Michael's Commercial LLC

Commercial Real Estate Absorption Rates for Prince William County are offered as a service of Michael’s Commercial LLC. The monthly absorption rates are categorized by the following Prince William County Zoning Districts:

• B-1 (General Business District)
• B-2 (Neighborhood Business District)
• B-3 (Convenience Retail District
• O(L) (Office Low-Rise District)
• O(M) (Office Mid-Rise District)
• O(H) (Office High-Rise District)
• O(F) (Office/Flex District)
• M-1 (Heavy Industrial District)
• M-2 (Light Industrial District)
• M/T (Industrial/Transportation District)

Absorption Rates are established by how many properties have sold during a given period of time (e.g., 365, 180, 90 and 30 days). Absorption rates also allow tracking trends in the market for any given number of days, weeks or months. These trends can indicate whether we may be in a Sellers Market, a Neutral Market or a Buyers Market. A monthly absorption rate of 5-6 is usually considered a Neutral Market. Anything below five is regarded as a Sellers Market and anything above six a Buyers Market.

• Sellers Market                          1-4 Months Supply
• Neutral Market                         5-6 Months Supply
• Buyers Market                         7 Plus Months Supply

The following tables reflect the Monthly Absorption Rates* for respective Zoning Districts in Prince William County ending on August 31, 2008:

• Total Number of Properties on Market. The properties that were available on the market during the reporting period.
• Total Number of Sales. The total number of Sold properties during the given reporting period.
• Monthly Absorption Rate. The rate at which the Sold properties were absorbed in the market on a monthly basis.
• Inventory. The number of available properties as of the report date.
• Months Supply. The number of months it will take the properties to sell based on the number of properties that have sold during the reporting period.
• Chance of Selling. The rate at which the properties in the inventory will sell based on the percentage of the total properties on the market and the total number of sales.

The tables above indicate that the commercial real estate market in Prince William County has been relatively slow and almost non existent during this reporting period. The property sales have been in the General Business (B-1) District with some limited inventory available in the B-2, M-1 and M-2 Zoning Districts.

• General Business District – There are currently 23 properties available on the market. No properties have sold during the last 30 days.
• Neighborhood Business District – There is currently one property available on the market. No properties have sold during the last 30 days.
• Convenience Retail District – No activity during this reporting period.
• Office Low-Rise District – No activity during this reporting period.
• Office Mid-Rise District – No activity during this reporting period.
• Office High-Rise District – No activity during this reporting period.
• Office/Flex District – No activity during this reporting period.
• Heavy Industrial District – There are currently five properties available on the market. No properties have sold during the last 30 days.
• Light Industrial District – There are currently two properties available on the market. No properties have sold during the last 30 days.
• Industrial/Transportation District – No activity during this reporting period.

It is interesting to note that only six properties have sold in all of the commercial districts. The six sales were all in the General Business District.

*The data presented here is compiled from information provided by the Metropolitan Regional Information System.

The Commercial Aborption Rate Report for Prince William County is the author’s own interpretation of the Prince William County Commercial Real Estate market and makes no warranty or claim regarding the usefulness or implications of this information.

Michael Setunsky is the Broker and owner of Michael's Commercial LLC serving the Northern Virginia commercial real estate market. His more than 23 years of experience as a commercial real estate and business broker has earned him the distinction for being one of the top commercial real estate producers in the Mid-Atlantic Region. He also serves on the Mid Atlantic Real Estate Marketing Association's (MAREMA) Board of Directors, and is a Commonwealth of Virginia licensed Instructor. He teaches Pre-licensing, Post Licensing Education, Broker's and Continuing Education courses. Visit his company web site at http://michaelscommercial.com/.

©2008 Michael’s Commercial LLC, All Rights Reserved - Commercial Absorption Rates - Prince William County - August 31, 2008

The Mid-Year 2008 Trends in Housing Report, a joint publication of MRIS and Delta Associates states the Washington DC Metro Commercial market is one of the top commercial real estate markets in the nation. The Metro Area is very desirable for investors to own property.

Office Market – The Metro Area ranks 6^th at a 10% Vacancy Rate compared to New York at the lowest (7.8%) and Dallas/Fort Worth at the highest (17.2%). The National Vacancy Rate at mid-year is 11.4%.

