BULLETIN:  The Mortgage Banker’s Association announced yesterday that President Obama signed a bill Friday extending the $8,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit, making it applicable to contracts entered into by 4/30/10, and closing by 6/30/10.

The bill also includes a new $6,500 tax credit for homebuyers who have previously owned a home, if that home was their primary residence for five consecutive years out of the last eight years.

Both the $8,000 first-time homebuyer credit and the $6,500 repeat home-buyer credit have higher income limits ($125,000 individual and $225,000 couples) than the bill expiring at the end of this month, and the maximum cost of the home being purchased is now up to $800,000.

For more details, read Obama Sgns Extended Tax Credit Into Law on REALTOR.com. 

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At the District II semi-annual meeting for Federated Garden Club of Maryland, this image of an African Gray-Crowned Crane placed first in the “birds” category of the organization’s photo contest. 

Sunny captured this shot at the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, Wisconsin, during a trip to Madison for a wedding.

Flowers, birds and outdoor scenes are favorite subjects for this talented amateur photographer.  Her waterlily photo is featured in the 2009–10 Crofton Village Garden Club yearbook and on the club’s website.

If you’re a benefactor, patient or staff member of the University System of Maryland Medical System, you may recognize this photo from the cover of their 2008 calendar.  The Sandy Point Lighthouse is another of Sunny’s masterpieces…

Sunny and her husband Tom are long-time Crofton residents and she is the current president of the Crofton Village Garden Club. 

Thank you, Sunny, for sharing the lighthouse photo with Focus On Crofton readers, and congratulations on winning the District II photo contest.  We’re so glad you enjoy photography because we want to see more of your pictures!

Photos copyright 2008–09.  Sunny Frank.  All rights reserved.
Do Not Copy without permission 

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The Maryland Department of Natural Resources is again offering them for sale, and you can order online now.  These two-year old seedlings, approximately 15 inches tall, were raised from acorns collected from the original Wye Oak.  There is limited availability, and they will be shipped on a first-come basis (except to AZ, CA, FL, LA and OR, due to plant quarantines in those states).

You will receive your seedling in the Spring, along with a certificate showing the authenticity and history of the famous tree. 

Click here to read more if you’re new to Maryland and unfamiliar with the history of the Wye Oak.

PLACE YOUR ORDER HERE WHILE SUPPLIES LAST

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She reports that a lease for the Center was unanimously approved by the Anne Arundel County Council last night and signed by County Executive John Leopold.

Congratulations to everyone who worked so hard on this!

REMINDER:  The Crofton Regional Community Center is on the agenda at Tuesday’s meeting (11/10/09) of the Greater Crofton Council.

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Guest Blogger Donna Doyle updates us on the Crofton Regional Community Center:

At a general meeting of the Crofton Regional Community Center (CRCC) at the Walden Country Club on October 22nd, the groups business plan was presented and everyone was urged to support the Center, scheduled to be considered during the County Council meeting on November 2nd.

To help promote the program and keep citizens advised, a reception will be held at the Essex Bank in Crofton tomorrow, November 5th at 7 p.m.  Members of the public can communicate with CRCC committee members through the CRCC website or on Facebook.

CRCC also discussed the essentials to raising the necessary funds and some of the features that would be included in the enterprise. A design is being developed for a skate park adjacent to the center to accommodate boarding, in-line, and specialty bike operations.

Although it had been reported that there is a competition with the YMCA and the Boys and Girls Club, the board said that is not the case. The groups are working together to integrate their programs and be a team. It was noted that the Y project is not scheduled to start until years after the Center is built.

The next general membership meeting of CRCC will take place on December 2nd, at 7 p.m. at Crofton Town Hall.

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I would just like to emphasize that you can show support for the Crofton Regional Community Center by joining the CRCC Facebook Group.  (Click on the logo or on the link)  County officials and other decision makers will surely take notice if this group grows from today’s 137 members into the thousands.

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While Thanksgiving may be the highlight of the month, there’s also Veterans Day and a host of other things to celebrate and do.  For example…

Did you know that November is Aviation Month, Child Safety Month, Good Nutrition Month, National Adoption Month and National Epilepsy Month?  It’s also International Drum Month, National Model Railroad Month and (yum, yum) Peanut Butter Lover’s Month.

