The Washington DC Real Estate Blog

If you reside in a home in Montgomery County and use the Ride on bus systems you should know that as of March first 2010 the fares will be changing.  The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, more commonly known as Metro, is putting these new fares into effect.  An interesting fact to note about these fare changes is that they were designed to make both the Metrobus fares as well as the Ride on Fares less confusing because now they will be compatible.  This change, which is going into effect March 1, 2010 will be affecting Montgomery County Maryland real estate residents as well as anyone who uses the Ride on System with an increase of 10 cents per trip.  If you use the Metrobus or Ride on you may want to purchase a SmartTrip Card.  If you were to ride on the bus with a SmartTrip Card your fare will only be $1.35, but if you were to pay in cash or tokens your fare would be $1.45.

The fare changes to the Ride on bus are not the only changes that will be occurring with the transit system in the greater Washington DC metro area. Other changes that will be going into effect as of March 1st include

• The Metrorail to Ride On transfer will increase from 75 cents to 85 cents.
• An increase in Ride on Day pass of 20 cents from $3.00 to $3.20.
• There will also be a change to the Call and Ride Program.  This allows certain residents to purchase two books of Taxi Vouchers at a net worth of $60.00 for as little as $5.25 in March and May.

An interesting fact to note about all of these price changes is that by doing this the county did not have to eliminate some of the Ride on routes.  One of the main reasons Ride On was originally considering the cancellation of certain routes is to make up for the County’s projected budget gap of roughly $600 million for the 2010 fiscal year.  The elimination of the routes were avoided by the identification of additional revenue sources, including the coordination of fare increases for Metro riders.

If you wish to learn more about the changes going on with the public transit in the area please continue to check our blog or you can also call the Transit Information Center at 240.777.7433

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There are a few very good reasons to pull the trigger now if you have been thinking about buying Washington DC metro real estate.  We all know that property values have dropped in the past few years for DC Metro real estate, however the rate of decline has decreased significantly in the past six months.  We cannot predict the future, but this could mean that property values are leveling off and therefore may be free from the possibility of declining even more.

Combined with the fact that property values have already dropped significantly is the fact that interest rates are currently at almost all time lows, with 30 year fixed rates below 5%.  It is a guarantee that these rates will not remain this low forever, so taking advantage of a low rate now will lock you into your loan payment for as long as you are in the home/mortgage.

As if these two factors aren’t enticing enough, Uncle Sam has extended the $8,000 tax credit for all first time homebuyers and has offered up to $6,500 for anyone buying a property (not as a first time homebuyer) until the end of April, 2010.  This is free money that will come in the form of a check for all those who buy before the deadline.

It is hard to imagine a time where it would be more beneficial for someone to buy a house than right now, so if you have been thinking about it, take the first step and contact a real estate professional today.

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Those who decided to stay in their homes in Montgomery County this weekend had much to deal with due to the blizzard.  In order to clean the roads more efficiently the Montgomery County’s Department of Transportation (MCDOT) has increased the amount of snow removal equipment being used on the streets.  If you are considering venturing from your Maryland home today, officials have reported plows have cleaned off all primary roads.  The Montgomery County Department of Transportation will continue to plow and treat all roads with salt and sand; also the plowing of neighborhood streets is scheduled to begin today.  The Current plans for MCDOT is to make one plow pass initially and than have snow removal crews return later to continue plowing and removing all the snow.  One of the reasons that snow removal is so high on the County’s agenda is due to the next snow storm, predicted to begin on Tuesday February 9th.

If you want to get out of your house but have no car transportation, you should know that The Montgomery County Ride on Buses today Monday February 8th, 2010 will be operating on an S-service Plan.  So if you are going to be using the bus services today expect some delays.  Those of you with automobiles should be informed that the parking enforcements in public garages and lots will continue to be suspended.  The county is urging residents to use this free parking rather than park on the streets obstructing the snowplows from doing their job.  At the current time in some areas the snowplows have left snow piles that stand 10 to 12 feet, which has resulted in visibility problems for both pedestrians and motorists alike.

These are just some of the changes that the county has made in order to cope with the blizzard of 2010.  The County actually had to open up additional shelters for its residents who were affected by power outages.  These two additional shelters are located at Margaret Schweinhaut Senior Center, 1000 Forest Glen Road in Silver Spring, and at the Longwood Recreation Center, 19300 Georgia Avenue in Brookeville.  There was also a shelter opened up at the Richard Montgomery High School located at 250 Richard Montgomery Drive in Rockville.

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Slide Show of Washington DC area Photos:

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Washington DC Area Photo Gallery

[View with PicLens]

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If you live in or are thinking of moving to a home in Montgomery County you may already know that Montgomery County is nationally recognized as being a leader in environmental initiatives.  Currently the county was chosen to receive technical assistance on both growth and development initiatives from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s and the Smart Growth Implementation Program.

Those who own Montgomery County real estate should be extremely proud since their community was chosen out of the hundreds that applied.  Currently the County’s goal for this money is to allocate it to generating solutions which are good for the environment, local business, as well as for the people who live work or travel through this county’s borders. So if you live or own any real estate in Montgomery County, the goal of this program is to focus on helping the county look at and address specific issues which are identified in the Climate Protection Plan.  Some of these issues include how to better forecast the greenhouse gas effects of land use changes and reduce transportation related greenhouse gas emissions.  Since Montgomery County was one of the four areas chosen, it will be receiving assistance from not only the EPA but also the DOT and HUD.  This will allow the County to not only advance its Smart Growth program but also advance the execution of the County’s Climate Protection Plan, and provide resources and guidelines to other jurisdictions that may have similar issues.

Some interesting historical facts to note about Montgomery County are that its first Climate Protection Plan was started by the Sustainable Working Group in January of 2009.  This first plan was developed to focus on seven different areas which included: renewable energy,   residential building energy efficiency, commercial multi family and public building energy efficiency, transportation, forestry and agriculture, long term planning, and education and outreach.  Out of these seven areas the plan was able to come up with 58 different recommendations.  Another very interesting fact is that the Environmental Protection Agency developed its Smart Growth Implementation Assistance Program in 2005.   This was due to communities asking for help in achieving development goals in smart growth techniques.  This program allowed the Environmental Protection Agency to provide assistance to areas which are planning to grow but want to maintain or improve environmental and economic progress as well as aid in quality of life.

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