By: Mike Kennedy mkennedy@railey.com 301-616-6106 June 19th, 2009 Category: Deep Creek Lake Buyer Info, Deep Creek Lake Market Update, Deep Creek Lake Real Estate, Garrett County Real Estate, Uncategorized, Wisp Real Estate

Just recently, our local MLS (multiple list service) that serves the Deep Creek Lake and Garrett County Maryland area added the ability to search for foreclosures, potential short sales, and bank owned (REO) properties. These types of properties are often referred to as “distressed properties”.  Most real estate buyers and investors looking for bargains often target these distressed properties first.

As I have wrote about in previous posts - our local real estate market here at Deep Creek Lake doesn’t have a significant amount of these distress sale opportunities - and this is still the case. This is unlike what is happening in other resort markets and is testament to the overall strength of our market!!

As of today here is a summary of the total number of distress sales in Garrett County;

Deep Creek Lake and Garrett County Short Sales

Potential Short Sales - 10 active residential properties. Only 1 of the 10 is currently under contract or sale pending - an Overlook Villas townhome atop Wisp Mountain listed at $649,000. Of these 10 - 5 are located in the general Deep Creek Lake/Wisp Ski Resort area;

• - Red Run lakefront townhome listed for sale at $299,950.
• - Lakeland Estates lake view townhome (across from The Creamery) listed for sale at $220,000.
• - Lake access home on Brenneman Lane in the Summit subdivision listed for $649,000.
• - Lake access home on Glen Cove Road in Swanton listed for $549,000. No boat slip with this one.
• - The Overlook Villas townhome currently under contract.

The other 5 properties are located in the outlying areas of Garrett County - most in the Oakland, Mt. Lake Park and southern Garrett County area.

A short sale is basically a situation where the current homeowner owes more to the bank or lending institution than what the property is currently worth.

Deep Creek Lake and Garrett County Foreclosures

Foreclosures - 12 active residential properties currently for sale in Garrett County. Nearly all have already gone thru the foreclosure process and were bought back by the bank at the public auction. The various banks are now offering these REO (real estate owned) classified assets for sale thru local real estate brokers. Of the 12 foreclosures, 6 are currently under contract. Only 2 of the 12 are located in the Deep Creek Lake area - a split lakefront home on State Park Road with a Type A dock listed for $428,601 and a house located on Route 219 near the Deep Creek Bridge.

As a member of MRIS (the name of our local mls), we at Railey Realty can provide you a complete list of these distressed properties along with additional details and photos - and we can even set you up to receive automatic e-mails when any new distressed properties hit the market. If you are looking for a bargain or a great deal - give us a call or shoot us an e-mail - we’ll be more than happy to help you search for these types of properties or any others that may interest you.

By: Mike Kennedy mkennedy@railey.com 301-616-6106 March 3rd, 2009 Category: Deep Creek Lake Buyer Info, Deep Creek Lake Market Update, Deep Creek Lake Real Estate, Garrett County Real Estate

Distress Sales at Deep Creek Lake??

Since the end of last summer we seem to get many potential buyers contacting us wanting to know about all the foreclosures and short sales currently happening at Deep Creek Lake. I hate to be the bearer of bad news but our real estate market just hasn’t experienced many foreclosures to date - maybe that will change in the future but compared to other areas of Maryland (and the rest of the country for that matter) we are nowhere close to what is happening in other markets right now. But before you bargain hunters looking for that great deal lose interest and click the back button in your browser - please keep reading below - you may want to look beyond the numbers and look at the bigger picture instead.

According to the Circuit Court of Garrett County there have been a total of 35 open foreclosure cases filed since August 1, 2008 - or about 5 per month for the past half year.  According to the Garrett County Tax Assessment office there are currently 28,130 taxable properties in the entire county and 991 properties that are exempt (churches, schools, government property).

35 foreclosures spread over 28,130 total properties gives Garrett County a rate of around .0012 - or in other words- only a little more than one tenth of one percent of all Garrett County properties have been in foreclosure over the past 6 months! I have no way of easily  knowing how many of these 28,130 properties actually have mortgages against them - even if we assume just half of them have mortgages the loan delinquency rate would still be a minuscule .002. And if you dig a little deeper and cross reference these 35 cases against the tax records you’ll find that only a few are in the Deep Creek Lake area (aka Tax District 18). The lake district has about 5,500 properties in it - therefore 2 foreclosures spread over 5,500 properties yields a rate in the lake area so miniscule that I don’t even know the wording for that small of a number! Most of the current foreclosures are either in the northern part of Garrett County by the towns of Grantsville, Accident, or Friendsville and in the southern part of the county near Oakland and Mt. Lake Park.

(And for those of you doing any research the only reliable source of information you can rely on is the Circuit Court of Garrett County - call the Clerk of Courts at (301) 334-1937 - they’ll be more than happy to fax or send you a list of all the foreclosure cases recently filed with active open case numbers. Be very wary of any websites that list these foreclosures - most are very inaccurate and just bait you in to signing up for their services.)

For you bargains hunters out there try not to get discouraged by the numbers above - the odds are stacked against you that you’ll find a vacation home on Deep Creek Lake that is a foreclosure or a distress sale - but here is something to think about - “Where would you rather buy now after going thru the real estate boom and bust of just a few years ago?”

(1)    An area with thousands of foreclosures and supposed “bargains” now (like Las Vegas or Florida) that has shown a recent history of wild up and down property value swings;

-or-

(2)     a four season resort area in western Maryland that is just a 3 hour drive from where you live, currently doesn’t have many distress sales, has historically shown steady and stable property value appreciation over time (even during the bad times like now), and most importantly is an area that your family can enjoy for many years to come?

If you like up more than down - and the words “steady” and “stable” instead of “wild” give us a call - we can help!  Don’t miss your opportunity while interest rates are low!