The number one question I’m asked whenever people discover that I’m a real estate agent is “how’s business” or” how’s the market?”

Everyone it seems is interested home values—some are hoping to revive the daydream of triple digit appreciation, others I’m sure are wondering if their number one asset has stopped losing value.

A Home in North Reston

A few years ago when I was trying to decide if I could make a living by focusing my real estate practice exclusively in Reston I ran some numbers that convinced me that focusing on Reston was not only reasonable it was smart. The Reston real estate market is a large, about $400,000,000 in transactions per year. Our market is also diverse with a wide range of housing types.

The most striking feature of today’s market is that the inventory is painfully low. There are a total of 164 fully active properties on the market in the 3 Reston zip codes. The 20190 code has 47 active listings, 20191 has 68 active listings and 20194 has 49 active listings. Prices on those 164 listings range from 1,500,000.00 – 125,000.00.

A good time to sell or not?

If you’re thinking of selling your property the rules of supply and demand would suggest that now is a great time to sell. Many sellers are seeing a very short number of days on market and are even receiving multiple offers. But, the other striking feature of this market is how price sensitive it is. Sellers that list above market because they think they need “room to negotiate” are seeing their homes sit, and sit, and sit. Sellers that put their property on to the market priced within (or even slightly below), spitting distance of reasonable com-parables are receiving multiple offers.

So—how’s the market in Reston? If you’re priced right it’s great, if you’re not it’s slow.

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.