(Great Falls Virginia kayaking photo courtesy of Rob Shenk)

You may not be ready to grab your kayak and brave these rapids on the Potomac River in Great Falls, Virginia.  However, perhaps you're ready to brave the Great Falls Virginia real estate market.

Here's a snapshot of Great Falls Virginia home sales in the last 30 days:

GREAT FALLS, VIRGINIA HOME SALES:

• Active homes for sale:  152 (including 17 new listings in the last 30 days).  There's another 45 Great Falls homes currently under contract and pending sale.
  
  
• Average current listing price: $1,789,422
  
  
• Homes sold in the last 30 days:  29
  
  
• Average Sales Price:   $1,290,721
  
  
• Median Sales Price:     $1,200,000
  
  
• Average Days on Market:    95
  
  
• Average Sales Price/Original Listing Price:  91.10%.  This means that the average negotiated discount on a Great Falls Home from the original listing price is approximately $126,000!  That's a nice chunk of change if you work with the right Great Falls buyer's agent!

Interesting Notes: 

Homes currently for sale in Great Falls, Virginia range in price from $575,000 to $7,650,000.  There's not much at all in the way of townhouses or condominiums in Great Falls, so if you've got the cash to spend and want to be nearby, you might consider searching for a home in McLean.

About 76% of the homes listed for sale in Great Falls are priced over $1 million.  That's 115 of the 152 currently listed Great Falls properties.

** Find a Home in Great Falls **

The last few days, everywhere you look -- television, internet, newspapers -- there's a lot of doom and gloom about the real estate market. 

Understandably when numbers come out stating that nationwide resale home sales are down 27%+ and new home sales are at the lowest point since the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, there's some fear out there.

**However, every market is local.** 
                                               
                                              
(can't emphasize that enough!)

CNN, ABC, CBS, and the rest of the alphabet soup of national broadcast and cable stations do not report on the local market.  They report on the "national" market.  Truth is there is no such thing as the "national real estate market."

The Northern Virginia Real Estate Market is different.  It's a one word description that explains why:

Jobs.

No, not Steve Jobs -- he's out in Silicon Valley still trying to recover from the iPhone 4 antenna fiasco.

Real, honest to goodness, employment.

Check it:

While national unemployment figures weighed in at 9.6% and have been hovering just under 10% for quite some time, Northern Virginia is drastically different.  Not a single jurisdiction on this graph is over 6% unemployment (considered normal unemployment in "normal" times).  Arlington and Alexandria have unemployment rates under 5%!

Basically, if you want a job, there's one available in Northern Virginia.  That makes our housing market different. It's as simple as that.

Read more about jobs in Northern Virginia and their link to the Northern Virginia housing market:

Jobs = People = Houses -- Sounds Like a Winning Formula for D.C. Region

Less than Half: Unemployment in Northern Virginia

"J" is for Jobs; That's Good Enough for Me!

Not Just "Office Space" -- D.C. Area has the Good Jobs

Northern Virginia Highlights of the Trends in Housing Report

Do you love your pets?  Are you a fan of all things furry?

Then you are in for a treat (and so is your dog, cat, and/or child)!

This Saturday, August 28th, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., The Village at Shirlington is hosting a free family event featuring activities for both two-legged and four-legged attendees, including:

• Exhibitors
• Pet Contests
• Pet Portrait Photos
• Live Music
• Children's Entertainment & Activities
• Demonstrations
• Merchant Specials
• and More!

The marketing materials for the event say: "What a doggone purr-fect way to spend the day!"

Attend Wags 'N' Whiskers at The Village at Shirlington this Saturday, August 28th.

Shirlington is located at Exit 7 off of Route 395 South

Learn more about Shirlington: Eat, Play, Love: Living in Shirlington, Virginia

Search for homes in the Shirlington area

A few years ago, I wrote a post entitled My Friend is in Real Estate: Might Not be the Best Choice detailing why choosing a friend to represent you in a real estate transaction may not be the best bet.

Here's an excerpt:

"It's one thing to want to help out a friend.  Perhaps you see a friend struggling in the slow real estate market and want to help them out with a sale.  These altruistic feelings are part of your human nature.  

Ask yourself how much experience your friend, family member, or neighbor has when it comes to selling real estate.  If you were having heart surgery, would you trust the operation to your friend who just graduated from medical school and has never performed the procedure?  Will you spend your hard earned money and buy a stock on a tip from your neighbor who dabbles in the financial markets? 

Make sure that the professional you choose for your real estate needs has a solid track record of success."

Click here for the full article: My Friend is in Real Estate: Might Not be the Best Choice

Now, there's a video that proves the point. 

