Main Line Homes Blog

Upper Providence Township in Delaware County is holding a meeting next week to disucss raising the Real Estate Transfer Tax by 0.5% making it the highest suburban Philadelphia Transfer Tax. With home sales already suffering the township is considering raising taxes on home sales? What are they thinking?

This will affect all sellers and buyers of homes in the township making their transaction more expensive. The state legislature along with many other townships has seen the light relaizing that Real Estate Transfer tax is unreliable and very narrowly focused. It being far better to tax on a broad base rather than a narrow base. But Upper Providence is going against the grain. With home prices dropping and economists predicting further price drops in 2010 this township simply ignores what is best for their residents and future residents by making the cost of transferring a home more expensive.

Feburary 11th is the hearing come out and make yur voice heard.

In a recent article in the Main Line Suburban Life Chris Polites this years chairman of the Easttown Board of Supervisors put a call out to citizens who live and work in Easttown to give advice on the township budget. During the process for this year there was outcry at the suggestion of an earned income tax being implemented. Hundreds tourned out to the board of supervisors meetings. Whilst this was avoided for the current year, by raising property taxes and implementing a new $52 business tax on anyone who works in the township the threat of state budget cuts creating further pain on the Easttown budget for the coming year cannot be avoided.

However, before jumping to conclusions Chris Polites called for local citizens and those who work in the township to contact him at cpolites@eattown.org who desire to serve on a citizens advisory budget group. The group will look at numbers but also at other options as well. Chris Polites expressed his belief that the township ran well but admitted there is always room for improvement.

I was at a seminar yesterday in Philadelphia where many of the agents were from the Main Line, Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery Counties as well as some from New Jersey where the speaker asked everyone present who knew someone who was behind on their mortgage payments to raise their hands. Wow! The whole room had their hands up. Seriously, I am not kidding, this roomfull of Realtors all knew someone who was behind on their mortgage payments. Last week I was talking with another realtor who knew several friends across the country who had not paid their mortgages for a year and yet had not been foreclosed on yet.

Earlier this week I listened to Austin Jaffe, economist for the Pennsylvania Association of Realtors give a presentation on the market ahead. He also commented on the shadow inventory out there, homes the banks have not foreclosed on where homeowners are behind on their mortgages and that this is going to impact the market in the next year or so causing prices to drop a further 10-15% possibly according to many economists. RealtyTrac reports that 1 in 45 homes are in foreclosure. If this is reality and there are even more homes behind on their payments what lies ahead. As can be seen from the Case Shiller graph prices have dropped, supposedly $5 trillion has been removed from the housing market. Whilst this is not good news it is reality.

The governement has indicated they will stop buying mortgage backed securities at the end of March, leading to rising mortgage interest rates. So if you are considering selling, now is the time to sell, get you home on the market, use a realtor to market it, qualify the buyers and get it sold as soon as you can before higher interest rates cause prices to dip further than they have.

If you seriously can wait three or even four years you may see prices begin to recover, but it will be longer before they return to the prices of the last few years but if you have time....otherwise act now and be realistic, be agressive, get ahead of the curve, don't chase your market down always following but always too late, price it right from the beginning and you will see your home sold.

As I was looking through all the local news last week the main thing that stood out was Delaware County townships raising taxes to balance budgets, Newtown, Marple, Edgemont, Millbourne and Rutledge to name a few. Whilst none of us like tax increases the decline in home prices and drop in sales activity of the last year has caused major problems for the townships and the state. Many of these townships had large parts of their budgets depending on Real Estate Transfer Taxes and the drop in prices and in number of sales over the last year has caused major problems for their budgets.

Leaving aside the question of if is wise for these township budgets to depend so heavily on Real Estate Transfer Taxes, the problem has been increased by many homeowners appealing their assesments with the drop in housing prices. Most of these appeals have been succesful, but this just causes the problems to be larger for the townships. As tax revenues plummetted the townships were left to either cut services, increase taxes rates or find new taxes. Many townships have been looking at implementing Earned Income Taxes where allowed, which is unpopular with many. I attended a meeting in Chester County at Easttown Township where local citizens made it very clear this was not what they wanted preferring a hike in the millage to any new taxes.

