Death of the McMansion

Buying trends are changing. Studies show that over 55% of buyers are looking for homes between 1400 and 2000 Square Feet of living space.

What Are You Looking For In A Community

What are you looking for in a community? When in the process of buying a home many people look at the community first. They want to know about the school system. Today people are also concerned about how close is their community to their work, school, recreation, shopping and so on. More and more people are looking for walking or walkable communities. They like the idea of being able to walk to schools, shopping and the library.
One such community is Catonsville, a community located just outside Baltimore city. Catonsville has been highly ranked by Money Magazine as one of the top communities to live in the United States. Its schools have also been ranked as some of the top in our country. Not to mention it is minutes from Baltimore City, Minutes from BWI Airport and about 45 minutes from Washington DC. It has a state park filled with hiking and biking trails for its back yard and has two colleges, University of Maryland Baltimore County Campus and Community College of Baltimore County.
There are a large variety of homes here from Split Levels to large Victorians. Catonsville is also known for its music and has received the name Music City Maryland. Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday there are Free concerts thru-out the town that draw thousands of people.
Catonsville has a small village feel but is right here next to the big city of Baltimore.

Interest Rates

Interest Rates are at historic lows ranging from 4.25% to 4.50% depending on your credit rating. Financing a home is getting easier and now is the time to buy. If you are buying in Baltimore City, Fells Point, Federal Hill, Canton, Locust Point, Brewers Hill, Patterson Park ect., Baltimore City has many grants to make purchasing & financing a home much easier.

Maryland also has programs to assist people locating here as a result of BRAC.

Maryland Residential Realty is here to help you. Call us at 410-719-0760 or email us at George@MDResidentialRealty.com

BRAC

How will BRAC, Base Realignment and Closure, affect Maryland. Maryland is scheduled to get about 27,379 new jobs as a result of BRAC. About 11,800 of these jobs will come to Fort Meade in such areas as Defense Information Systems, Joint Task Force Global Network Operations and Defense Media Activities. Some of the great areas for these new citizens of Maryland to live would be Catonsville, Ellicott City and Columbia, Maryland. All of these locations offer a great quality of living and fantastic schools.

Aberdeen Proving Grounds will gain about 8,779 new jobs in the areas of Command Control, Communications, Intelligence, Surveillance & Reconnaisance and Army Test & Evaluation Command. Belair, Fallston and Havre De Grace are great communities to consider. White Marsh, Parkville & Perry Hall are some Baltimore County Communities that can be considered as well.

Maryland Residential Realty is here to help all of those relocating to Maryland as a result of the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC). Visit http://www.mdresidentialrealty.com/ or call us at 410-719-0760.

Save On Your Electric Bill

A big way to save on your energy bill each month is to select an alternative electric provider other than BG&E. The electric still comes through the BG&E lines, the provider has your bill on your monthly BG&E bill and BG&E is still the company that handles all of your service needs and power outages. Its just that the alternate provider is cheaper.
Here is an example BG&E currently charges .11979 per kilowatt, an alternate provider such as Viridian charges .0979 per kilowatt. You can save as much as 20%.
for more information go to www.viridian.com/george . Viridian does not have a contract, there are no sign on charges and no cancellation fees. If you are not happy with their service cancel at anytime. This is a No Brainer!

Now Is The Time to Refinance

If you are trying to find ways to cut your home expenses during these difficult economic times have you thought about refinancing. If you haven't now is the time. Interest rates are at historical lows, 30 year conventional loans are at 4.5% or lower and FHA is at 4.75% or lower.

Lets put this in perspective, if you currently have a mortgage of $300,000 at 6% your P&I (Principal & Interest) payment is $1799 per month.
If you refinance at 4.5% your P&I payment will be reduced to $1520 per month. That's a savings of $279 per month.

Keep in mind that there are closing cost with refinancing but much lower than when you are buying the home.

Please feel free to contact one of the loan officers I have listing on my website and see if you can start saving money.

Local Housing Trends

The Housing Market
People keep asking me about the ever changing housing market and has it leveled off. In my opinion prices have leveled but hard times are not over yet. Here are some statistics for March 2010 vs. March 2009

21228 (Catonsville) – Prices increased by 1%
21227 (Arbutus) – Prices declined by 2 %
21042 & 21043 (Ellicott City) – Prices increased by 18%
21045 & 21046 (Columbia) – Prices Increased by 6%
21117 (Owings Mills) – Prices Increased by 12 %
21093 (Lutherville) – Prices Increased by 19%

Don’t jump to any conclusions yet because much of this could be caused by the increased demand from buyers who want to get a home before the Tax Stimulus expires on April 30th. Both January and February showed a decline in the sales price in 2010 compared to 2009. The other factor is interest rates are still at record lows.


Many people like to know what their current home values are if for no other reason than pure curiosity. If you would like to know what homes are selling for in your community please feel free to email me with your address and I will send you a Market Analysis FREE.

“If you know of anyone looking to purchase or sell a home I hope you will send them my way. I love referrals”