Enjoy!

If you've ever shopped at Marshall's, Target, Walmart, or any other discount department store, you'll definitely have seen the price tags that compare their prices to those found "elsewhere."  Whether the actual "elsewhere" price as marked is the true picture is debatable, but it's meant to make you feel good about your purchase, knowing that your shopping smart.

So plunking down $52 for that Clairborne dress shirt doesn't feel so bad, when you know that "elsewhere" it retails for $117!

When looking at the statistics for the overall Northern Virginia real estate market in July 2010, much of the picture doesn't look so great:

These numbers take into account Arlington County, Alexandria City, Fairfax County, Fairfax City, and Falls Church City.

The Bad News:  Compared to July 2009, July Sale $ Volume is Down 10.12%, Total number of Sales is down by 19.05%.  Similarly, compared to the previous month (June 2010), dollar volume is down 20.53% and total sales are down by 22.62%.

The Good News:  Prices are up significantly from July 2009, and up slightly from June 2010.  Home are selling significantly faster than in July 2009 and slightly slower than in June 2010.

How does this compare to "Elsewhere"?

The National Association of Realtors reports July 2010 existing-home sales dropped 27.2 percent from June and were down 25.5 percent from a year earlier. Existing-home sales last month fell to the lowest level in more than a decade.

So, overall, Northern Virginia is not so bad considering what's going on elsewhere. 

The picture above is of a community marker for Clarendon and Courthouse, two popular Arlington areas along the Orange Line Metro in North Arlington, VA. Photo courtesy of dionhinchcliffe

What's Happening today in the Arlington, Virginia Real Estate Market?

Here's a snapshot of Arlington Virginia home sales in the last 30 days from the end of July through now:

ARLINGTON VIRGINIA HOME SALES:

• Active homes for sale:  742 -- 214 of those (or ~29%) have just come on the market within the last 30 days! 
  
• Average listing price: $667,182
  
• Arlington Homes sold in the last 30 days:  187.  Arlington Virginia is a very active real estate market.
  
• Average Sales Price:   $556,947
  
• Median Sales Price:     $494,010
  
  Average Days on Market:  45
  
  Average Sales Price/Original Listing Price:  95.02%.  There's still some negotiating room on home sales in Arlington Virginia.

Interesting Notes & Analysis: 

Homes in Arlington currently on the market range in price from $69,900 to $7.95 million.

** Find a Home in Arlington**

The picture above is the USA Today headquarters building in McLean, VA.  Photo courtesy of patrickneilm

What's Happening today in the McLean, Virginia Real Estate Market?

Here's a snapshot of McLean Virginia home sales in the last 30 days from the end of July through now:

MCLEAN VIRGINIA HOME SALES:

• Active homes for sale:  172 -- 22 of those have just come on the market within the last 30 days! 
  
• Average listing price: $1,813,125
  
• McLean Homes sold in the last 30 days:  29
  
  Average Sales Price:   $838,011
  
  Median Sales Price:     $590,000
  
  Average Days on Market:  59
  
  Average Sales Price/Original Listing Price:  93.11%.  There's still some negotiating room on home sales in McLean Virginia.

Interesting Notes & Analysis: 

117 of the 172 McLean homes on the market or over 63% are listed for sale above $1 million.

Prices for homes for sale in McLean range from $185,000 to $14.95 million.

There's an obvious disconnect from the average price range of homes listed for sale and the average sales price of those actually selling.  This points to the fact that most of the sales in McLean have been the lower priced homes, particularly some of the condos in the Tysons Corner area. 

Additionally, while the average days on the market for homes that have sold is 59 days, those currently on the market average 165 days.  This too points to the slowness of the sales in the upper bracket ranges in McLean.

** Find a Home in McLean**

If you've driven around Tysons Corner lately, you know that they're hard at work on the Metro Extension project.  Eventually, this is agoing to be a great thing for the Tysons Corner area, and then Reston, Herndon, and Dulles Airport.  However... now, it means constantly changing traffic patterns, traffic jams, and some frustration.

I found the August Update on the Dulles Metrorail Extension Project and thought I'd share it with you below.  It's got lots of information on the progress of the project and some of the changes that are coming to traffic in the area.  If you commute into or out of Tysons Corner, this newsletter will certainly be of interest.

"You Gotta Eat!"

or so the famous slogan from Checkers Drive-In Restaurants goes.
(Disclaimer: I've never been to a Checkers & don't think I ever will!)

Admit it:  You love food.  And you especially love good food.  If you're like me, you have some favorite restaurants and you tend to get stuck in a rut of hitting the same joints week after week because the food is good, it's comfortable and you know the experience you're going to get.

