Kentlands/Lakelands Resilient to Housing Woes

There’s nothing more local than the real estate market, and the good news is that this particular patch of the nation continues to buck the national trend.

Or at least that’s what Mike Aubrey believes. A local agent who also hosts a show on HGTV, Aubrey points out that the Washington DC market has done “phenomenally well,” even withstanding much of the market collapse that other regions faced amid the recession.

And within Gaithersburg, Aubrey says the Kentlands and Lakelands area are still leading the way in attracting a steady stream of buyers.

“It took a while for New Urbanism to catch on….but once you get in, it’s hard to get away” from neighborhoods that are densely populated and those modern necessities like and are within walking distance, even in the suburbs, Aubrey says.

Nationwide, housing starts plunged nearly 11 percent in April to 523,000, close to a record low of 476,000 units posted in April 2009. What’s more, some economists fear that the worst has yet to come amid continued sluggishness in the overall economy.

Yet despite all that, it’s still not easy to find a bargain in the Kentlands/Lakelands area as the Washington region continues to be shielded from the worst of the downturn. That’s not to say there hasn’t been a significant change in who’s buying into the market from about five years ago.

Pre-recession, mortgage lenders were bending over backwards to get people to sign up for loans and to encourage clients to sign onto ever-bigger mortgages. Those days are gone, which means that there are mercifully far fewer predatory lenders out there and the possibility of new homeowners having to foreclose for not being able to keep up with mortgage payments is decreasing.

The downside, though, is that lenders now want to err on the side of caution and remain highly adverse to taking on borrowers who have any possibility of defaulting on their payments.

“Most realtors won’t put clients in the back of their cars unless they know they’ve got the credit” lined up to purchase a home, Aubrey said.

Season five of Aubrey’s Real Estate Intervention will broadcast next week on HGTV.