Yowell Team Blog

From somd.com...

Posted on May 21, 2008

LEONARDTOWN, Md. (May 21, 2008) -- Effective July 1, 2008, the State’s Critical Area Law will add several new regulations. The St. Mary’s County Government’s Department of Land Use and Growth Management Department is hosting a public forum on Tuesday, June 10 to explain the new regulations.

The forum will be at the College of Southern Maryland Leonardtown Campus beginning at 7 p.m.

The new Law, HB 1253, was passed during the 2008 legislative session, and is effective July 1, 2008. The new regulations affect properties on the waterfront. With St. Mary’s County’s 403 miles of shoreline, these new laws will have a significant impact in the county.

The new law is designed to help restore the health of the Chesapeake Bay by strengthening the critical area law. The new regulations were approved to ensure more adequate protection of the most environmentally sensitive and significant lands within Maryland’s Chesapeake and Coastal Bays watershed.

The 1984 critical areas law designated all land within 1,000 feet of the edge of tidal waters and wetlands as “critical area.” The current 1,000-foot area was identified using 1972 state wetland maps, that are still used today for enforcement and variance allowances by local governments. Sixty-four local jurisdictions including 16 counties and 48 municipalities comprise land within the critical area.

To prevent houses from being built near the water, the newly updated law will require a 200 foot setback for all new subdivisions in the RCA (Resource Conservation Area). The legislation requires builders and home improvement contractors to comply with the Critical Area law, and imposes stiff penalties for violations of the law, and requires anyone who builds an illegal structure or clears illegally in the Critical Area to completely restore the site, pay fines, and mitigate for the violation prior to seeking any approvals for illegal work performed in the Critical Area.

The forum will be videotaped and broadcast on County Government Channel 95.

If you haven't been down to Leonardtown Wharf yet, you really need to check it out.  We think it's going to be a great gathering spot!  Here's a story about the Grand Opening:

http://www.thebaynet.com/news/index.cfm/fa/viewstory/story_ID/8516

Here's an interesting article I came across recently:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121003604494869449.html

FROM www.thebaynet.com ...

GREAT MILLS - 4/25/2008

By Staff Writer Pete Hurrey

After 12 years of planning and numerous construction and design changes, the first of its kind, St Mary’s County’s Workforce Housing project is ready for new homeowners. The Gateways opened two short weeks ago with 42 one-, two- and three-bedroom condominiums priced for lower income working families and individuals. According to Dennis Nicholson, Executive Director of the Housing Authority of St. Mary’s County, “The facility is situated right across the parking lot from the J. Patrick Jarboe Childcare facility.” He indicated that the original plan in 1996 was for a single building with childcare on the first floor and housing on the second. The affordably priced condominium homes, located off Great Mills Road on Lexwood Drive, is centrally located and with walking distance of Great Mills High School, an elementary school and shopping. “It’s wonderful that people can live in a great place and be able to not worry about transportation,” said Mary Lynn Stone, a Century 21 New Millennium broker brought in to market the units. She went on to say that transportation is a concern in Southern Maryland and is needed many times in order to take care of everyday needs.  Full Article

Activity has definitely picked up over the last few weeks!  We've been working with clients pretty much 7 days a week since mid-March.  Most agents and lenders we've talked to have also seen more movement in the market.  Spring is usually when people start getting out to explore what's on the market.  Statistically though, the first quarter of this year wasn't that great for Southern MD ( click here for more info).  We think things will pick up over the next few months, but we likely won't see significant market improvement until late 2008-early 2009.  Still, there are some great deals out there for buyers.  Sellers can sell if they're realistic with pricing and negotiations, the home shows well, they have the right agent (plug, plug), and they're a little patient.

Well, Spring has sprung!  Everywhere you look, flowers are blooming, grass is sprouting, birds are singing...and the smell of fresh manure is in the air!  To some of us, the fertilizer that farmers spread on their fields is familiar and just a part of living in the country.  To others, it's an offensive, unwelcome stench.  However, local governments believe that preserving Southern MD's rural character is so important that they've enacted ordinances to give notice to residents that farmers have the right to farm.  The existence of these ordinances must now be disclosed to home buyers: see sample disclosure.

From somd.com ...

"LEONARDTOWN, Md. (March 25, 2008) -- The St. Mary's County government today announced that they have suspended wet season perc testing for all soil types until the next wet season which is not expected until 2009. The announcement was made by the Environmental Health Services division of the Health Department." Read more

Finally!  HUD just released new FHA and conforming loan limits.  Hopefully, this will spark more activity in the market.  Increases were seen in all three counties in Southern MD.  In St. Mary's County, the FHA limit went up but the conforming limit was left where it was.  This is because the powers that be don't consider St. Mary's to be a high-cost area like the other two counties.  I know a lot of you would disagree with that!

County	FHA Limit	Conforming Conventional Limit
Calvert	$729,750	$729,750
Charles	$729,750	$729,750
St. Mary's	$400,000	$417,000 (unchanged)

From the National Association of Realtors website...

"WASHINGTON, March 06, 2008 - The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development today published new FHA and conforming loan limits, based on median home prices as mandated by the Economic Stimulus Act signed by President Bush in February. New loan limits for FHA and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are now calculated at 125 percent of the HUD published median prices, with a floor of $271,050 and $417,000, respectively, not to exceed $729,750. NAR expects the impact on the housing market to be significant because of the infusion of capital into the mortgage market, which should result in lower interest rates across the board. In addition, there will be a direct impact on high-cost areas that previously required borrowers to take out costlier jumbo mortgages.

NAR research points out that increasing FHA loan limits will help an additional 138,000 Americans achieve the dream of home ownership and will allow nearly 200,000 homeowners to refinance and potentially keep their home. In addition, NAR believes that increasing the loan limits for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will bolster the housing finance market, which continues to be severely stressed, by providing an immediate infusion of much needed liquidity to the nation’s mortgage market.

An economic impact study conducted by NAR in January 2008 estimated that increasing conforming loan limits would result in as many as 500,000 refinanced loans and could help reduce foreclosures by as much as 210,000. In addition, over 300,000 additional home sales could be generated, housing inventory would be reduced and home prices would be strengthened by two to three percentage points.

Why HUD Took This Action
HUD was mandated in the Economic Stimulus Act to publish new loan limits within 30 days of the bill's signing by President Bush on February 13.

How HUD Calculates Its Median Home Prices
HUD median home prices differ from those published by NAR. That is because HUD uses a variety of sources and different areas to calculate the median home price.

Who Will be Affected
Increased loan limits will have a wide impact. The added liquidity in the mortgage market will help to make mortgages more easily available. Receiving direct helped will be borrowers in high cost areas who previously had no recourse except high- cost jumbo loans, and those with high-cost loans who can refinance into lower interest rate loans."
http://www.realtor.org/GAPublic.nsf/Pages/economic_stimulus_fha_limits?OpenDocument