Blast From the Past, Fairfax County Crime Goes Back to the 70’s

Crime in Fairfax County continued its descent in 2006, reaching lows not seen since the early 1970s, even as the county’s population has doubled over the past 30 years.

According to statistics released last week, Fairfax residents reported 17,108 serious crimes — homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny and auto theft. That was a 6.9 percent drop from 2005, and the lowest total in Fairfax police statistics dating from 1970. The closest was 17,835 in 1972, when the county’s population was about 500,000. More than 1 million people live in Fairfax now.

Read the rest of Tom Jackson’s story here.

One Mans’ Castle Is Another Mans’ Dream

I love dreaming big.  Every time the lottery gets huge, I dig in my ashtray and scrounge up a dollar to buy a ticket.  One in a trillion chance.  (Soooo, you’re saying there’s a chance!)  I lie in bed and dream of fast cars and beautiful mansions.  There is a cap to my imaginary bank account.  For example, I would never spend $20K on a watch, or $5K on a dog leash.  And I most definitely would not spend $138 Million on a house.  Someone sure will though, you better believe it.  That brings me to the Forbes annual list of the worlds priciest homes for sale.  (I just typed that with the worst Robin Leach accent ever!)  103 rooms, 22 bathrooms, and 50,000 square feet of “living” space.  Heh!  Living space.  So take a gander, and read the story here, taken from USA Today.

Immigrants First Victims Of Foreclosure

Nationally, 375,000 high-interest-rate loans were made to Hispanics in 2005, and nearly 73,000 of them are likely to go into foreclosure, said Aracely Panameno, director of Latino affairs for the Center for Responsible Lending. About 1.1 million homes in the United States are expected to go into foreclosure in the next six years, and many native-born Americans are likely to be stuck with burdensome loans. But immigrants are getting hit first in part because their incomes tend to be lower and many have lost construction jobs.

Continue the story here.

Loudoun County Makes Final Four!

 

Sorry, I’m watching basketball today, so it is on my mind. But I found some interesting stats. Loudoun County is the 4th fastest growing suburb in the U.S. Forbes has the story.

 The ‘Burb Rush: Fastest Growing Suburbs

People are leaving the cities and moving to where the cost of living is lower and where they perceive the quality of life is higher.

That’s the trend indicated this week by the U.S. Census Bureau when it released an analysis of the fastest-growing counties in the United States. The statistics reflect the period from April 1, 2000, to July 1, 2006, a time when interest rates were historically low, housing boomed, and home prices soared, particularly in metropolitan areas.

At the same time, businesses and people packed up and moved to greener pastures, many of them in the Sun Belt. Texas, Florida, and Georgia boast some of the largest growth stories.

Here are the top 10 fastest-growing counties and the percentage they grew by in that six-year time span:

1. Flagler County, Fla.: 66.7 percent. On the Atlantic Coast between Jacksonville and Daytona Beach, Flagler’s population has boomed from 50,000 in 2000 to more than 83,000 last year. Its seaside location, balmy weather, and access to Interstate 95 are part of the reason for its boom.

2. Kendall County, Ill.: 61.7 percent. The Chicago suburbs that lie along Interstate 88 are all growing, but Kendall County, which is farther from the city, is growing the fastest.

3. Rockwall County, Texas: 60.5 percent. Rockwall, the smallest county in Texas, grew from 43,000 in 2000 to 69,000 in 2006, as people moved farther from nearby Dallas-Fort Worth.

4. Loudoun County, Va.: 58.5 percent. Loudoun’s growth is partially due to the increasingly astronomical cost of living in nearby Washington, D.C.

5. Forsyth County, Ga.: 53.4 percent. Georgia has six of the country’s 25 fastest-growing counties — all of them near Atlanta. Forsyth leads the pack, with a population increase of more than 98,000 in 2000 to 151,000 in 2006.

6. Pinal County, Ariz.: 51.0 percent. In sheer numbers, Phoenix grew faster than any area of the country and the growth spilled over into neighboring Pinal County.

7. Douglas County, Colo.: 50.0 percent. This was the fastest-growing county in the nation in the 1990s. While growth has slowed down, it’s still appealing to those who want to work in nearby Denver or Colorado Springs, and still enjoy the great outdoors.

8. Henry County, Ga.: 49.2 percent. Atlanta’s amazing growth has led to nearby Henry County adding more than 59,000 people in six years.

9. Paulding County, Ga.: 48.9 percent. Another metropolitan Atlanta hotspot. It bills itself as “an excellent place to begin the rest of your life.”

10. Lyon County, Nev.: 48.5 percent. Being near Reno and Carson City is part of Lyon County’s appeal, but it doesn’t hurt that there ‘s plenty of high-tech employment…

Existing Home Sales Up In February

Existing home sales in the US picked up in February, recording their largest gain in nearly three years even as house prices continued to fall, the National Association of Realtors said.

Sales were up 3.9 pct to reach 6.69 mln units in February. The rise was the biggest since March 2004. Markets had been predicting a fall to 6.30 mln units.

The median sales price fell 1.3 pct to 212,800 usd. The decline was the seventh in a row.

David Lereah, NAR’s chief economist, said the rise in sales may have been due to the milder weather but noted that the fundamentals have also improved.

‘Some of the rise in home sales may be from mild weather that brought out shoppers in December, but fundamentals have improved in the housing market and buyers see a window now with historically-low mortgage interest rates and competitive pricing by sellers,’ he said.

He believes the recent spate of unusual weather suggest that home sales may decline in March before rebounding later this spring.