Archive for the 'Reston Real Estate' Category

News that the Northern Virginia housing market continues to improve with several areas seeing appreciation as high as 8% can only be viewed as positive. The carnage of the ruptured housing bubble that was so clearly visible in many neighborhoods is receding.

Trickier to assess is the damage to the credit of former home owners who for whatever reason lost their homes to short sale or foreclosure. Living without enough financial cushion, a lost job, a sick child; things that in the normal course of a life might cause one to decide they should sell their home and live smaller until they were back on their feet, when combined with plummeting home values created a quagmire that dragged many people down the foreclosure/short sale path.

Careful management can make it happen for you.

In speaking with my lender colleagues the news is not all doom and gloom for a buyer that has a foreclosure/short sale on their credit record. Depending on factors in place at the time of the foreclosure or short sale FHA Loans may still be a viable option. All buyers need to be super mindful of paying their creditors on time, even a few late pays can make a huge impact on your credit score.

Like most things in life–time will heal the wounds of housing market and the fall out of a short sale or foreclosure on your credit. Being mindful of due dates and credit balances and saving a reserve fund can help put you in a position to buy in 2011.

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.