Retail Market – The Retail Market for grocery-anchored shopping centers remains healthy due to low Vacancy Rates (2.28%) at year-end 2007. Average rents were up almost 4% at year-end 2007 from the previous 12 month period.

Apartment Market – The Apartment Market is one of the better markets in the nation. This is mainly because of a solid job market, a transient work force and a stalled condo market. The Vacancy Rate for Class A and B investment grade apartments increased to 3.6% up 0.7% from a year ago. This is 2% below the national rate. Class A rents increased 1.8% from mid-year 2007.

Source: Mid-Year 2008 Trends in Housing Report – MRIS and Delta Associates

The information made available here is the author’s own interpretation of the Mid-Year 2008 Trends in Housing Report – Commercial Real Estate Market and makes no warranty or claim regarding the usefulness or implications of this information.

Michael Setunsky is the Broker and owner of Michael's Commercial LLC serving the Northern Virginia commercial real estate market. His more than 23 years of experience as a commercial real estate and business broker has earned him the distinction for being one of the top commercial real estate producers in the Mid-Atlantic Region. He also serves on the Mid Atlantic Real Estate Marketing Association's (MAREMA) Board of Directors, and is a Commonwealth of Virginia licensed Instructor. He teaches Pre-licensing, Post Licensing Education, Broker's and Continuing Education courses. Visit his company web site at http://michaelscommercial.com/.

©2008 Michael’s Commercial LLC, All Rights Reserved - Washington DC Metro Commercial Market - Tops in Nation

The Commercial Property Market Report* for Prince William County is offered as a service of Michael’s Commercial LLC. The monthly market report is categorized by the Prince William County Commercial Zoning Districts:

Legend:

• B-1 (General Business District)
• B-2 (Neighborhood Business District)
• B-3 (Convenience Retail District)
• O(L) (Office Low-Rise District)
• O(M) (Office Mid-Rise District)
• O(H) (Office High-Rise District)
• O(F) (Office/Flex District)
• M-1 (Heavy Industrial District)
• M-2 (Light Industrial District)
• M/T (Industrial/Transportation District)
• MIXED Commercial

*The data presented here is compiled from information provided by the Metropolitan Regional Information System.

The information made available here is the author’s own interpretation of the Prince William County Commercial Real Estate market and makes no warranty or claim regarding the usefulness or implications of this information.

Michael Setunsky is the Broker and owner of Michael's Commercial LLC serving the Northern Virginia commercial real estate market. His more than 23 years of experience as a commercial real estate and business broker has earned him the distinction for being one of the top commercial real estate producers in the Mid-Atlantic Region. He also serves on the Mid Atlantic Real Estate Marketing Association's (MAREMA) Board of Directors, and is a Commonwealth of Virginia licensed Instructor. He teaches Pre-licensing, Post Licensing Education, Broker's and Continuing Education courses. Visit his company web site at http://michaelscommercial.com/.

©2008 Michael’s Commercial LLC, All Rights Reserved

Commercial real estate prices have been on an upward climb for the last decade until they peaked in the second quarter of 2007 according to the MIT Commercial Real Estate Transactions-Based Index. The fourth quarter 2007 had a 5.4% downward position and the first quarter 2008 showed a slight increase of 1.6%. The second quarter 2008 started a downward trend of 2.7% in commercial real estate prices. If you look at the last four quarters, prices have dropped nearly 9.5%.

As of the end of the second quarter 2008 demand for commercial real estate has fallen 2.7% and supply has also fallen 2.8%. Over the last four quarters demand has decreased 18.5% and Supply has slightly increased 0.2%. Since prices have peaked in 2007, the overall price index has come down 4.2% with demand dropping 13.6% and supply increasing 5.7%.

The Total Return Index which includes the Price, Demand and Supply Indices have dropped 1.8% during the second quarter of 2008 with a cumulative increase of 0.1% since commercial real estate prices peaked in the second quarter of 2007. During the last four quarters, the total return index had fallen 6.1%. The last quarter showed some promise that prices were on the rise again; however, 71% of that gain was lost during the second quarter. It will be interesting to see what the next quarter will bring.

