Author: ARLnow.com Sponsor

Your Beermonger: Big Game pairings

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

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

This weekend is going to be a snack food extravaganza with plenty of commercial breaks, a whole lot of Snoop Dogg (performing in a halftime show and hosting/coaching the Puppy Bowl!) and rumor has it there will also be a football game going on around all of this.

There’s also going to be plenty of beers to go around, both in those commercials and in many of our hands. The sort of light lagers you’ll mostly see advertised will certainly have their place at many parties and on bar tops but if you’re interested in stepping up a few of your pairings I’m here with a few suggestions for you. Now, I’ll say a great craft lager or your favorite IPA could just as easily go with any of these foods and you can feel free to mix and match any of these as well, but I’m going to throw out a few of my favorites and give what you’ll hopefully find to be inspired pairings.

Nachos and Witbier

This pairing works incredibly well because the Wit will introduce a bright and fresh element with some citrus and spice. If you’re loading up nachos with fresh guac, pico de gallo and lots of shredduce, a tasty witbier can compliment all those flavors. If you prefer your tortillas smothered in queso, refried beans or chorizo then the higher than average carbonation of the style can cut through those denser, rich flavors.

Beermonger’s Choice — Port City Optimal Wit

Chili Con Carne and Smoked Lager

I really love this pairing because the smoke flavor really incorporates well into chili but a crisp lagered finish can help keep your palate from getting overwhelmed. There’s lots of suggestions out there for porters and stouts here which I love, but in the interest of keeping this party going until at least when the halftime show is over I like the low ABV options.

Beermonger’s Choice — Aecht Schlenkerla Helles Lagerbier

Pepperoni Pizza and Brown Ale

Plan ahead if you’re looking to get delivery on this day since it is one of the busiest of the year for pizza shops or if you’re like me grab some of the Calabrese Salami from our deli and make your own spicy take at home. Brown ale is going to really pair well with the crust, cheese, sauce and meat without overpowering any of them. It can be tempting to grab an IPA or Pilsner here as well but when the cured meats start to join the party I really enjoy the toasty malty compliment here.

Beermonger’s Choice — Bingo Brown Ale

Wings and New England IPA

Hops are going to play up the spice here but a juicy IPA with low bitterness will keep you from burning your tongue off. I really enjoy the way the heat can play with some of the super tropical or citrusy hop varieties. The nice thing with this pairing is neither one of these are particularly known for their subtlety, the big flavors here can go up against each other for the entirety of four quarters.

Beermonger’s Choice — Commonwealth Big Papi

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.

It’s 5:30 a.m. here in Arlington, do you know where your Realtor is?!

At Andors Real Estate Group, we’re up before the crack of dawn working on connecting our buyers with sellers, and our sellers with buyers. In this kind of market environment, you need an agent who is knocking on doors, making calls and getting it done! This market is not for the faint of heart, as lost contracts are becoming the norm very quickly, prices are escalating sky-high, and

Expect more frenzy from buyers in the short term, as rates took another jump (after three weeks of stagnation) rising from 3.5% last week to 3.69% this week. Remember, these rates are still super, super low and historically excellent, but they will start to shake some people’s confidence. Buyers shouldn’t be too worried, consensus is they’ll stop going up once they get to around 4%, but it’s definitely going to feel like a fire, especially for those actively in the market.

Despite sellers putting 77 new homes on the market over the past seven days, inventory dropped another 13, to a record low of 226 available properties (down from 237 last week). If buyers continue to ratify at these levels, we’re barely scratching three weeks’ worth of supply! Expect prices to continue to rise, fast, if this keeps up!

Buyers ratified 71 homes in the past week, so while that doesn’t perfectly keep pace with new inventory, a lot of the holdover inventory is also being absorbed (those sitting on the market for a month or longer) and of the 71 properties that went under contract, 38 of those spent less than seven days on the market.

Of the 226 homes currently available for sale, 53 are detached homes, 22 are semi-detached/townhomes, and the remaining 159 are condominiums. These properties range in price from $100,000 all the way up to $3,850,000.

Average list price for currently available homes is $872,076, and the median price is $562,000. These homes have been on the market for an average of 77 DOM (days on market) and a median of 38. Median days on market is dropping fast and serves as a much better barometer for how the market is moving; the average is heavily weighted by overpriced properties that sit on the market a long time.

