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The Long & Foster Companies worked proactively during 2008 to manage the fallout from the massive credit and liquidity crises that adversely affected the national economy and the residential real estate business during 2008.

In general, both home sales volumes and home values fell throughout much of Long & Foster's service area along the Mid-Atlantic seaboard from Princeton, New Jersey, south to Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, during 2008. Certain prime local areas held their values fairly well, but overall statistics were off. In some jurisdictions there was a burgeoning rise in the number of foreclosures resulting from ongoing problems with sub-prime mortgages as they reset, and short sales and Real Estate Owned (REO) sales depressed home prices even further.

Added to that was the continuing disparity between home values and their economic worth relative to wages and rents, the decline in retail sales, a sharp rise in unemployment, and, of course, the stock market collapse that decimated people's retirement accounts and personal savings. All of these factors combined to push consumer confidence to its lowest level on record and delay a hoped-for rebound in home sales.

Despite the overall contraction in the national economy, Long & Foster Real Estate still helped people buy and sell homes 76,714 times during 2008, valued at $26.4 billion. Sales equivalent volumes booked by affiliates Prosperity Mortgage® Company, Long & Foster® Insurance Agency, Inc., Long & Foster® Settlement Services, and Walker Jackson® Mortgage Company totaled $22.5 billion, resulting in total 2008 sales for all The Long & Foster Companies of $48.9 billion. Real estate sales volume was off 26% from the prior year, while the affiliates' sales equivalent volume was down 12%.

For consumers with foresight, good credit, and the desire to move ahead, other market factors signal a tremendous buying opportunity for first-time homebuyers, move-up homebuyers, and investors alike. Mortgage interest rates are at their lowest level since Freddie Mac began tracking them some 50 years ago. Home prices have moderated substantially from their peak at the height of the real estate boom, making more properties affordable to more people. The inventory of homes for sale remains quite large, allowing buyers to select from a wide variety of choices they never had before.

• Milestone: The Long & Foster® Companies achieved a significant milestone in 2008 as it celebrated its 40th Anniversary.
• StrengtheningGrowth: Having outgrown its old headquarters, The Long & Foster Companies moved in the summer of 2008 into its new corporate headquarters building in Chantilly, Virginia. The handsome Williamsburg-style headquarters building was constructed using over one million handmade bricks, and it incorporates many of the latest "green" building materials and energy-saving devices.
• Strengthening the Leadership Team: Three senior management appointments were made in 2008. George T. Eastment III, who joined Long & Foster in 1972 as Comptroller just four years after the company was founded, and who most recently served as President of Long & Foster Financial Services, was promoted to the newly created position of Vice Chairman of The Long & Foster Companies. David H. Stevens, who joined the firm in 2006 from Wells Fargo Home Mortgage and, prior to that, Freddie Mac, was promoted to President and Chief Operating Officer of The Long & Foster Companies after serving more than two years as head of the Companies' mortgage, insurance, and title affiliates. Tim Wilson, formerly Executive Vice President with Wachovia Bank, replaces Stevens as President of Affiliated Businesses.
• Recognition: Of special note are those Long & Foster agents cited by The Wall Street Journal, LORE magazine, and REAL Trends, Inc. in their "Top 200 Real Estate Professionals" report of outstanding sales results by agents nationwide in 2007. The number two real estate team in America is Long & Foster's Creig Northrop Team with sales of $415 million. Number 19 is the Debbie Dogrul Team with $174 million in sales, and number 20 in America is the Marc Fleisher Team with $165 million. Creig was also number three nationwide in transaction sides with 836, and Debbie was number 29 in sides with 358.
• Training: The Long & Foster Companies provided their agents with a wide variety of training and continuing education opportunities. These included The Ultimate Technology Certification Course to agents, taught by industry trainer Matthew Ferrara, focusing on using technology to maximize business. The University of Long & Foster Online was launched with 100's of hours of timely on-demand courses, instructor-led webinars, and downloadable resources, which allow agents to get the training they need from the convenience of their home or office.
• Technology: The Information Services department designed and deployed a new data center which will serve the entire organization with increased server power, data storage, network capacity and security. Significant enhancements were made to the Company's public website, www.longandfoster.com, which now provides consumers with real estate searches for Open Houses, Foreclosures, and Luxury Homes.
• Marketing Upper Bracket Properties: The Corporate Marketing Department completely redesigned Long & Foster's Extraordinary Properties Division website, www.extraordinaryproperties.com to include spectacular virtual tours and extra-large photographs of the Company's $1 million and above listings. Our exclusive affiliation with Christie's Great Estates was instrumental in our being chosen to represent the most expensive property ever listed in Washington, D.C., the historically significant Evermay Estate, priced at $49 million.
• Going Green: A Company-Wide "Green Initiative" was instituted to promote, through public awareness and agent training, a greener, more earth-friendly lifestyle. A Green Ambassador Network was established to actively engage Long & Foster employees and associates in promoting green practices.

Long & Foster is well known for its fiscal conservatism. This prudent management mindset has, over time, created the financial strength and stability that enables The Long & Foster Companies to successfully manage the peaks and troughs of this highly cyclical business. During slower markets, the Company historically tightens its corporate belt by shuttering marginal facilities and operations, reducing corporate advertising expenditures, outsourcing tangential functions, and, in general, doing everything necessary to operate in the most efficient manner possible. While other brokerages struggle to survive, Long & Foster positions itself to build market share when market conditions improve.

People trust Long & Foster to professionally handle every homeownership need. We are exceedingly proud of all our hardworking, highly professional sales associates and staff who work together to serve their clients and customers better than anyone else.

Long & Foster's reputation, solid brand, and dominant market share reflect the confidence and trust consumers place in all our Long & Foster professionals to help them with every aspect of the homebuying and selling process. The people of The Long & Foster Companies will be at the forefront of an economic recovery led by housing as underlying conditions improve and consumer confidence returns.