Author: ARLnow.com Sponsor

BizTalk: Arlington Companies Join Fight Against COVID-19

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

This article was written by Sindy Yeh, Senior Business Ambassador for Arlington Economic Development.

May is Business Appreciation Month, and now more than ever, it seems appropriate to highlight and thank the many Arlington businesses that are making our community and the world a better place in the wake of COVID-19.

From diligently working to stop the spread of the virus to providing online tools to mitigate disruptions, Arlington companies are leveraging their knowledge and technology platforms to make a difference during this unprecedented time.

Stopping the Spread of the Virus

For decades, DARPA has been at the forefront of research and investment in innovation. Accordingly, DARPA is funding multiple projects to combat the virus. Currently, scientists are working to design a new COVID-19 blood-based test that could identify carriers before they become infectious, as well as an antibody treatment to combat the virus until a vaccine is ready.

As experts warn of a second coronavirus wave in the fall, DARPA is partnering with pharmaceutical companies and universities to develop treatments quickly.

Zansors, an Arlington-based health analytics startup, is normally marketing its wearable sensors. Recognizing the increased demand for face masks, Zansors redirected its efforts to focus on its washable face covering masks.

One of its masks, the Micro-Shield, has recently been authorized by the FDA for use by health care personnel and the general public as a source control to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 infection and illness. Baabi Das, co-founder of Zansors, states that the Micro-Shield face masks have gained traction and are now used by the U.S. Army and Air Force warfighters.

Blue Raster, Courthouse based web mapping company, has been assisting government agencies by providing COVID tracking dashboards over the past month. For the states of Virginia and Nevada, the company built a geospatially focused platform providing county level data on active COVID cases and fatalities, as well as number of beds in hospitals. This allows state officials to view and assess the current situation, guiding informed decision-making.

Providing Virtual Learning Tools

School administrators and educators have been grappling with the challenges associated with school closures and delivering a remote learning curriculum. Several of Arlington’s leading education technology companies have offered online tools to improve the at-home learning process.

Hobsons, based in Clarendon, focuses on connecting students to opportunities in education. Its college and career readiness software offers academic planning, career exploration and college prep tools for high schools, including Arlington Public Schools. Pivoting to serve students who are now at home, Hobsons has created instruction guides designed to help students navigate its education platforms on their own reducing support required by school staff.

Rosetta Stone, a pioneer in language learning, has recently provided all K-12 customers with an unlimited license to its literacy products in response to COVID. Schools that have purchased digital reading and literacy tools can now extend their software license to all students.

Brazen hosts a virtual career fair platform allowing universities to host job fairs online. In April, Brazen offered Marymount University the opportunity to use its platform free of charge to connect companies with Marymount students looking for internships.

More than 85 students registered to meet with 15 companies. As Ed Barrientos, CEO of Brazen, commented, “Brazen is in a lucky position of having technology that helps organizations bring their events online, so demand is high right now. We are pleased to donate the use of the platform to Marymount, our Arlington neighbor.”

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Just Reduced Properties in Arlington

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

Each week, “Just Reduced” spotlights properties in Arlington County whose price have been cut over the previous week. The market summary is crafted by Arlington Realty, Inc. Maximize your real estate investment with the team by visiting www.arlingtonrealtyinc.com or calling 703-836-6000 today!

Please note: While Arlington Realty, Inc. provides this information for the community, it may not be the listing company of these homes.

How will the COVID-19 pandemic permanently affect the real estate realm? The dust is certainly still settling, and a variety of folks are certainly weighing in.

According to Javier Vivas, Director of Economic Research with Realtor.com, he says that on a national level that “the near-term impact to real estate activity (next 3 to 6 months) comes as open houses on new and existing homes are being halted, shifted to virtual channels, or drastically reduced and set on an appointment-basis only.”

He adds, in terms of the mid-term impact (next 6 to 18 months), “there will be lower buyer and seller sentiment, sustained disruptions to new and existing supply and sales funnel, and further declines in affordability from job and income loss affecting consumers.”