This week last year, there were 376 homes available for sale throughout the county. Sellers had listed 64 homes for sale and buyers ratified 72 contracts.

Click here to search currently available Arlington real estate. If you see a home that you’re interested in purchasing, give us a call!

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

5702 11th Road N.

Listing of the Day: 2349 Chadlington Road

By ARLnow.com Sponsor
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Address: 2349 Chadlington Road
Neighborhood: Chestnut Place, Falls Church
Listed: $1,325,000
Open: Saturday, February 12 and Sunday, February 13 from 1 to 4 p.m.

Walk to West Falls Church Metro, newly renovated Birch & Broad Center, and bike path from a light filled three level end townhouse with 4 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, and a 2 car garage.

With 3,000 square feet brimming with style and upgrades, this home provides the versatile space needed today. The entry level fourth bedroom with windows on two sides and a full bathroom accommodates a guest, in-law or home office. The adjoining den has doors to the lushly landscaped, fenced yard brimming with bay laurels to ensure privacy on the stone patio. Even the garage doubles as a gym with room for cars and fitness gear.

A chef worthy kitchen is the centerpiece of the main level with crisp white cabinets, quartz countertops and gas cooking. The center island provides casual dining or a spot for participatory cooking and baking. An expansive dining room flows into the living room, ideal for gatherings or daily living. The focal point of the living room is a gas fireplace flanked by built-ins, and there are doors leading to a large deck overlooking the yard.

Upstairs, the primary bedroom has room for a sitting area, a desk, or media. Two walk-in closets provide organized storage. The adjoining primary bathroom features a double sink vanity and oversized shower. Two bedrooms on this level share the hall bathroom, and the laundry room completes the floor.

A lovely home awaits those who appreciate fine appointments and an enviable location in Chestnut Place.

Listed by:
Betsy Twigg
McEnearney Associates
703-967-4391
[email protected]
www.betsytwigg.com

Boring Title: Making financed home purchase offers more competitive in 2022

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

Title insurance is boring, but Allied Title & Escrow is here to decode the jargon and make it (somewhat) more interesting. This biweekly feature will explore the mundane (but very necessary!) world of title insurance while sharing interesting stories of two friends’ entrepreneurial careers.

While we are still in the early days for the 2022 housing market, experts are advising buyers to brace themselves for another competitive year.

New data in Realtor.com‘s Monthly Housing Report shows home buyers are already off to the real estate races. In the first month of the year, the typical home sold faster than in any prior January in recent history, according to the report released earlier this week.

The bottom line is that buyers need to be prepared before they start shopping around. This week we sat down with David Piatek of Summit Funding to discuss the major changes for loan products that consumers can take advantage of in 2022 in order to be more competitive in the current real estate market.

Questions for David? Learn more at summitfunding.net/sites/dpiatek.

Have questions related to title insurance? Email [email protected]. Want to use Allied Title & Escrow when you buy a home? Tell your agent when you buy a house to write in Allied Title & Escrow as your settlement company! 

Arts Focus: Explore a civil rights milestone through the lens of art during Black History Month

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

History is all around us every day, but Black History Month offers the perfect time to highlight important milestones in the County’s history.

For the last four years, Arlington Arts has been working with an artist to highlight various aspects of this history through art, culminating in The Desegregation of Arlington Lunch Counters: 60th Anniversary Tribute by Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr.

Being received at a restaurant with a welcoming smile and a warm meal would seem the basic expectation for any customer. Sadly, well into the 1960s widespread segregation denied such everyday courtesies to African-Americans and other people of color. While the sit-ins at Maryland’s popular Glen Echo Amusement Park are better remembered today, they were in-fact precipitated by the sit-ins at Arlington earlier that same summer, between June 9 and 22, in 1960.

In one of the photos above, sit-in participant Joan Mulholland (resting elbow on counter) watches as fellow activist Dion Diamond is confronted by angry youths. The protests were a resounding success, and on June 22, most Arlington lunch counters announced that they were desegregating.

The original project was curated by the Arlington Art Truck and Arlington Public Art which are programs of Arlington Arts. It is in collaboration with the County’s Historic Preservation Program, Arlington Public Library, Center for Local History and Arlington Transit’s Art on the ART bus program. The community partner for the project is the Black Heritage Museum of Arlington.

