Earth Hour is Tomorrow

Tomorrow night at 8:30, people and businesses all over the world will be turning off their lights for one hour to celebrate the Earth for Earth Hour 2009. Lights will be turned off throughout New York, on the Strip in Las Vegas, and lots of places in our local area such as:

Frederick, Montgomery and Prince Georges Counties in Maryland
Washington National Cathedral
The Smithsonian Castle
Embassies from Austria, Belize, Canada, Finland, Great Britain and Sweden
American, Howard, and George Washington Universities
Gallaudet University - WOW! This is a university for deaf students - turning off the lights for an hour here is dedication to the cause!
Many government and city buildings and landmarks throughout the Washington DC area.
The Fairmount Washington, and Sheraton and Westin Hotels in Reston Heights
and many restaurants.

Here's the link to WWF's Earth Hour - if you haven't signed up to participate yet, please do so. See how your community is participating! What can we do to help the Earth? http://www.earthhourus.org/newyork/newyork.php

Vote Earth in 2009.

New Year, New Business, New Blog, New Everything!

I've cleared out the archives and decided to start over. As of the beginning of 2009, I was back to just being Judi Stull at RE/MAX Advantage Realty. I currently don't have a team or belong to someone else's team and it's really great!

I'm seeing a change in the real estate market locally. In January, I listed three properties, two of which sold within a few days of listing them. Prices have come down some, interest rates are some of the best we've ever seen and it seems that people aren't quite as nervous about making a move. It's encouraging!

According to the latest from the Maryland Association of Realtors (MAR), housing affordability has improved in the fourth quarter of 2008 and the First Time Homebuyers Housing Affordability Index rose to 62.2 percent from the third quarter level of 54.6 percent. "Compared to 2006 and 2007 levels of 46.6 and 49.3 percent respectively, this is a substantial improvement to Maryland consumers." You can read the entire article and see past quarterly statistics here: http://mdrealtor.org/HousingResearchStatistics/HomebuyerAffordabilityIndex/tabid/160/Default.aspx

According to MAR's Housing Statistics for December 2008 and as reported by MRIS, here are a few interesting facts about the Counties where I most often work:

Units Sold, first for 2008 then compared to 2007 and the percentage difference
Anne Arundel Co. - 301, 401, -24.9%
Baltimore City - 319, 445, -28.3%
Baltimore County - 450, 471, - 4.5%
Carroll County - 81, 107, -24.3%
Frederick County - 145, 160, - 9.4%
Howard County - 171, 196, -12.8%
All Maryland - 3227, 3550, - 9.1%

Changes in Average Price for 2008, then 2007 and the percentage changed
Anne Arundel Co. - $364,760, $395,990, - 7.9%
Baltimore City - $169,907, $177,397, - 4.2%
Baltimore County - $284,627, $306,021, - 7.0%
Carroll County - $344,906, $345,820, - 0.3%
Frederick County - $276,595, $326,373, -15.3%
Howard County - $416,933, $463,153, -10.0%
All Maryland - $315,934, $347,209, - 9.0%

Active Inventory for Dec. 2008, then compared to Dec. 2007
Anne Arundel Co. - 3810, 3876
Baltimore City - 4563, 5473
Baltimore County - 4360, 4028
Carroll County - 1160, 1115
Frederick County - 1872, 2006
Howard County - 1622, 1677
All Maryland - 43,674, 44,097

Sorry, all of my carefully composed spacing isn't staying and it's making that hard to read.

However, I'm sure you can see as well as I can that Howard County is staying pretty close to the Maryland average, and is somewhere near the middle of the few counties that I've shown here. While Frederick County has not dropped off quite as much in sales, they have had one of the larger drops in value.

Our Government Affairs group at MAR has given us a list of six items that are some of our 2009 Legislative Issues. The one that I think would be most interesting here is number 6.

Real Estate Taxes: MAR opposes new real estate taxes. Although the real estate industry generates about one-quarter of economic activity in the state, it generates about 45% of total County/City government revenues. Maryland ranks 13th among U.S. states in terms of absolute real estate tax levels.

I will continue to attend meetings in Annapolis throughout this year and speak to our legislators about our opposition to new Real Estate Taxes. I will be in Annapolis on Monday to speak with Senator Allan Kittleman, and Delegates Gail Bates, Warren Miller and Susan Krebs about this and other items. They are all "Real Estate Friendly" legislators already. While I understand that our government does need money to run, I think our home owners pay their fair share already and am working to keep our home ownership costs low. Please continue to vote and to contact our legislators about issues that are close to your heart!

Have a great month!