Well, it's time to branch out.  The good news is that Alexandria, Virginia is making it fun, easy, and affordable.  Hot on the heels of D.C.'s Restaurant Week (which is ongoing through the end of this week), restaurants in the City of Alexandria are hosting their own Alexandria Restaurant Week starting this Friday, August 20 and lasting through August 29th. 

Okay, it's actually 10 days -- not a week, but I guess "Restaurant Week" has a better ring to it than "10 Days of Cool Eats!"

Logo courtesy of Alexandria Convention & Visitors Association

More than 60 Alexandria Virginia restaurants are offering special deals to diners during Alexandria Restaurant Week 2010.  The restaurants are offering either a $35 prix-fixe three-course dinner or a $35 dinner for two -- at some of these restaurants, this is an especially good deal.

Some of the restaurants involved in Alexandria Restaurant Week include:

Bilbo Baggins Restaurant

The Carlyle Club

Clyde's at Mark Center

Geranio Ristorante

Hank's Oyster Bar

Jackson 20

Mango Mike's

Southside 815

Click here for a full list of participating restaurants

Bon Appétit

The short video above was produced by RealEstate Business Intelligence (RBI), a subsidiary of MRIS which runs the D.C. and Northern Virginia area MLS system.  They have access to all the data for home sales in the area and produce these monthly videos to detail a compilation of the information.

For July 2010, the news is a mixed bag.  Pending sales have dipped from July 2009 - not a good thing.  Inventory has decreased -- that's good (at least for sellers).  Median prices in Northern Virginia are up 10.1% from July 2009 -- that's good for sellers and good for the market (maybe not so good if you're buying and missed the bottom). 

Overall, the video states that the housing market in Northern Virginia will remain a bit uncertain while the overall economy sorts itself out.  The biggest drag on the economy and in turn housing is the unemployment and job situation.  While it's much better in Northern Virginia and the D.C. metro area than almost anywhere else in the country, it's still a factor in the overall recovery.

Please note that this video and numbers cover all of Northern Virginia.  Real estate markets are very local.  What's happening in Fairfax Virginia can be very different than what's happening in Arlington Virginia.  Alexandria's market is drastically different than the market in Great Falls.

If you'd like to learn more about what's going on in your neck of woods, or the area you'd like to be your neck of the woods, feel free to contact me for a more detailed analysis.

Arlington County just outside Washington D.C. is hardly the countryside.  In fact, Arlington is barely even a traditional suburb, with many areas almost as urbanized as downtown D.C.  However, from Wednesday August 18th through Sunday August 22nd, Arlington is hosting a good old County Fair, complete with pigs, ponies and other fun things!

Located at Thomas Jefferson Community Center at 3501 South Second Street, Arlington, VA 22204, the Arlington County Fair will include rides, entertainment, vendors, food, competitions, and movies -- in other words, fun for the entire family.  If you're looking for fun in Northern Virginia, you'll want to stop by the Arlington County Fair later this week.

According to the Fair website, the opening ceremonies on Thursday evening will include a performance by The Old Guard, Fife and Drum Corp, from "Pershing's Own" US Army Band. The National Anthem will be performed by a Cantor from the US Army Band.  The 2010 Arlington County Fair opening ceremonies will be preceded by a 30 minute concert featuring Downrange, a contemporary vocal ensemble from the US Army Band. 

Friday is Family Movie Night and Saturday is Teen Movie Night at the Fair.  There will be animals, food, and community organizations at the Fair.

Have a good ole time at the Arlington County Fair!

DETAILS:

WHAT:  The Arlington County Fair

WHEN:  Wednesday August 18th - Sunday August 22nd, 2010

WHERE:  Thomas Jefferson Community Center, 3501 South Second Street, Arlington, VA 22204

MORE INFORMATION

Search for homes in Arlington Virginia

Real Estate is a full-time job career! 

In order for your real estate agent to perform his/her job effectively and help you with your purchase or sale of a home, it's important that they keep on top of the market, deadlines, marketing, the mortgage process, inspections, and the many other components that make up the real estate sales process.

Due to the nature of the sales business and the ups and downs of working in a commission based career, many agents who fail to plan and budget, necessarily succumb to the whims of the market. 

Alternatively, those who treat real estate as the full-time career that the profession demands are the ones that are most successful in serving the needs of their clients and making sure that sales get to the closing table.

Please watch this entertaining video below to see why you don't want your real estate agent to have a side job.  When interviewing agents to help with your real estate needs, always ask "Are you a full-time REALTOR?"