Amos Paul Kennedy Jr., creates prints, posters and postcards from handset wood and metal type, oil-based inks, and eco-friendly chipboard. Much of his work is inspired by proverbs, sayings and quotes that are significant to the place he is working. Kennedy interviewed local residents, historians and participants in the sit-ins, and the placards contain poignant quotes from several of these individuals.

Initially planned for the Anniversary year (Summer, 2020) and delayed by the pandemic, the project launched in the Summer of 2021, with installations at or near the site of the original lunch counters. Upon the conclusion of those activations, the additional facets were developed to allow for continued engagement with the history.

Riders of public transportation can see the series of posters the Artist designed along the same themes via the decade-old Art on the ART Bus program — a partnership between Arlington Arts and Arlington Transit.

Instead of the ads for soap, salsa and soda that riders expect to see in the overhead frames, thousands of Arlington commuters regularly experience original artwork as they head to their jobs. Sometimes there are up to three specially outfitted Art on the ART Bus vehicles in circulation, each scheduled randomly each day, bringing art to a different route through Arlington.

Our collaboration with the Black Heritage Museum of Arlington resulted in an exhibit which features images of the landmark sit-in’s, which will be on display through December, 2022. During your visit, you can pick up a free set of Amos Kennedy’s postcards (while supplies last). You can take a sneak peek at the exhibit via this feature that aired on WRCTV NBC4.

For more information about The Desegregation of Arlington Lunch Counters: 60th Anniversary Tribute by Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr. and how to engage during Black History Month and beyond, visit our website.

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.

It’s a hot market, but folks out there are still getting creative.

Case in point: For the first time ever on this column, we’re seeing two condo units for sale… in a single listing! It’s packaged as “buy both… live in one and rent out the other!” (Of course both may rented, but it’s a clever way of getting potential buyers to think about a spot. And, it certainly sticks out.)

Whether you’re a seller or a buyer out there, it’s never been more important to be creative, unique and distinguish yourself from the competition. Depending on which side of the transaction you find yourself on, this can involve closing costs, credits and so much more.

When you’re ready to get strategic and creative, the time-tested team at Arlington Realty, Inc. is ready to go to bat for you. Until then, here are this week’s Just Reduced numbers.

As of February 7, there are 78 detached homes, 22 townhouses and 169 condos for sale throughout Arlington County. In total, 17 homes experienced a price reduction in the past week, including:

2125 19th Street N. #6

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.

Building your dream home: New construction seminar

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

Building a new home is exciting and full of possibilities!

However, there is a right way to approach new developments to avoid costly mistakes. Here’s your chance to learn everything you need to know about new construction properties from successful agents on the top-selling real estate team in the D.C. metro area.

Lauren Longshore, one of Keri Shull Team’s most experienced Buyer Success Agents, is leading this virtual seminar.

We will cover:

  • Advantages of New Construction — At the event, we’ll take an in-depth look at how you can design the exact home you are dreaming of!
  • Buying a Builder-Owned Lot vs. Finding Your Own — Which solution is best when finding a lot? In the D.C. metro area, land can be rare, we’ll show you how to find it.
  • Choosing the Right Agents and Specialists — Don’t risk costly problems or losing your dream home! A good agent will help you close faster and pay less.

Join us on Tuesday, February 15 at 6 p.m. for this FREE Zoom seminar. Make your new construction dream home a reality with expertise by your side!

Register for this event today.

Ask Eli: Home design trends from an expert

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. Video summaries of some articles can be found on YouTube on the Ask Eli, Live With Jean playlist. Enjoy!

The 2022 Colors of the Year were recently released and this year we have Sherwin Williams Evergreen Fog, a subdued green, and Pantone Very Peri, a bold purple.

Sherwin Williams Evergreen Fog & Pantone Very Peri

… And announcing colors of the year is about as far as I should take my commentary on interior design, so I’d like to re-introduce Caroline Goree ([email protected], (703) 994 5921), a fantastic Designer with a boutique Residential Interior Design Firm, Madigan Schuler, located in Alexandria, to provide insight into what trends she’s seeing in local home design.