Note: The TBI is a statistical methodology that produces estimates of price movements and total returns based on transactions of properties sold from the NCREIF Index database.

MIT makes no warranty or claim regarding the usefulness or implications of the index. It should also be noted that TBI results for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd quarters of any year are considered preliminary and subject to revision until the calendar year is completed with the 4th quarter results.

The information provided here is the author’s own interpretation of the MIT Commercial Real Estate Transaction-Based Index and also makes no warranty or claim regarding the usefulness or implications of the index.

Michael Setunsky is the Broker and owner of Michael's Commercial LLC serving the Northern Virginia commercial real estate market. His more than 23 years of experience as a commercial real estate and business broker has earned him the distinction for being one of the top commercial real estate producers in the Mid-Atlantic Region. He also serves on the Mid Atlantic Real Estate Marketing Association's (MAREMA) Board of Directors, and is a Commonwealth of Virginia licensed Instructor. He teaches Pre-licensing, Post Licensing Education, Broker's and Continuing Education courses. Visit his company web site at http://michaelscommercial.com/.

©2008 Michael’s Commercial LLC, All Rights Reserved

Commercial Land Real Estate Absorption Rates for Prince William County are offered as a service of Michael’s Commercial LLC. The monthly absorption rates are categorized by the following Prince William County Zoning Districts:

• B-1 (General Business District)
• B-2 (Neighborhood Business District)
• B-3 (Convenience Retail District
• O(L) (Office Low-Rise District)
• O(M) (Office Mid-Rise District)
• O(H) (Office High-Rise District)
• O(F) (Office/Flex District)
• M-1 (Heavy Industrial District)
• M-2 (Light Industrial District)
• M/T (Industrial/Transportation District)
• MIXED

Absorption Rates are established by how many properties have sold during a given period of time (e.g., 365, 180, 90 and 30 days). Absorption rates also allow tracking trends in the market for any given number of days, weeks or months. These trends can indicate whether we may be in a Sellers Market, a Neutral Market or a Buyers Market. A monthly absorption rate of 5-6 is usually considered a Neutral Market. Anything below five is regarded as a Sellers Market and anything above six a Buyers Market.

• Sellers Market                          1-4 Months Supply
• Neutral Market                         5-6 Months Supply
• Buyers Market                         7 Plus Months Supply

The following tables reflect the Monthly Absorption Rates* for respective Zoning Districts in Prince William County ending on July 31, 2008:

• Total Number of Properties on Market. The properties that were available on the market during the reporting period.
• Total Number of Sales. The total number of Sold properties during the given reporting period.
• Monthly Absorption Rate. The rate at which the Sold properties were absorbed in the market on a monthly basis.
• Inventory. The number of available properties as of the report date.
• Months Supply. The number of months it will take the properties to sell based on the number of properties that have sold during the reporting period.
• Chance of Selling. The rate at which the properties in the inventory will sell based on the percentage of the total properties on the market and the total number of sales.

The tables above indicate that the commercial land real estate market in Prince William County has been relatively slow. The property sales have been in the General Business (B-1) District, Office Low-rise (O(L)) and Light Industrial (M-1) Districts with some limited inventory available in the B-1, B-2, M-1, M-2, M/T and MIXED Zoning Districts. We are currently in a BUYERS MARKET.

• General Business District – No activity within the last 90 days and nine properties currently in the inventory.
• Neighborhood Business District – No activity during this reporting period and one listing currently in the inventory.
• Convenience Retail District – No activity during this reporting period.
• Office Low-Rise District – No activity within the last 180 days.
• Office Mid-Rise District – No activity during this reporting period.
• Office High-Rise District – No activity during this reporting period.
• Office/Flex District – No activity during this reporting period.
• Heavy Industrial District – No sales during this reporting period and six listings currently in the inventory.
• Light Industrial District – No sales during this reporting period and two listings currently in the inventory.
• Industrial/Transportation District – No activity during this reporting period and one listing currently in the inventory.
• MIXED – No activity during this reporting period and one listing currently in the inventory.

*The data presented here is compiled from information provided by the Metropolitan Regional Information System.

The information made available here is the author’s own interpretation of the Prince William County Commercial Real Estate market and makes no warranty or claim regarding the usefulness or implications of this information.