Amid the shifting tide, there will certainly be opportunities. Different communities will certainly be experiencing different things, throughout our county, state and country.

During this time, it has never been more important to have a trusted local expert by your side to help assess your unique scenario. What we experience here in Arlington County may not apply to what’s happening even just miles away.

When you’re ready to dive in to an existing or prospective real estate move, the team at Arlington Realty Inc. is ready to advocate for you. In the meantime, here are the latest Just Reduced facts and stats.

As of May 11, there are 141 detached homes, 33 townhouses and 100 condos for sale throughout Arlington County. In total, 10 homes experienced a price reduction in the past week:

Please note that this is solely a selection of Just Reduced properties available in Arlington County. For a complete list of properties within your target budget and specifications, contact Arlington Realty, Inc.

Ask Eli: Unintended Consequences of Mortgage Forbearance

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

This regularly-scheduled sponsored Q&A column is written by Eli Tucker, Arlington-based Realtor and Arlington resident. Please submit your questions to him via email for response in future columns. Enjoy!

Question: Can you provide some clarity on how mortgage forbearance works and whether that will negatively affect my credit score?

Answer: I’ve received quite a few emails from folks considering mortgage forbearance or asking for clarification on (usually) incorrect information provided to them from friends or family about the process. We don’t have all of the answers yet, but enough information is available to help people make more educated decisions about forbearance.

To explain forbearance and some of the unintended consequences, I asked one of the top mortgage lenders in the D.C. Metro, Jake Ryon of First Home Mortgage, to join as a guest columnist. If you’d like to talk with Jake about a loan, refinance, or any other mortgage related question you can contact him at [email protected].

Take it away Jake…

What is Mortgage Forbearance?

Congress passed the CARES Act, allowing those facing financial hardship due to COVID-19 to request a mortgage forbearance (pause in mortgage payments) for 180 days, with the option to extend for an additional 180 days.

The bill does not require you to provide proof that you’re suffering a hardship, but the CFPB makes it clear that if you can pay your mortgage, you should. However, not everyone is following that guidance and some borrowers who are able to pay are choosing not to and may suffer unintended consequences.

Mortgage forbearance is a temporary pause in payment; it is NOT forgiveness. All missed payments by the borrower must be paid back.

Repayment

Unfortunately, the repayment terms for a forbearance are vague. Statements from Fannie and Freddie indicate that you do not have to repay the missed payments all at once, but that it is for the borrower to work out with the servicer. If the payments are not paid back in a lump sum or over a designated period, but instead added to the end of the loan, the borrower is agreeing to a loan modification.

During a forbearance the servicer (the company you pay) is still advancing the monthly mortgage payments to the end investor. This has led to major issues for lenders, and as a response, tightened credit standards and made it more difficult to obtain a mortgage.

Unintended Consequences

While taking a forbearance is not supposed to negatively affect your credit, there are some unintended consequences I’d like to explain.

*Please note this is based on the most up to date information I could find and is subject to change as this is a fluid situation. Please reach out to your loan servicer directly for your options.*

Refinancing: This may vary by lender, but as I understand it, to be eligible to refinance, borrowers must be out of forbearance and current on their mortgage. This is a big concern if rates continue to fall throughout the year.

Repayment Terms: As mentioned earlier, there are options to repay the missed payments via a lump sum, over a repayment period, or modifying the term of the loan. Keep in mind the servicer must agree to the repayment plan.

I’m hearing that modifications are only being offered if there is documentation to show you’ve been adversely affected by COVID-19. This is going to be problematic for borrowers who didn’t lose their job and assumed their skipped payments would be tacked onto the end of their mortgage or forgiven.

Buying Your Next Home: Since this is so new, we haven’t seen any credit reports reflecting modifications as a result of COVID-19. It’s unclear how lenders and investors will treat these modifications when evaluating new loans.

For example, most investors want to see borrowers pay their mortgage on time for a minimum of 12 months after their modification begins. If someone takes the full 12 months of forbearance, they could be looking at a minimum waiting period of 2 years before obtaining a new loan.