In 2018, Caroline introduced us to one of my favorite design quotes from Matthew Frederick’s book, 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School, “Being nonspecific in an effort to appeal to everyone usually results in reaching no one.”

Take it away Caroline…

As I began to brainstorm the trends of 2022, it made me reflect on the 2020 design trends column I wrote for you just a month before the pandemic started. While many of the décor aspects are still quite relevant, so much of the residential design world has not only been impacted (thank you supply chain issues) but also influenced by the pandemic.

Although I would love to design with the sole purpose of creating a beautiful, aesthetically pleasing room, the functionality of spaces, furniture and fabrics has become more important than ever.

Built to Last

Between remote working, virtual learning and cancelled day care, our homes are being used hard, or as I say, being “loved” more than years prior. With this additional love comes lots of spills, crumbs and crushed cushions in the coveted corners of furniture for prime movie watching.

The additional wear on soft goods has created a spike in the “performance” product world (think indoor/outdoor rugs, fabric, etc). Instead of a beautiful natural fiber rug, we replaced these selections with polypropylene carpets that mimic the look and patterns of the sisal and seagrass products but are much more durable and easier to clean.

When reflecting on my business last year, 100% of my clients chose an indoor/outdoor material (Sunbrella), performance fabric (Crypton), or had their goods treated with a spill repellant technology (Fiber-Seal) for any furniture in the main spaces of their home. Furthermore, people quickly saw the downside of “disposable” furniture and were more open to investing in pieces built to last against the hours of lounging.

Pro Tip: When purchasing a new sofa, do your research. Ask if it is built with an “8-way hand tied coil” where craftsman tie springs eight ways from side to side, front to back and diagonally. This helps build furniture that is soft, flexible, comfortable and long lasting.

Textures, Wovens and Rattans… Oh My!

A trend we are seeing across the board is the use of texture within design. This could be a fabulous set of caned antique dining chairs to go around a fresh new table or a fun rattan accent chair to sit in the corner of an inviting family room. Even a piece as simple as woven framed mirror or foot stool can add that pop in a space that felt dull and tired.

Fabric like as Boucle’s (think fuzzy/curly multi-dimensional material) is not only used in the custom furnishings world but now a standard offering in many retail stores on their soft goods. I recently used a plush emerald green cable knit fabric for pillows on a simple white sofa to add depth and a punch of color (also a 2022 trend!)

Pro Tip: A little rattan goes a long way. Although it is one of my favorite trends, just a sprinkle throughout a room does the trick. No need to make your family room feel like a Palm Beach sun porch!

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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.

Good morning, Arlington — it’s rainy and soggy out, but at least the temps are above freezing! What lovely weather for my ##’nd birthday…!

Quick update on mortgage rates; they remain flat, and now we’ve had three weeks of hovering right at about 3.5% on a 30-year fixed rate mortgage. Frenzied market condition continues (SURPRISE) and the words in the halls of real estate brokerages are “price escalation,” “no contingencies” and “cash offer.”

Remember, cash offers make up less than 10% of transactions locally, but they are out there, and they are winning. Having said that, if you’re a buyer and you’re looking for an expert to help you get a competitive advantage, CALL ME as we’ve got programs in place to help you compete against the cash offers and win. You can reach me at (703) 203-1117.

Inventory in the county shifted around a lot due to buyer and seller activity, but available units is unchanged from last week — sitting at just 237. That’s barely over a month’s worth of supply!

Sellers listed 61 homes in the past week, up six from the prior week, and buyers ratified 54 contracts, 23 of which were on homes listed in the last seven days.

Of the 237 homes currently available for sale, 58 are detached homes, 20 are semi-detached/townhomes, and the remaining 159 are condominiums. These properties range in price from $100,000 all the way up to $3,850,000.

Average list price for currently available homes is $855,272, and the median price is $559,000. These homes have been on the market for an average of 77 DOM (days on market) and a median of 49.

This week last year, there were 374 homes available for sale throughout the county. Sellers had listed 64 homes for sale and buyers ratified 41 contracts.

Click here to search currently available Arlington real estate. If you see a home that you’re interested in purchasing, give us a call!

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

4915 25th Street S.