Michael Setunsky is the Broker and owner of Michael's Commercial LLC serving the Northern Virginia commercial real estate market. His more than 23 years of experience as a commercial real estate and business broker has earned him the distinction for being one of the top commercial real estate producers in the Mid-Atlantic Region. He also serves on the Mid Atlantic Real Estate Marketing Association's (MAREMA) Board of Directors, and is a Commonwealth of Virginia licensed Instructor. He teaches Pre-licensing, Post Licensing Education, Broker's and Continuing Education courses. Visit his company web site at http://michaelscommercial.com/.

©2008 Michael’s Commercial LLC, All Rights Reserved

Commercial Absorption Rates for Prince William County is offered as a service of Michael’s Commercial LLC. The monthly absorption rates are categorized by the following Prince William County Zoning Districts:

• B-1 (General Business District)
• B-2 (Neighborhood Business District)
• B-3 (Convenience Retail District
• O(L) (Office Low-Rise District)
• O(M) (Office Mid-Rise District)
• O(H) (Office High-Rise District)
• O(F) (Office/Flex District)
• M-1 (Heavy Industrial District)
• M-2 (Light Industrial District)
• M/T (Industrial/Transportation District)

Absorption Rates are established by how many properties have sold during a given period of time (e.g., 365, 180, 90 and 30 days). Absorption rates also allow tracking trends in the market for any given number of days, weeks or months. These trends can indicate whether we may be in a Sellers Market, a Neutral Market or a Buyers Market. A monthly absorption rate of 5-6 is usually considered a Neutral Market. Anything below five is regarded as a Sellers Market and anything above six a Buyers Market.

• Sellers Market                         1-4 Months Supply
• Neutral Market                        5-6 Months Supply
• Buyers Market                         7 Plus Months Supply

The following tables reflect the Monthly Absorption Rates* for respective Zoning Districts in Prince William County ending on July 31, 2008:

• Total Number of Properties on Market. The properties that were available on the market during the reporting period.
• Total Number of Sales. The total number of Sold properties during the given reporting period.
• Monthly Absorption Rate. The rate at which the Sold properties were absorbed in the market on a monthly basis.
• Inventory. The number of available properties as of the report date.
• Months Supply. The number of months it will take the properties to sell based on the number of properties that have sold during the reporting period.
• Chance of Selling. The rate at which the properties in the inventory will sell based on the percentage of the total properties on the market and the total number of sales.

 The tables above indicate that the commercial real estate market in Prince William County has been relatively slow and almost non existent during this reporting period. The property sales have been in the General Business (B-1) District with some limited inventory available in the M-1 and M-2 Zoning Districts.

• General Business District – Based on the 30 Day Monthly Absorption Rate, it would take 27 months to deplete the current inventory. The probability of selling all properties in the current inventory is 1.5%. We are currently in a Buyers Market.
• Neighborhood Business District – No activity during this reporting period.
• Convenience Retail District – No activity during this reporting period.
• Office Low-Rise District – No activity during this reporting period.
• Office Mid-Rise District – No activity during this reporting period.
• Office High-Rise District – No activity during this reporting period.
• Office/Flex District – No activity during this reporting period.
• Heavy Industrial District – No sales during this reporting period and seven listings currently in the inventory.
• Light Industrial District – No sales during this reporting period and two listings currently in the inventory.
• Industrial/Transportation District – No activity during this reporting period.

*The data presented here is compiled from information provided by the Metropolitan Regional Information System.

All information provided here is the author’s own interpretation of the Prince William County commercial real estate market and makes no warranty or claim regarding the usefulness or implications of this data.

Michael Setunsky is the Broker and owner of Michael's Commercial LLC serving the Northern Virginia commercial real estate market. His more than 23 years of experience as a commercial real estate and business broker has earned him the distinction for being one of the top commercial real estate producers in the Mid-Atlantic Region. He also serves on the Mid Atlantic Real Estate Marketing Association's (MAREMA) Board of Directors, and is a Commonwealth of Virginia licensed Instructor. He teaches Pre-licensing, Post Licensing Education, Broker's and Continuing Education courses. Visit his company web site at http://michaelscommercial.com/.