But we cannot have our cake and eat it as the saying goes. We cannot ask for increased or even the same level of services and also lower taxes. There is a point at which a certain tax level needs to be maintained. This does not mean that budgets can just be allowed to balloon uncontrolled or that services need not be competitively priced and put out for bid, but we must realize that we need to pay for a certain level of services. Whilst our assesments may be reduced, our overall tax burden may not be and that fact is coming home to many.

The challenge for townships, counties and for the state moving forward is to provide the best services they can for the least money, to not allow themselves to become over dependant on one tax, to make sure they are employing the correct people to provide the best services for the best price. To be run like a business and not just fall back on always being able to raise taxes to meet their commitments.

At the same time, I am not sure these townships have taken into account the remaining homeowners who should appeal their tax assesments and how this will affect their revenues. Many did last year, what happens this year if others do as well. Will we see more shortfalls?

There were 23 sales in Old Forge Crossing in 2009, 6 more than 2008, about the same as the 24 in 2007 but way off the high of 50 homes in 2006. The homes selling were a mixture of one and two bedroom units and several one bedrooms with dens along with one townhouse in the community.

Prices like everywhere have suffered from the financial crisis we have been enduring and days on market have been very mixed with many homes being on more than 100 days but with a few selling quickly giving average days on market of 53/54 days. There has been one bank owned property, a two bedroom unit that took 21 days to go under contract even though it was aggressively priced and sold for the lowest priced two bedroom unit for a long time.

There have also been seller concessions offered to buyers either as seller assists or concessions for repairs for older units.

Over the years many units that have come on the market sold regardless of being updated or not. Today's buyer is more demanding and requires homes to be updated with newer bathrooms and kitchens; many prefer not to even have to paint. Those homes that have been updated are tending to sell more quickly and closer to asking price.

As the return on investment you get for updates is not usually what you pay I would recommend if you are thinking of selling next year or so, it is worth updating your bath or kitchen now and getting an enjoyment return on it before you sell rather than doing all the work when you are ready to sell.

If you are looking for a home in Old Forge Crossing or are considering selling we will be happy to help you. See full statistics for this year below.

There were 23 sales in Old Forge Crossing in 2009, 6 more than 2008, about the same as the 24 in 2007 but way off the high of 50 homes in 2006. The homes selling were a mixture of one and two bedroom units and several one bedrooms with dens along with one townhouse in the community.

 Prices like everywhere have suffered from the financial crisis we have been enduring and days on market have been very mixed with many homes being on more than 100 days but with a few selling quickly giving average days on market of 53/54 days. There has been one bank owned property, a two bedroom unit that took 21 days to go under contract even though it was aggressively priced and sold for the lowest priced two bedroom unit for a long time.

There have also been seller concessions offered to buyers either as seller assists or concessions for repairs for older units.

 Over the years many units that have come on the market sold regardless of being updated or not. Today's buyer is more demanding and requires homes to be updated with newer bathrooms and kitchens; many prefer not to even have to paint. Those homes that have been updated are tending to sell more quickly and closer to asking price.

As the return on investment you get for updates is not usually what you pay I would recommend if you are thinking of selling next year or so, it is worth updating your bath or kitchen now and getting an enjoyment return on it before you sell rather than doing all the work when you are ready to sell.

 If you are looking for a home in Old Forge Crossing or are considering selling we will be happy to help you. See full statistics for this year below.

As we are visiting family in Apeldoorn, in Holland and having a wonderful time I thought I would post some information on property values.

On our way to the market we saw this new home:

This is a new home, 4 bedrooms and 1 1/2 bathrooms, priced at 600,000 Euros approximately $900,000, this price includes the kitchen and bathroom which usually are not included in new construction, you pay extra for them to be finished, note there is no garage, and the lot is pretty small. However, this particular house has a lot premium as the view across the street is through some trees of a local park.

If you cycle along the street visible on the photo above to the park you can find this house for sale:

This house is priced at 965,000 Euros which is about $1.5 million with taxes. Here are some other photos, of the view and the house.

This is the view across the street, pretty good.

You can see full details on this house on the realtors website, this house had 4 bedrooms and a mixture of bathrooms, one bathroom without toilet, a powder room upstairs, a full bathroom, and another powder room downstairs. No real basements here because of the water level, although this house has a cellar. Most of Holland is barely above sea level. South facing yard and a balcony as well, granite counters in the kitchen and new bathrooms. House was built in the 1930's.

So the Dutch real estate market like ours is also depressed, but location will bring a price. This house also is not on a large lot compared to America but the location in Apeldoorn on the park is very desirable. It has also been recently updated.

