On June 3, 2009, Judge Michael J. Finifter declared that the West Towson Elementary School can continue construction, ruling against a few Towson homeowners who had filed suit against the Board of Education in April. The homeowners live adjacent to the Ridge Ruxton School on Charles Street, the site where the new school is to be built. Their [...]
Memorial Day brings families together, and discussions many times go to real estate, especially when you have a member of your family who specializes in that field. I like to know my Towson real estate marketplace so when I am asked how much a home is that someone passed on the way to my house, [...]
As I wrote March 2, Towson Zillow Zestimates in general, are statistically off by a large amount. Last week I had a client call me because his HELOC was reduced by a large amount right in the middle of construction to improve his home. He could not understand how the bank could make the determination [...]
On Tuesday I wrote about an exciting new program that HUD & FHA were rolling out to let the $8000 Tax Credit for First Time Homebuyers be used as a downpayment. That has now been retracted, and the letter removed from the HUD site. Yet Yesterday, HUD Secretary Donovan said that many states already were [...]
**Update May 14, 2009, please see my update that HUD has retracted its statement and that this may NOT be the case everywhere.** The Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced at the National Association of Realtors summit today that the FHA is going to allow lenders to let First Time [...]
Yes, believe it or not, you read that right. Tasha Linton, of Atlantic Home Equity Mortgage shared with our office that they are offering 105% Refi Plus on Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac Loans! What's the deal? Primary and investment properties qualify (no limit to amount of properties owned). You can refi up to 105% LTV [...]
Have you been on North Charles Street in Towson recently and wondered what is going on? Or have you been driving around I-695, merging over to I-83 North, and been curious about where the trees have gone? Well, the bridge over 695 is being rebuilt, like the ones at Dulaney Valley, York Road, and Reisterstown [...]
Have you ever wondered about those “Zestimates” from Zillow.com ? How accurate are they really? I pondered this recently, as a listing I have coming on the market in Hunt Valley has a Zestimate about $40,000 LESS than the value determined during my true, in-depth market analysis as a licensed Towson Real Estate Agent. (On the other hand, using their “My Estimator” tool brings the value up to over $110,000 HIGHER than its true value!) […]
Each day I drive my son to or from school, I drive up Thornton Road. There has been a For Sale sign outside this one house for a very long time. To my delight yesterday, I saw the UNDER CONTRACT sign rider up -- YAY! For those of you who may not know, Thornton Road [...]
The Baltimore Sun and the Baltimore Examiner report that Towson University and the Rodgers Forge Community Association have reached an agreement about the location of the new arena to be built near the Forge. I wrote about this issue on January 22, as the fear was the design and location of the new arena would [...]