Residual Effects to Your Credit: While the CARES Act says mortgage lenders won’t report you as delinquent during a forbearance, they can’t control how other lenders will view it. For example, if you’re a credit card company and you see a borrower is in forbearance, are you inclined to increase their credit limit or issue a new card? If your credit card debt is increasing and your available line of credit is staying the same or decreasing, it will most likely lower your score.

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With Stamp Out Hunger Canceled, AFAC Needs Food Donations

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

Under normal times, the Arlington Food Assistance Center (AFAC) teams up with the National Association of Letter Carriers for a large food drive event called Stamp Out Hunger, which is held on the 2nd Saturday of every May.

Residents would leave food donations by their mailboxes and postal workers would pick up the food and deliver it to AFAC. On average, around 25,000 pounds of food donations is collected in this one-day event.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the annual Stamp Out Hunger event was canceled. However, the need for food in the community is at an all-time high. AFAC has seen a 30% increase in active referrals since the end of February. More and more new families are seeking help in addition to the thousands of families AFAC already serves.

Through the month of May, you can help AFAC feed our neighbors in need in several ways. You can donate canned food (tomato products, vegetables, tuna and soups) and peanut butter at a local AFAC collection box set up in the community. Please do not donate food that is perishable, opened, expired or in glass jars.

You can also host a food drive in your own neighborhood. Register your food drive to request an AFAC food drive box if you would like one. There are template food drive flyers available that you can use and distribute digitally to help you get started.

Lastly, you can also donate funds so AFAC can purchase food (fresh fruit and vegetables, milk, eggs, frozen chicken, beans, rice, pasta and oatmeal) in bulk directly from vendors at wholesale prices.

For more information, visit www.afac.org/stamp-out-hunger-2020.

Note: This sponsored post was donated by ARLnow.

Cents of Community: Managing Your Personal Finances

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

This monthly column comes from the Arlington Community Federal Credit Union as part of their mission to financially empower the community. Credit unions are not-for-profit member-owned cooperatives and anyone who lives, works, worships, volunteers, goes to school, or does business in Arlington, Falls Church, Alexandria, or Fairfax County is eligible to join ACFCU.*

The impacts of COVID-19 are creating financial uncertainty for people everywhere. Here are some tips to help you navigate your finances in a difficult time.

  • Contact your financial institution: Reach out proactively if you have concerns about paying bills on time. Institutions may offer payment deferrals, elimination of early withdrawal penalties for liquidating certificates (known as CDs at banks), hardship loans, or other options.
  • If possible, build up your emergency savings: If you still have an income stream, set aside savings for an emergency account that covers at least three to six months of expenses. If you need to tap into this later, you’ll be glad that you prepared.
  • Consider low interest debt options: Evaluate your options with your financial institution to see what works for your situation. If you need to borrow, using a Home Equity Loan or Home Equity Line of Credit may be less expensive than higher-interest options like credit cards or unsecured personal loans. For those who don’t own homes, look no further than your car. Auto loan interest rates are very low right now, letting you take advantage of your car’s equity. Make sure to compare rates between institutions to find the best deal. It never hurts to ask for a rate match or lower rate.
  • Reach out for government assistance for urgent needs: If you are in a crisis, call Arlington Department of Human Services at 703-228-1300. They can refer you to resources for food assistance, emergency financial assistance and more. Visit the Virginia Employment Commission website to apply for unemployment insurance.

Arlington is full of people who are working hard to support our community. If you need help, make sure to look into the many resources being provided by government, non-profits, and local businesses.

Federally insured by NCUA. *Membership eligibility requirements apply.

Neighborhood Spotlight: 3 More Great Options for Takeout Food

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

This content was written and sponsored by The Keri Shull Team, Arlington’s top producing residential real estate team.

In our last Neighborhood Spotlight, we talked about 3 of our favorite places to get takeout or delivery food in Arlington, so you can enjoy some of the amazing local cuisine while giving back to the community and supporting Arlington restaurants.

