are actually in 20901 (I was having trouble searching for them at first). These prices are outrageous, but as long as there are buyers willing to overpay then the cycle will continue. One thing about this area is that it's so transient that there's a large buyer pool who is ignorant of pre-bubble pricing. I've been having trouble finding a realtor who will even show me the lower priced REOs, they all try to dissuade me from seeing these properties. I think they just want a bigger commission. The whole system is built around propping up values. I'm not in a hurry to buy either, I'm going to keep socking money away. There is no way that current pricing is sustainable in relation to incomes. The banks are holding back the foreclosures, realtors are telling people not to sell unless they have to, it's all an attempt to keep inventory down and prices up. It'll be interesting to see what happens once the summer buying season is over and the 8k tax credit sunsets (in theory).
ReplyDeleteYou're right about the zip codes. As I was driving to Brunett I was thinking, how can this be 20910 this far east? Myrtle road is 20902. I must have had some reason for thinking 20910 but I surely can't tell you what it was.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure what to do about a realtor. I have noticed that they have given up the tactic of trying to tell you that the bubble is about to reinflate any minute now. When I first encountered this, I thought, finally here is a realtor that is not either completely stupid or full of crap. Maybe the ones that are still operating now are a little smarter than the ones that you'd find mid-bubble. But I still do not trust them and do not think they are worth the comission.
Think of it this way, if most people went into transactions with NO realtor and just a mediocre lawyer how much of this BS would never have happened?
However it's very hard to get to see houses and have offers taken seriously without one. I feel that I basically have to pay them a bribe because they control needed information, not because they have a service that benefits me. This country needs better antitrust enforcement.
well more buyers are becoming conservative, even if they come from
ReplyDeleteout of the area. People Departing California, Florida, Arizona or Nevada
have taken it in the teeth regarding home prices. People coming from
New York, Boston or Chicago or Detroit have also seen some big hits.
Typically people coming new to DC comment on how expensive and small housing is here, unless they are coming from Hawaii, SFO, NYC or LA, so, most people get buyers shock anyways.
One thing that I find hard to keep in mind when I see these high prices is that they have in fact been dropping pretty fast. You see a stinky little 1,000 SF rambler going for 350 and think "oy", but two years ago it was in the high 4's or low 5's. That is a precipitous drop. You can see this clearly in the short sale listings that show previous sales.
ReplyDeleteAsking prices also seem to be plummeting, however the ones that are on the market long enough to have price reductions are so incredibly mispriced that it is hard to gauge anything except perception as sellers drop the asking/wishing price.
The realtor on Brunett said that anything priced at 250 moves quickly. This makes a lot of sense to me right now.
It's true that prices have fallen a lot, but I still don't think it makes good financial sense for me to buy at current pricing. A lot of people lost their minds this spring and overpriced houses that were on the market for months, even years, were suddenly swooped up. It seems like the majority of buyers these days are using the FHA/3.5% down loans, and that also makes me uncomfortable because I'd like to put at least 20% down, but the cheap money is inflating prices. I wish I didn't have to work with a realtor, but as a first time buyer I realize that I can't do it on my own, and it's difficult to view certain properties without a realtor. The current realtor line seems to be "prices aren't going up anytime soon, but they're not going to fall either, and interest rates ARE likely to rise so you better buy now". It makes sense that anything at 250k would move quickly. Anecdotally, the only friends I know who have purchased in recent years are not from the area, and in my opinion they overpaid. All my other friends either purchased pre-bubble or are continuing to rent.
ReplyDeleteHey Muffin Top,
ReplyDeleteI also visted the houses on Mentone and Brunett Ave in 20906 and 20901, respectively.
I agree with you on the comments on Mentone; the family was still in the lower level when we checked it out which didn't really help when to visualize the place as a prospective buyer. The price is a little high, but the elementary school for that neighborhood is highly regarded so that could drive up the price.
For Brunnett Ave, neither my partner nor I were really impressed. The driveway needed immediate attention as although the house was advertised as having "off-street" parking, the brick paver driveway was hardly intact. The kitchen was decent but nothing special and the rooms were average sized. One thing that was troubling was that there were two sump pumps in the basement, especially for a house that size. Makes me wonder if the owners had some serious flooding.
We also visited 606 Brantford Ave and 1024 Tanley in 20904, which were much larger and in what seemed to be a more well-kept neighborhood. However; these were also priced higher at $399K and $415K.
That's funny Jay, maybe we saw each other. Good eye on the sump pumps. When I get serious about buying I'm going to need to find a good inspector.
ReplyDelete