After a successful Holiday Tree Lighting ceremony this First Friday in December The Berwyn Devon Business & Professional Association First Friday planning committee, consisting of Nick Vandekar, Gina Galli of Beadeologie and Susan Holmes of Allegiance Bank met to begin plans for the 2010 program for First Fridays in Berwyn, PA.

Nick Vandekar, a local Realtor and President of the Business and Professional Association said he hopes that in 2010 we will see local retail businesses and restaurants work together to market Berwyn as a place to shop and dine and to benefit from the First Friday program that was launched at the beginning of 2009. Berwyn is a place filled with opportunities for local residents with a theater, art and antiques shops, restaurants, cafes, bakeries, craft stores, sports equipment, auto dealers, hairdressers for men and women with attached spa treatments, etc., with plenty to do and see around this historic village.

Plans for 2010 hope to include a series of three summer concerts in Berwyn that will bring customers to our local merchants. Any local business looking for a way to market itself may want to consider sponsoring these concerts.

To stay in touch with events go the Association Website.

With a first time buyers tax credit sales at Old Forge Crossing this year have unexpectedly been slow for both 1 and 2 bedroom homes. Homes that have been for sale have had few showings, with buyers being more demanding and even completely updated 2 bedroom end units, with new baths and kitchen have not sold. When a two bedroom, bank owned home came on the market very well priced this also took several weeks to sell when it should have been snapped up right away. So although interest rates are low, buyers are finding it hard to qualify for mortgages and this has slowed down sales.

Prices at Old Forge Crossing this year have been under pressure as buyers have seen good value in other developments. Chesterbrook with larger square footage and proportianately lower home owner and condo fees. However, many of these larger Chesterbrook units have less storage space than Old Forge Crossing homes. Drummers Lane/Glenhardie Condominiums prices are lower and whilst this is competition these homes do not have private entrances or a personal laundry area, with homeowners needing to lug their laundry down to a laundry room and use a communal washer and dryer. There is also a strong social scene within Old Forge Crossing with many events planned throughout the year giving homeowners an opportunity to be involved in their community and a chance to get to know each other as well.

Location of Old Forge Crossing si still a major plus with easy acccess to route 202 both North and South and lots of shopping and dining choices close by. Recreational opportunities abound in the area with Jenkins Arboretum, French Creek and Valley Forge National Park all close by. Septa R5 train stations at Paoli, Berwyn, Wayne or Devon are all close by depending on destination.

With the extended first time buyers credit and expanded tax cfredit for other buyers there are still many opportunities to buy a home in this development.

The Villages at Hillview a 55+ community is nestled in a setting that captures the charm and feeling of the area while offering the conveniences of a contemporary lifestyle. Located in Valley Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania a short drive from Philadelphia's Main Line there are many shopping centers, restaurants, golf clubs, major roadways and medical facilities within easy reach.
 
209 Gilmer Road a recent listing in The Villages at Hillview offers the convenience of a first floor master suite, three full baths, secondary bedroom generous enough to comfortably accommodate guests, large combined living and dining room, spacious kitchen and breakfast room open to family room with fireplace, den, sun room, large deck, ample closets, and a fully finished walk out basement with space that can be used for a bedroom nook with a full third bathroom.
 
Efficient gas heat, central air conditioning, insulated windows, smoke detectors, advanced phone/cable wiring, virtually maintenance free exteriors all contribute to your comfort and peace of mind.

At the Villages of Hillview you will have more time to do what you enjoy, see The Lodge above, just one of the community locations. Check out the home owners' association website for all the recent events. All of the amenities of an exclusive resort, blended with the warmth and convenience of a newer home await you in this most scenic setting. Start a fitness program that includes swimming indoors or out, working out in the gym, playing tennis or walk through the acres of open space. Meet friends for a game of pool. Take up bridge, or try your hand at ceramics, painting or woodworking in the art studios. Invite friends over for a barbecue. Watch the spectacular sunsets from the deck. Whatever your style, you'll find that all of your desires are met at this friendly community.

An extraordinary setting only minutes from King of Prussia and the Main Line that can only be described as pastoral with magnificent views across the valley, quality construction, and facilities to improve your lifestyle, combine to offer you a great place for new beginnings.  Experience 209 Gilmer Rd at the Villages of Hillview. There's nothing quite like it! Welcome home.