Here’s the local schedule for November 2009 in the Greater Crofton Area:

 1 -  Crofton Athletic Council – County Basketball practice begins
 1–4 -  Crofton Poinsettia Sale, Crofton Village Garden Club
 2 – Crofton Regional Community Center (CRCC) discussion, Anne Arundel County Council
 2–17 – Holiday Citrus Sale, Arundel H.S.
 3 - Terps basketball season begins SCHEDULE
 3 - Dog Obedience Classes, Davidsonville Family Recreation Center, 7 p.m. 
 4 – Lady Terps basketball season begins SCHEDULE
 5 – Crofton Regional Community Center (CRCC) Reception, Essex Bank in Crofton 
 5 - Registration Deadline for the Annual Turkey Trot 5k on 11/26
 6 -  All About Horses Club, Equilibrium Horse Center, Fridays at 7:30 p.m.
 7 and 8 -Oyster and Bull Roast, Odenton Volunteer Fire Dept.  
 7 -  Patuxent River Ducks Unlimited Pig & Chicken Cookout, Davidsonville Ruritan Community Center, 6:30–10 p.m.
 7 – Downs Park 5 Mile Run – 8:30 a.m. 
 8 – Free Hockey, Piney Orchard Ice Arena, Sundays at 8:30–9:30 a.m.
 8 and 15 – Crofton Athletic Council – Intramural basketball placements
10 – Greater Crofton Council, The Village at Waugh Chapel, 7 p.m.
10 – Crofton Rotary Annual Dinner, Crofton Country Club – Reservations Required
11 – Veteran’s Day Memorial Service, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish, 7:30 p.m.
11 – Moms ‘n Tots, Community Methodist Church, 10:45 a.m.
14 – Terps vs. Virginia Tech at Byrd Stadium
14 – Babies in Bloom, Crofton Library
14 – Craft Show, Odenton Fire Department, 9:30–1:30
14 – Community Country Market, United Methodist Church in Crofton, 10–2
14 and 15 – Audition Workshop, Children’s Theatre of Annapolis (ages 8–14)
17 – Report cards distributed (AACPS)
18 – Give Thanks for Family and Friends, Crofton Library (ages 2–5)
18 – Moms ‘n Tots, Community Methodist Church, 10:45 a.m.
19 – Crofton Chamber of Commerce, noon at the Blue Dolphin
21 – South River Seahawks basketball season begins SCHEDULE
23 – Book Club, Crofton Town Club, 7 p.m. (Please RSVP)
23 – Crofton Kiwanis Charity Auction, Boswell Hall, 6 p.m.
23–27 – Public Schools closed for students
26 – THANKSGIVING
28 – Terps vs. Boston College at Byrd Stadium
28 – The Elves That Saved Christmas, Children’s Theatre of Annapolis, 11 a.m.

If your organization would like to add an event to this or any monthly calendar for the Crofton area, please contact me at MWoda@mris.com

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You want to make sure you know where any registered sex offenders or predators may live in your neighborhood BEFORE your kids go out.

I receive notification from Family Watchdog whenever a move in or out occurs in the 21114 zipcode, and they appear in my email inbox quite frequently.  You can’t assume that nothing has changed since the last time you looked.

Halloween Safety Tips for Crofton Kids

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But this area reaches far beyond the 21114 zipcode to include Crownsville (21032), Davidsonville (21035), Gambrills (21054), Millersville (21108) and Odenton (21113). 

Of the 57 bank-owned properties listed, ten of them are actually in Crofton.  98 additional homes, including nineteen in the 21114 zipcode, are in pre-foreclosure status (Realist).  You will usually find them advertised as a “potential short sale.”

Buying a bank-owned or pre-foreclosure property can be a challenge, however, with prospective buyers sometimes waiting months for an answer to their offer.  For that reason, most buyers of these homes are investors and not owner-occupants.

It is a GREAT time to invest in real estate!

One local investor recently purchased a detached home in Four Seasons for $163,000 at the foreclosure auction and then put it on the market for $289,900.  Yes, he got a great deal and will make a lot of money flipping this property.  If he held on to the property five years, however, chances are he would get an even larger return on his investment.  There hasn’t been a better opportunity in our lifetime to make money in real estate, so I recommend you get out there and do it if you’re in a position to take advantage of this market.

What does all this mean to homeowners in the area? 

Distressed properties always drive down pricing in the immediate area.  One here or there might be considered an anomaly, and other comps would help offset a single foreclosure or short sale.  Fortunately, many neighborhoods in Crofton have not even been touched by foreclosures. 

Well-priced homes in good condition continue to sell – in fact, 206 detached homes have gone under contract in the Greater Crofton Area (as defined above) since July 1, including forty in the 21114 zipcode.  Of these forty, thirteen went under contract in a month or less.  Not bad, for a “bad market.” 

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University of Maryland College Park students are being encouraged to collect change for the purpose of helping their classmates stay in school during these tough economic times. 