We had a ton of people reach out to learn more about which of their favorite Arlington eateries are offering options of takeout and delivery — so for this week’s Neighborhood Spotlight, we want to share 3 more ways that you can get delicious food while supporting your local restaurants in Arlington. All three of these spots have closed their dining rooms to keep their patrons and employees safe, but have options for you to nosh on their unique fare right in the comfort of your own home.

Today, we are going to highlight 3 more Arlington favorites that you can get as take-out or delivery, so you can enjoy delicious food even during stay-at-home regulations.

First is Bronson Bierhall, a popular hangout spot and German eatery in the Ballston neighborhood of Arlington. During less abnormal times, Bronson is a lively spot for fun, food and games in Arlington, with an impressive menu of German-inspired dishes and an ever-changing tap list of both local and imported brews. On top of that, Bronson is also home to a weekly “Yappy Hour,” a pet-friendly event where people can bring their dogs to enjoy the sights and sounds of the city with brats and beers.

You might not be able to lounge around and take in the beautiful architecture of the Bierhall for a while longer, but you can still get delicious brats and pretzels to satisfy your hunger for hearty German fare.

Bronson has made a quarantine menu of foods and drinks available for pickup and delivery — pair one of their signature sausages with a growler of your favorite Old World brew or a bottle of fine wines to recreate the pubhall feeling in your own home! To see the available menu and place an order, go to bronsonbierhall.com.

Quarterdeck is a staple of the culinary scene in Rosslyn, serving up some of the finest seasonal seafood in Arlington. Known primarily for their seasonal offerings of Maryland Blue Crab, Quarterdeck has a huge menu of varied seafood, sandwiches, and soups — so you can sate your appetite for both surf and turf at this Arlington landmark.

Even in the current lockdown, you can get delicious fast-casual seafood from one of NoVA’s #1 spots and enjoy it right in the comfort of your home! Although the dining room is closed to patrons, you can still order some of your favorite dishes to pick up and take home, including crab legs, peeled and steamed shrimp, hush puppies and whole blue crabs!

Plus, you can wash down your maritime meal with a delicious beer or wine, also available for pickup through Quarterdeck. Make sure to give them a call to learn more and place your order.

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A Message to Our Neighbors on Metropolitan Park Construction

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

The following was written by Brooke Oberwetter, Amazon’s head of external affairs in Arlington, and Jeff King, Clark Construction’s Project Executive for Metropolitan Park Phases 6/7/8

Residents of Arlington near our HQ2 construction site may be feeling some disruption right now as we move forward with developing Amazon’s second headquarters in National Landing.

We know this can be noisy, particularly as more of us are home right now than usual given the COVID-19 outbreak. We’d like to thank our neighbors for their patience and understanding. We are pleased to share that the finish line on pile driving — the loudest phase of the construction process — is in sight.

We are more than eighty percent of the way through this phase of the project. Barring weather delays or mechanical problems, we are on track to finish this phase by May 15, two weeks earlier than initially projected.

While we move through this phase of the project as efficiently as possible, safety is our number one priority. We’ve heard from some of our neighbors who have a bird’s-eye view of the site that worker safety and physical distancing are important to them. They’re important to us, too. Since the start of COVID-19, Clark Construction — general contractor for the project — has been closely following guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and local authorities to work to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and enable trade partners to put crews to work in safe and healthy environments.

These measures include requiring face coverings for the entire construction workforce, more hand washing and hand sanitizing stations on site, and resequencing construction activities to create greater physical distancing. Clark has also established a designated site monitor to reinforce the importance of these measures and other safety protocols.

The COVID-19 outbreak continues to be a fluid situation, and we’ll continue to follow the latest guidance from government and public health officials to ensure the jobsite is operating in the safest manner possible to protect our construction crews and the communities where we work.

From the outset of the COVID-19 crisis, it was difficult for us to know how long these circumstances would last. Although we are hopeful that many businesses in Virginia will be up and running again soon — we realize that many people might be working from home for much longer.

