In Fairfax County, about half of the homes for sale are bank-owned properties…
Fairfax County, of course, is one of the wealthiest (and stable) counties in the United States. Here is the story, which shows Fairfax is one of the few places with a rebounding housing market.
Banks are responsible for half of the sales, and you call this ‘a rebounding housing market?’
Wonder what you thought about the time RTC was doing its firesale act.
Even better, the author of the article writes this –
‘The trend contrasts sharply with almost every other county in the region, except for Prince William and Loudoun counties, both of which have been devastated by an unusually high share of aggressively priced foreclosures.’
Either bank foreclosures are a sign of a rebounding housing market, or it brings devastation to have aggressively priced foreclosures, as noted in the article.
Prince William is really rebounding – 100% higher sales last months, as prices fell nearly 42 percent. Maybe Fairfax could achieve the same status, with just a bit more aggressiveness.
Interesting – but what exactly can we infer from this?
A recent paper by Foote et al sheds much light on the subprime crisis:
“In 2007, 40 percent of Massachusetts residents who lost their homes to foreclosure had put no money down when they bought their homes.”
http://www.bos.frb.org/economic/ppdp/2008/ppdp0802.pdf
Because of a growth in government contracts, unemployment in Northern Virginia and in Maryland suburbs surrounding the District traditionally has been much lower than other parts of the states and in other regions around the country.
Federal employment in the DC area keeps the economy somewhat stable.
Wonder how home sales and foreclosures in Fairfax County, a large county, compares to Arlington and Alexandria, Silver Spring and Bethesda, locations closer to DC than most of Fairfax County.
Prince William and Loudoun are also a challenging, and increasingly expensive in terms of money and time, commute in to DC.
The Fairfax County report notes that sales tax revenue comparing July 2007 to July 2008 is down 7.3%, $12.9 million. (page 2).
http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/economic/indicat/2008/08.pdf (4-page pdf)
The accompanying chart shows growth in sales tax receipts August 2007 through July 2008: Alexandria (City), -3.2%; Arlington, +2.5%; Fairfax County, +0.6%; Falls Church -6.7%; Loudoun County +5.5% (moving supplies?); Prince William -1.4%; and VA as a whole +0.5%.
“…I’d like to hear opinions why stabilizing the market at the end of the chain (and what we have here seem to be a beer distribution game on steroids — a relatively minor correction explodes as it’s being passed through the ranks) is the better strategy than stabilizing the market at the beginning of the chain.”
Agree – I think it’s an excellent question, one I have been wondering about for the past few days.
Think of it as a stimulus package “on steroids” (as you put it).
Here is the story, which shows Fairfax is one of the few places with a rebounding housing market.
This is about right. Fairfax is one of the few places that has seen a dramatic decline in house prices but also seems to be seeing the start of a rebound. There are markets (Charlotte, the rest of NC, Dallas, Austin, Houston, etc.) that still haven’t seen a decline in housing (partially because they never went up quickly during the bubble.) There are markets (CA, AZ, NV, FL) that haven’t started rebounding it seems. There’s a market that’s doing terribly but never saw a bubble (MI). But of the markets that saw a dramatic increase in prices, the Fairfax area seems to be one of the few that might have reached a bottom.
The large NSA, CIA, FBI, DOD, DHS, and DOI presences in Fairfax County might have a little something to do with the rapid stabilization. Plus, throw in all the double retirees (military & government) contracting at 2x their government salary. Of course, there are also single retirees (mil OR gov) who are only drawing one pension while working full time. Also,, I’d point to the presence of Sprint, Oracle, Lockheed, Northrop, VW-Audi, Rolls-Royce, etc. in Herndon/Reston who also employ a fair number of well compensated folks. Last, Reston is the HQ of a lot of large VC funds and all the attorneys that come with that. Oh yeah, I almost forgot Dulles Airport, which is the engine that drives the bulk of the demand to do business along the 267 & 28 corridors.
TJ is a good school, but so are Mclean, Langley, South Lakes (yes, South Lakes), Chantilly, Westfields, etc.
Fairfax has always been a great place to live; however, during the RE boom a lot of folks were crowded out to more outlying areas. Now that prices have fell they are opting to live in more desireable areas. Arlington to a much greater extent is also impacted in the same way. Prices there have fell very little, mainly due to the excellent school systems and close proximity to major employment centers (DC, 7 corners (Skyline), reverse to Tysons/Reston/Herndon).