The top ten change collectors, as of October 14, won an opportunity to watch the Terps homecoming game from the one of the new suites at Byrd Stadium.  They were probably the warmest and driest students in the stadium for this disappointing game! 

The contest may be over, but the need continues.

If you’d like to help students stay in college, why not save your change for that purpose.  Contact shuntley@umd.edu for more information.

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Providing community and real estate information about Crofton Maryland and other nearby communities is my way of attracting new D.C.-Baltimore area home buyers while also keeping current residents informed and earning their real estate business.  Please click on Margaret Woda, Crofton REALTOR or call/text me at 301-346-2923 for help with your next home sale or purchase in Annapolis, Bowie, Crofton, Crownsville, Davidsonville, Fort Meade, Gambrills, Millersville or Odenton, Maryland.

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The Maryland Department of the Environment has actually deemed it acceptable to build a big-box store on the site across Route 3 from Old Crofton, where these photos were taken.  I know, it’s hard to believe, that’s why I provided this link so you can see the permit for yourself: File Attachment: MDEPermitIssuance.pdf (1577 KB)

These photos were taken by Katherine Para for FriendsofRoute3.org, an organization of homeowners and concerned citizens working to call attention to this matter and hopefully make authorities think twice before this goes any farther.

Adding insult to injury, our own Crofton Civic Association president, Steve Grimaud, is reported by local media to be in negotiations with the owner of that property to trade Lake Louise (to be converted into a wetlands area) for “replacing” the natural wetlands destroyed by development for a big-box store. 

If you are as stunned as I am about this, just talk to anyone who attended last month’s Crofton Civic Association meeting.  The presentation advertised to local residents as an opportunity to learn about various options for improving Lake Louise turned out to be a sales pitch for just one option – developing the Lake Louise area into a wetlands. 

If you care about preserving the real wetlands on the west side of Route 3, or you just don’t want to see traffic any worse than it already is, you’ve got to stand up and be counted.  You need to express your unhappiness to local politicians and civic leaders, zoning officials, and apparently even the Maryland Department of the Environment.  If we want them to listen, we really do have to make some noise.

Still not motivated?  Read Big Box Store Still a Possibility for Route 3.

You can CLICK HERE to see photos of this area three or four decades ago.  Thank you, Dick Lahn, for sharing them.

To help you get started with your community activism, here is the contact information for local officials and regulatory agencies:

Local officials: 

• County Executive John Leopold:  exleop00@aacounty.org
• Crofton Civic Association President: stevegrimaud@yahoo.com
• GCC President, Art Huseonica: karts@huseonica.org
• MD State Senator Ed Reilly: edward.reilly@senate.state.md.us
• GCC Environmental Chair:  envchair@greatercroftoncouncil.org
• District 33A Delegate James King: james.king@house.state.md.us
• District 33A Tony McConkey: tony.mcconkey@house.state.md.us

Regulatory Agencies:

FEDERAL: 

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore District
Attention CENAB-OP-R
P.O. Box 1715
Baltimore MD 21203–1715
(410) 962–3670

STATE:

Tidal Wetlands Division
MD Department of the Environment
Water Management Administration
1800 Washington Blvd., Suite 430,
Baltimore, MD 21230
(410) 537–3837

Nontidal Wetlands and Waterways Division
MD Department of the Environment
Water Management Administration
1800 Washington Blvd., Suite 430
Baltimore, MD 21230
(410) 537–3768

Wetlands and Waterways Program
MD Department of the Environment
Water Management Administration
1800 Washington Blvd., Suite 430
Baltimore, MD 21230
(410) 537–3745

All Photos:  Kathryn Para (copyright)
used with permission

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HUD just announced another month-long delay in implementing their new condo rules scheduled to begin Nov 2, 2009 (delayed from October 1).  The new date is December 7th.  In the meantime, HUD will augment some portions of the mortgagee letter to provide more information and clarification regarding condo project approvals.

While this change has not been widely reported, even in real estate publications and blogs, it is one with potential to handicap the sale of condos. In today’s troubled real estate market, it seems like a terrible time to even consider such a thing. 

If you own a condo in Crofton, Odenton or Gambrills, and you’re thinking of selling, I would do so sooner rather than later.  Eventually HUD will implement the new rules, which could limit your buyers’ ability to get financing.  

No financing = no sale.

For more information about this change, read the earlier post Why Buying a Crofton Condo Just Got Harder

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Providing community and real estate information about the Greater Crofton Area is my way of attracting new D.C.-Baltimore area home buyers to our community while also keeping current residents informed and earning their real estate business.  Please click on Margaret Woda, Crofton REALTOR or call/text me at 301-346-2923 for help with your next home sale or purchase in the Greater Crofton Area.

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