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Your Beermonger: Fair Winds, Navigating Turbulent Seas

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

This sponsored column is written by Nick Anderson, beermonger at Arrowine (4508 Lee Highway). Sign up for Nick’s email newsletter and receive exclusive discounts and offers. Order from Arrowine’s expanding online store for curbside pickup.

For an upstart brewery, even the best of times can be a rollercoaster, and weathering the effects of the pandemic on the service industry is another matter altogether.

For Lorton’s Fair Winds Brewing, this has been especially true. Just a few months after opening in 2015, they won a Gold Medal at the Great American Beer Festival for their excellent Siren’s Lure Saison. The following years saw core lineup beers like Howling Gale IPA and Quayside Kölsch become mainstays of local draft lines and shelves.

Then, in January of last year, co-founder and CEO Casey Jones passed suddenly, not only breaking the hearts of all of us who knew and loved him, but leaving the young brewery without one of its guiding voices at a crucial time.

Over the rest of 2019, Fair Winds found its footing and then, well, you know — all of this. Fair Winds has managed to keep beer moving, however, thanks to a loyal fanbase, a great brewing team, and a lot of work from Sales and Operations Manager Chris Banich, who I got to catch up with during the past week.

Photo via Fair Winds

Banich started in the beer business as a part-timer at the old Rick’s Wine & Gourmet in Alexandria (where I spent my 2007-2009) and became the beer buyer and eventually the store’s GM in its final months. After stints with a couple local wholesalers/distributors, Chris spent over three years as the Mid-Atlantic Manager for Colorado’s Avery Brewing. Following his time with Avery, Chris did some consultation work for Crooked Run and has been in his position at Fair Winds for close to a year and a half now.

I wanted to ask Chris about how the brewery is doing, how its sales have been affected, and how they’ve had to adapt. The biggest difference is, of course, the dramatic shift from kegs to packaged beer. “We really had no clue what this was all going to look like,” he said.

Initially, the Fair Winds team expected to have to dump a large amount of their kegged beer as many others have had to, but they were able to convert it all to package and sell it. Their flagship Howling Gale IPA has been “averaging double digit cases sold every day out of the tap room and almost 7 times that amount per day in the market.”

“We are still brewing a ton,” Banich tells me. “Our wholesaler is begging us for more beer. We have unfortunately had to short them beer a few times” as they try to keep up with Howling Gale sales. Banich credits that wholesaler network with keeping Fair Winds beers on grocery shelves and in independent accounts.

Looking forward, Chris is trying to see the opportunities in the world that emerges on the other side of this. While many key accounts may be lost, he says, “if a thousand or so breweries close, that means a lot more open draft lines. Do we immediately make up that volume in other places?”

Also, the breweries that do manage to survive will have the pick of a wealth of talent that is suddenly on the market. Here’s to the Fair Winds team continuing to persevere.

Open Houses in Arlington This Weekend

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

Looking for a home? There are plenty of houses and condos open for viewing this weekend.

Check out the Arlington Realty website for a full list of homes for sale and open houses in Arlington. Here are a few highlights:

4731 34th Street N.
6 BD/5 BA, 1 half bath single-family home
Agent: Tradition Realty, Llc
Listed: $2,199,000
Open: Saturday 12-1 p.m.

 

5602 33rd Street N.
5 BD/3 BA single-family home
Agent: Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc
Listed: $1,330,000
Open: Virtual Tour

 

2418 14th Street N.
3 BD/2 BA, 1 half bath villa/townhouse
Agent: Optime Realty
Listed: $1,050,000
Open: Virtual Tour

 

5939 4th Street N.
3 BD/2 BA, 1 half bath single-family home
Agent: Cottage Street Realty, Llc
Listed: $859,000
Open: Saturday 2-5 p.m.

 

3800 Fairfax Drive #1014
2 BD/2 BA condo
Agent: Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc
Listed: $739,000
Open: Virtual Tour

 

1800 Wilson Boulevard #242
1 BD/1 BA condo
Agent: Optime Realty
Listed: $449,900
Open: Virtual Tour/Saturday 1-3 p.m.

Just Listed in Arlington

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

Just Listed highlights Arlington properties that just came on the market within the past week. This feature is written and sponsored by Andors Real Estate Group.

