Archive for the 'Reston Real Estate' Category

Metro Construction

For those of us who thought the Metro would never get here it is pretty amazing to watch  the construction unfolding like some kind of enormous Lego set on the median of the Dulles Toll road at Wiehle Avenue. The Metro’s arrival in Reston will undoubtedly bring a mixed bag of changes. Property owners closer in to the Metro should see better than average rates of appreciation in home values.

One Mile Radius of Wiehle Ave Metro

In general a property within a mile of the Metro is considered walkable. Of course the  theory is that you could leave the car at home, walk to the Metro and catch the train to wherever you’re going—we’ll see if this is what actually happens, but there is no doubt that proximity to Metro is a huge, huge selling feature.

Within one mile of the new Metro we have some very diverse housing options. They range from fairly modest like the Chestnut Grove Condominiums in the low $150,000 range for a one bedroom, to large single family homes on Lake Thoreau for well over a $1,000,000.00.

For some of these little condominium communities the Metro represents a kind of location upgrade. Parkcrest Condominiums off of North Shore Drive is a perfect example; they have always had great floor plans, nice space, and a pretty setting, but the location might be considered bland when compared to others. They are now poised to reap huge benefits by virtue of their proximity to the new Metro. Some of these neighborhoods were hit by significant price adjustments when the housing bubble burst. The Metro may be an opportunity for those owners to make up some lost value.

I don’t know if the large number of townhomes in Reston is unique to our area or not. or not; I’ve only lived in a few places over my life so I don’t have a good basis for comparison. Clearly it is a part of Reston living with close to a 140 separate townhouse clusters. These clusters are wildly varied from the comfortable and modest to over-the-top luxurious. Of course the one feature that they all have in common is the proximity an owner shares with their neighbor. For those of you who haven’t lived in a townhouse the proximity issue isn’t necessarily about hearing things through common walls so much as it is about the general feeling of others being close by—not a bad thing for many.

The perfect size yard

What does Reston offer?

What Reston townhouses do offer is a wide range of housing options for almost every price point. There are currently 109 townhouses for sale in Reston ranging in price from 150,000 – 990,000. My husband and I moved to a townhouse as a part of our downsizing. The kids were gone the house was more than we wanted to care for;so we moved to a three level townhouse with a beautiful postage stamp sized yard on Lake Anne.  We loved it.  Not only was there a lot less to care for, we loved the since of community that comes when you live in such close proximity to others.

We enjoyed the frequent sidewalk chats with neighbors and the feeling that we kept an eye out for one another; it’s a nice way to live.  We’ve since moved to a condo where that feeling of community is even more pronounced.  Last years’ snow storms gave rise to several spontaneous pot luck dinners, board game parties and neighbors helping to dig out one another’s cars.

If you’ve never considered a townhouse or condo in Reston because you’ve worried about living in such close proximity, maybe you should reconsider, there is a lot of upside to this housing style.