• Nine foot ceilings with drywall, windows and/or doors on three sides providing lots of natural light, luxury vinyl plank flooring, recessed lighting throughout, a second kitchen, home theater, guest suite, etc.  Wow!
   
• Eight foot ceilings with drywall, windows and/or doors on two sides providing quite a bit natural light, carpet, decent lighting throughout.
   
• Eight foot ceilings with ceiling tiles instead of drywall, windows and/or doors on one side providing some natural light, carpet and/or linoleum flooring, limited lighting.
   
• Seven and a half foot ceilings with ceiling tiles, several small windows, vinyl flooring, limited lighting.
   
• Seven and a half foot ceilings with ceiling tiles, one small window, painted concrete floors, limited lighting.
   
• Seven and a half foot ceilings with an open ceiling (no drywall or ceiling tiles), no windows, bare concrete floor, cinder block walls limited lighting.
   
  
• Seven foot ceilings with an open ceiling, no windows, concrete floor, cinder block walls with clear evidence of past moisture intrusion, limited lighting.
   
• Six and a half foot ceilings with an open ceiling, no windows, an irregular concrete floor, cinder block walls with clear evidence of ongoing moisture intrusion, floor drain and trenches leading to it, limited lighting.
   
• Six foot ceiling with an open ceiling, no windows, a dirt floor, stone foundation walls with mortar crumbling and falling out, clear paths of ongoing water entry, one light bulb with a pull string.

1. This proposal is a result of the urban flooding that has occurred in these areas for several years, causing frequent property and structure damage.  County staff has collaborated with engineering consultants and a citizen stormwater committee and they have concluded that the stormwater infrastructure in this area must be upgraded -- in both capacity and function.  
    
2. You can use the GIS (turn on the "Lake Shenandoah Stormwater Control Authority" layer under "Hydrological Features") to see if your property is located in this area -- or access this list of affected properties.
    
   
3. Fees would potentially be assessed to each property within this area, though what those fees would be as well as when and how they would be assessed has not yet been determined.  (The public notice of the public hearing does reference that the preliminary estimate of capital costs would be $3,169,200.)
    
4. Specific plans of what types of improvements to the stormwater infrastructure would be made, and where they would be made, has not yet been determined.
    
5. For further reading, download the Lake Shenandoah Watershed Master Plan from November 2013.

• Find out more about this beautiful golf course home above at 241ClaremontAvenue.com.
   
• Download a PDF of this month's full market report here.
  

1. June home sales dropped quite a bit (-22%) as compared to last June.  That said, you may recall that last June's home sales were ASTONISHINGLY high.  You'll see that in a graph below.
    
   
2. We saw 625 home sales in the first half of the year - a decline of 4% as compared to the first half of last year.
    
3. When looking at a full year of home sales, the pace of buyers buying and sellers selling has slipped by only 1.5% over the past year.
    
4. The median sales price of homes sold in the first half of this year was $219,900 -- a 2% increase from last year's $215,315.
    
5. Homes are selling 5% faster this year -- or one day faster, as the case may be -- with a "median days on market" of 21 days in the first half of 2019 as compared to 22 days in the first half of last year.

1. Sales of detached homes were 4% slower in the first half of this year (452 sales) as compared to the first half of last year (470 sales).
    
2. The median sales price of detached homes in the first half of this year ($232,000) was 1% higher than during the same timeframe last year when the median sales price was $230,000.
    
3. Looking only at attached home sales, we find 6% fewer sales (173) in the first half of this year as compared to last year (184).
    
4. The median sales price of these attached homes in the first half of this year was $174,900 -- a full 6% higher than last year when it was $165,000.

• How old is the roof and will it need to be replaced in the next three years?
   
• How old is the heating system and will it need to be replaced in the next three years?
  

• Your neighbor's home is a Colonial with 2400 SF split between the first floor (1200 SF) and the second floor (1200 SF) and is built on a crawlspace.
   
• Your home is a ranch style home with 1200 SF on the main level and 1200 SF finished in the basement.

These two homes will not be seen as having an equivalent value -- not by potential purchasers and not by an appraiser.

Above grade square footage has a higher value attached to it -- both specifically by appraisers, and generally by purchasers.  Even if all of the other factors (condition, age, location, bedrooms, bathrooms) are the same between two houses, if one has a significant portion of the square footage in the basement then it will be seen as less valuable than the home that has all of its square footage above grade.