Can spring happen in June? How about July?

Since Arlington sellers continue to postpone listing their homes, I’m predicting a delayed spring market in early summer. While some sellers will have made alternate arrangements, many have simply put off their moves temporarily and will resume their plans as soon as they feel they can. Those who have listed during the pandemic have certainly reaped the rewards we expect at this time of year, price escalations!

Over the past 30 days, properties that have settled in Arlington have done so for almost 101% of their asking price, netting sellers $7,000 more on average than they were asking.

Purchasers have been doing their part in Arlington over the past couple months despite COVID-19, scooping up approximately half of each week’s fresh new inventory within 7 days. The trend of historically low interest rates certainly bolsters their optimism in Arlington real estate as well.

As we start to see restrictions easing in our state, expect to see an uptick in real estate sales volume in lockstep. The flowers bloomed early this year, but we’re headed for a late spring market!

There are currently 235 homes for sale in Arlington. 119 are detached homes, 30 are townhouses/semi-detached, and 86 are condos. Average days on market (DOM) is 58 and median DOM is 37. Four weeks ago, median DOM was just 23 and average was 51.

Sellers listed some 42 properties for sale this week. Buyers ratified 39 contracts, 21 of which were homes that had been on the market one week or less.

The median list price of available properties is $999,000, while the average is $1,132,562. Last year for the same week, sellers listed 84 homes and buyers ratified 56 contracts.

Click here to search currently available Arlington real estate. Call the Andors Real Estate Group today at (703) 203-1117 to talk more about buying or selling Arlington real estate. Below are eight homes that are new this week that I think you might like to check out.

Arts Focus: Arlington’s Arts Community Is Streaming With Creative Activities!

By ARLnow.com Sponsor
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This column is written and sponsored by Arlington Arts/Arlington Cultural Affairs, a division of Arlington Economic Development.

The COVID-19 pandemic has all of us adapting to new ways of spending our free time. Arlington’s artistic community has stepped up to the plate to offer a broad range of activities to help you manage the stresses of social distancing.

Arlington Arts has showcased many of these on our ARLINGTON ARTS AT HOME webpage. Some are free, others offer you a way to support a local small-business while engaging in healthy and positive activities at-home! Here’s a small sampling:

Bowen McCauley Dance 

Arlington dancer Lucy Bowen-McCauley developed a unique stretching technique that was officially adopted by U.S. Olympians such as Dominique Dawes. You can avail yourself of her expertise in virtual stretch classes on Mondays and Saturdays. The Company also is offering a range of movement classes for those with Parkinson’s Disease on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. For details, email: [email protected] or visit www.bmdc.org

Encore Stage & Studio 

From stretching and storytelling, to structured classes in theater and dance, Encore has a wide range of Zoom-based offerings for everyone from toddlers to teens. (Some Free. Some Fees Apply). More Info.

Jane Franklin Dance

Keep it moving with free online dance classes occurring daily. Learn different approaches to movement from different instructors each day in genres ranging from ballet and jazz, to clogging and improv. Classes are live-streamed and are not recorded. More Info.

Signature Theatre

Stay connected to your favorite Signature performers every week with Signature Strong — Live! Join the weekly Facebook Live conversation with Artistic Director Eric Schaeffer and celebrated guests as they chat about musicals, sing a few songs, answer your questions and more. Tuesdays at 8 p.m. More Info.

Synetic Theater

From fitness classes by their award-winning movement-based performers, to storytelling for children, the award-winning Synetic Theater has much to offer that you can now enjoy right at home. This includes live-streaming of past shows, such as Sleeping Beauty (thru May 25) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (extended thru May 10). More Info.

In addition to programs by the above organizations, Arlington Arts also has assembled a range of art activities you can partake of drawing upon past programs.

Everything from art-making projects to self-guided tours of our internationally acclaimed Public Art Collection. For more info, visit the Arlington Arts at Home webpage.

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