©2008 Michael’s Commercial LLC, All Rights Reserved

Commercial real estate prices have been on an upward climb for the last decade until they peaked in the second quarter of 2007 according to the MIT Commercial Real Estate Transactions-Based Index. The third and fourth quarters showed a downward decline of 8.2%. However, the first quarter 2008 demonstrated a small rise in commercial real estate prices of 2.1%. If you look at the last four quarters, prices have dropped only 1.0%.

Will this trend continue? Right now it is hard to tell because as of the end of April 2008 demand for commercial real estate has fallen 10.0% and supply has increased 8.6% since prices peaked in the second quarter of 2007.

The Total Return Index which includes the Price, Demand and Supply Indices have increased 3.0% during the first quarter of 2008 with a cumulative total of 2.4% since commercial real estate prices peaked in the second quarter of 2007. It will be interesting to see what the next quarter will bring.

Note: The TBI is a statistical methodology that produces estimates of price movements and total returns based on transactions of properties sold from the NCREIF Index database.

MIT makes no warranty or claim regarding the usefulness or implications of the index. It should also be noted that TBI results for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd quarters of any year are considered preliminary and subject to revision until the calendar year is completed with the 4th quarter results.

The information provided here is the author’s own interpretation of the MIT Commercial Real Estate Transaction-Based Index and also makes no warranty or claim regarding the usefulness or implications of the index.

Michael Setunsky is the Broker and owner of Michael's Commercial LLC serving the Northern Virginia commercial real estate market. His more than 23 years of experience as a commercial real estate and business broker has earned him the distinction for being one of the top commercial real estate producers in the Mid-Atlantic Region. He also serves on the Mid Atlantic Real Estate Marketing Association's (MAREMA) Board of Directors, and is a Commonwealth of Virginia licensed Instructor. He teaches Pre-licensing, Post Licensing Education, Broker's and Continuing Education courses. Visit his company web site at http://michaelscommercial.com/.

©2008 Michael’s Commercial LLC, All Rights Reserved

Blog post title. Did you know that whenever you post to your blog, the title of your post can be very important? For the obvious reason, you want a catchy blog post title so people will stop by and read it and hopefully comment on it. However, there is a more important reason.

Title Tag. The blog post title is turned into something called a “title tag” which is a small piece of HTML code added to your post. Don’t worry, ActiveRain automatically takes your blog post title and converts it to a “title tag”. This is what it looks like in the HTML source code:

                                          <title>Real Estate Blog – What’s in a Blog Post Title</title>

If you would like to see it for yourself, bring up one of your posts and click on “View” on your browser menu bar. Then click on “Page Source” if you are using Firefox or “Source” if you are using Internet Explorer. Near the top of the source code you will see the “title tag”.

What’s the big deal? This is the most important place to put your keywords to get the one thing most dear to our hearts when blogging – Google Juice! Google puts a lot of relevance on the keywords in the “Title Tag” for search engine ranking and optimization. It is probably the most important place Google looks for keywords.

Keyword Optimization. Lastly, for high rankings in the search engines use keyword optimization for that all important – Google Juice! By the way, this also applies to your web pages.

Are you getting the Google Juice you deserve?

Michael Setunsky is the Broker and owner of Michael's Commercial LLC serving the Northern Virginia commercial real estate market. His more than 23 years of experience as a commercial real estate and business broker has earned him the distinction for being one of the top commercial real estate producers in the Mid-Atlantic Region. He also serves on the Mid Atlantic Real Estate Marketing Association's (MAREMA) Board of Directors, and is a Commonwealth of Virginia licensed Instructor. He teaches Pre-licensing, Post Licensing Education, Broker's and Continuing Education courses. Visit his company web site at http://michaelscommercial.com/.

Actually, today I have two reasons to celebrate. First, I was notified today by Google that I had received Google some Google juice on my outside blog and secondly, I just went over 50,000 points.

ActiveRain is a great place to meet people and to learn from your peers. Thank you to ActiveRain and to everyone who took the time to read and comment on my posts. Have a Happy 4th of July.

I recently set up a Google Web Alert for notifying me on Google results for my name. This morning I received an email alert from Google with a link directly to my Outside Blog. I couldn’t believe it. It seems like I just set it up the other day. Thanks ActiveRain, it works!