1 was an original owner sale, basic original house in very good shape, 125k, but needing total updating.

The second was a foreclosure. Bought by a single guy that plans to live in it for 3-5 years then either sell or rent out. He and his friends have purchase several in here with those plans. His was actually in very good shape. Said all it needs is paint and maybe carpet. Paid 150k for it. This one was valued by the city at 300k.

Third house not sure of the status but 90% sure it was a foreclosure. It was purchased by the gentleman that built the new strip mall by the police station. I have spoken with him and he said he is looking to pick up several more as investments. He mentioned he hopes to rent them to those same people that rent the stores out from him. Kinda like a mini company town.

We still have four foreclosures left on this street, in varying conditions. Will be interesting to see what they end up going for.

Also an interesting bit of info is the 2 houses on Cabbel that butt up to the police station are city owned. Will be interesting to see what if anything the City will do with them.

20109: from 33 to 70 sold
20111: from 23 to 63 sold
22193: from 63 to 140 sold
22191: from 49 to 93 sold

The consistency here is pretty surprising. According to “Greater Northern Virginia Housing Bubble Fallout”, these are the zip codes which have seen the most significant price discounts in the county, and from my experience (I live in one of these zip codes) the most significant previous problems with residential overcrowding.

It’s actually getting harder to find the vacant, previously overcrowded bank-owned foreclosures that I like to take reporters on neighborhood tours to see. The last time I was walking a reporter around the neighborhood looking at these, someone walked up to us and asked what we were doing in the back yard of the house he recently bought. The place had been utterly trashed, and all the appliances stripped (including the furnace) when the folks living there had skedaddled in the middle of the night, and I couldn’t imagine anyone buying the place. But folks are seeing the deals to be had, grabbing these up, and renovating them.

Are sales really up 112%, 174%, and 122%? I mean, are they really more than double what they were last year (up 100% would mean they’ve doubled) or are they up a few percentage points from last year? is the 90% in 22191 really a 90% *increase* or were sales 90% of what they were in 2007?

For example, last year 100 homes sold in April and this year 150 homes sold, sales are up 50% (150-100= 50 which is 50% of the original 100) or are 150% of last years’ sales (they are not, however, up 150%). For sales to be up 150%, 250 homes would need to be sold this year versus 100 last year.

Would it be possible to for you to provide the raw numbers as well? Percentage can be fickle things. For example, if last year only 1 home sold in a given a ZIP code, 3 homes selling this year would be a whopping 200% increase in sales over last year, but in reality isn’t much of a big deal. Without the raw numbers, it’s really not very meaningful.

Why? Waaayyyy too expensive.

There is continued price depreciation however, which is demonstrated that homes sold for on average of 87% of their asking price in April 2008, where in 2007 they were selling for an average of 94% of the asking price. That’s about as close to apples-to-apples as you can get with this data.

As the available inventory declines, which seems to be the case, prices should stabilize and start slowly going back up.

What we don’t need is a bunch of investors in here buying up the spoils of war. If that happens, it is a guarantee that we will go right back to where we were if not worse. Irongate and Georgetown South are perfect examples of investor owned properties. Translation: out of sight, out of mind.

I would have to see a lot more variables before anyone makes a believer out of me, after driving around and seeing what I see.