Fairfax is also the home of an outstanding high school (Thomas Jefferson), which may explain why people who have the money still want to move there.
Yes, but I’m fairly sure TJ is limited enrollment, and then there is an admission lottery among all qualified applicants. Money won’t get your kid in. (There are numerous good private schools in the area.)
Not sure, as I live in the City of Alexandria, and our children can’t apply to TJ as Alexandria won’t come to an agreement with Fairfax County about TJ because, as has been explained to me, Alexandria doesn’t want to see any of its best students taken away from its only high school, TC Williams. And, although Arlington is not in Fairfax County, Arlington kids can apply although I believe there are a limited number of TJ slots for non-Fairfax County kids.
As Tom points out, there are many good public high schools in NoVA. And, as far as good public colleges, VA is tough to beat for a state its size (UVA, W&M, GMU, JMU, UMW, ODU, VA Tech, etc., and don’t forget the excellent Northern Virginia Community College system).
And the choices among good ethic food places are abundant – see Tyler’s Ethnic Dining Guide.
tylercowensethnicdiningguide.com.
it is pretty laughable to compare Jefferson- the number one high school in the entire nation- to Langley, Chantilly, or South Lakes.
Especially of you’re one of those VERY annoying parents who struts around bragging about how smart and wonderful and so special your kid is, and by implication how smart and wonderful and so special you are. How dismal it must be to not be you.
Yes, TJ is known as a very good school. However, a lot of very smart kids don’t apply to TJ, even if they are qualified to go there.
There are many good public high schools in NoVA, like H-B Woodlawn, Langley, Chantilly, Washington-Lee, Woodson, George Mason, Yorktown, Lake Braddock, McLean, etc. And no, my kids don’t attend any of those.
No, because ‘we’ aren’t “stabilizing the market”. We are bailing out foreign investors so they continue to lend the U.S. money.
I wonder how many number one high schools in the country there are.
I’ve heard of several.
Any college admission offices care to give this point a crack?
I favor a Flatfax.
I moved to Fairfax County, buying a house in Oakton a year after graduating from Geo Univ Law. It cost 215 in 81, and I sold it for 430 in 88. The county is populated by secure-salary gov’t workers whom banks can trust, and the people mortgage to the hilt to acquire visible status in a region overwhelmed by status anxiety. Rich? Compared to the Main Line or Greenwish. Not really. My only pre-existing friend in the County was Dr. Johnson, who was building GMU at the time. I admired him tremendously for his capability, and look what he and John Hazael have wrought!
I’m surprised no one has connected the recent crack down on illegal immigrants and the popping of the housing bubble. Maybe we should not have thrown our alien residents out of the country, thus reducing the demand for housing and driving down prices?
Probably the other way around. When the housing bubble popped, construction slowed down.
Wasn’t it Prince George’s County (MD) that cracked down on illegal immigrants earlier this year and then officials were surprised when work on constuction sites slowed down or stopped, lawns weren’t getting mowed, etc., because the workers disappeared?
Radford has parties. Any school has parties. I even took part in a fair number of them, but I was also a diligent student. There are rude students everywhere as well.
You hear lots of rumors about Radford being a party school, but it also has small class sizes, a lot of which are taught by full-time/tenured faculty. I majored in Management and Managerial Economics, and in my estimation learned much more than some some people who attended “more prestegious” schools. You will also read/hear about a lot of students failing out in their first year, this also happens at every school. If your son’s desire to learn and get an education is greater than his desire to get drunk and hook up with random women, he can certainly get a top notch education there. The economics faculty there is good. They aren’t as prolific as those at major universities from a publishing standpoint, but they do care deeply about their students and aren’t too busy writing and editing to help students learn.
I was in attendance at Radford at the time you took your tour, BTW. I hope I didn’t yell at you…
Any school has parties. I even took part in a fair number of them, but I was also a diligent student. There are rude students everywhere as well.
Yes, not to pick on Radford since we only visited once, but our visit to Radford was in stark contrast to the other six schools we visited.
Especially in regards to to JMU (he didn’t attend JMU). I was surprised how friendly and helpful everyone we met at JMU was. Everyone we dealt with or stopped to ask directions or questions (students, staff, and faculty), all over the campus, was friendly and going-out-of-their-way helpful. I thought I was back in the midwest!
TJ*
all the things are different with the face
we should make more things about the task
Comments on this entry are closed.