The Creig Northrop Team of Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc completed the month of June with a record high, selling 122 homes – making it our best June in three years.
On a national level, existing-home sales – including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops – increased 3.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of [...]
Entries from July 2009
July 29, 2009
Record High Home Sales for the Month of June!
July 27, 2009
Coming Soon: A redesigned White Flint neighborhood in Montgomery County
Residents, businesses and local leaders have been presented with an unprecedented opportunity to create a new neighborhood for White Flint– transforming the current hodge-podge of traffic, parking lots and urban sprawl – into a new “Smart Growth” hometown that is less dependent on automobiles and more oriented towards walking, biking and mass transit.
The new White [...]
July 27, 2009
June new home sales up 11%, largest amount in 9 years
The government says new U.S. home sales rose by the largest amount in nearly nine years last month, in another sign the housing market is finally bouncing back from the worst downturn in decades.
The Commerce Department says sales rose 11 percent in June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 384,000, from an upwardly revised [...]
July 23, 2009
Downtown Columbia to lose another gas station
Second gas station to close on Little Patuxent
Owner blames rent hikes from Exxon
Less than three months after an Exxon service station closed on Little Patuxent Parkway, the owner of another Exxon station on the same road has said he will close at the end of July, leaving that major Columbia artery with no gas [...]
July 22, 2009
Howard County Restaurant Week is Coming!
Starting Monday, July 27th and running through Sunday, August 9th local Howard County restaurants will be serving menus created with locally grown products to help residents save money and our environment.
Restaurant participation will vary, but menu prices will range from $10.99 to $40.09.
For more information, to find participating restaurants or to make a reservation visit [...]
July 21, 2009
House Extends High Limits for Federal Loans
The House Appropriations Committee approved an extension of the $729,750 loan limits for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Federal Housing Administration financing in high-cost areas through September 2010.
Without this extension, the loan limits revert at the end of the year to $417,000 in the highest-cost areas.
The spending bill also would extend FHA’s Home Equity Conversion [...]
July 9, 2009
Columbia, MD one of the Best Places for Aging Entrepreneurs to Live
Entrepreneurs don’t retire, they just find a new project.
Over the past decade, baby boomers produced a high rate of entrepreneurial activity, and Dan Stangler, senior analyst at the Kauffman Foundation, says the number of baby boomers starting a business in their traditional retirement years is likely to increase.
In response to that analysis, U.S. News & [...]
July 7, 2009
Creig Northrop Featured in LORE Magazine
The Voice of the Triumphant Agent
Creig Northrop’s team was the No. 5 team ranked by transaction sides in the LORE/Wall Street Journal 2009 Top 400.
LORE: What challenges do you face today?
Northrop: Certainly we face the challenges of the market and financing arenas. A huge challenge is getting people qualified because of stricter guidelines and [...]
July 6, 2009
Tips for Parents Buying Homes for Children
With home prices low, now could be a good time for parents to give their children a home or even an investment property.
Here are some suggestions for managing the tax consequences from Mark Luscombe, tax analyst with Wolters Kluwer.
Give a cash gift. Individuals are allowed to gift up to $13,000 per person in a given [...]