Statutes of Liberty: Immigration court scheduling has gone haywire

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

This sponsored column is by Law Office of James Montana PLLC. All questions about it should be directed to James Montana, Esq., Doran Shemin, Esq., and Laura Lorenzo, Esq., practicing attorneys at The Law Office of James Montana PLLC, an immigration-focused law firm located in Arlington, Virginia. The legal information given here is general in nature. If you want legal advice, contact us for an appointment.

We’ve written before about the backlog in the U.S. immigration courts. It’s bad — it’s really bad, and getting worse, and it’s getting worse in new and interesting ways.

The good folks at Syracuse University’s TRAC system, who usually cultivate the same authorial blandness as The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract, describe it as an “avalanche of cases” which is “accelerating at a breakneck pace.” When our firm founder began practicing in 2011, there were about 250,000 noncitizens awaiting trial. Now, there are 1.6 million, and the quarterly increase is up to 150,000.

Let’s consider a few intuitively reasonable (but false) explanations for why this is happening:

  1. Trump did it.

No, he didn’t. The Trump Administration certainly put the pedal to the floor on immigration enforcement in all sorts of ways, but the peak quarterly number of cases sent to immigration court was in FY 2019 — 78,000. That’s roughly half of the current figure.

(We hasten to add that the backlog got much worse under Trump. The immigration courts started in January 2017 with a backlog of 542,411 and ended with 1.2M. But the numbers don’t lie — the Biden administration has added another 400,000 in one year; it took the Trump administration four years to exceed that number.)

  1. COVID did it.

No, it didn’t. There are two important metrics for measuring the efficiency of an assembly line: the number of widgets that go in, and the number of widgets that go out. In immigration court, we call those “Case Initiations” and “Case Completions.” COVID lowered the case completion rate from 40,000 per month to about 6,000 per month in the worst stages of the pandemic, but case completion rates are back up to 22,000 per month. That drop — 18,000 per month, from peak efficiency to current efficiency — represents only about 20% of the quarterly increase in the backlog.

So, what’s the main cause? The answer is simple: The Department of Homeland Security is initiating many more cases. We don’t know the reason why, but, digging into the numbers, our suspicion is that these cases are starting at the border. The Trump Administration’s “adjudicate cases at the border and keep them out” approach failed, and, so far, the Biden administration’s “rapid, fair, and orderly” approach is failing, too.

Our sympathies go out to our colleagues at the Executive Office for Immigration Review

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Biz Talk: Top three trends shaping the office market in 2022

By ARLnow.com Sponsor

This article was written by Arlington Economic Development.

Two years into a global pandemic, the way people work has been permanently altered and the commercial real estate market is in the preliminary stages of determining how the changes will impact future office building utilization.

As the public health situation continues evolving, companies and commercial real estate brokers are still working through the structure and timing of return-to-work plans, which will ultimately decide the future of the office market. To understand the current dialogue around these decisions, Arlington Economic Development spoke with three local commercial real estate brokers about the key trends they believe will shape the office market in 2022 and beyond.

Health and Wellness 

Health, not surprisingly, is at the top of the list for both potential tenants and property owners. Property owners are, at a minimum, upgrading their buildings to MERV air filters and creating more touchless spaces. Some landlords are even adding air filters to elevators and upgrading their HVAC systems to direct outdoor air systems to circulate more fresh air.

Nick Gregorios, Principal, Avison Young said that his clients are also thinking beyond air filter upgrades to maximizing outdoor spaces. “In the past, a landlord might consider basic furnishings for an outdoor space for their tenants to utilize, but now what we’re starting to see is thoughtful, deliberate design of those areas with architects to make them functional for outdoor meetings and collaboration, essentially an extension of the office,” Gregorios said. “Landlords are also creating more private outdoor areas that are reserved for a particular tenant.”

Personal wellness is also becoming a leading priority for tenants. Peloton bikes are becoming much more common in gyms and property owners are even creating private gym spaces. “An employee could reserve a private room with a Peloton bike from 1 to 2 p.m. and then the janitorial staff comes in to clean it for the next person,” Gregorios said.

Ken Biberaj, Managing Director, Savills North America said personal health also extends to people’s food choices at work. “Sweetgreen delivery outposts are just as popular in buildings as Peloton bikes so employees can order food and it will be right downstairs, just like at home,” he said.

The Office Experience 

Along the same lines as the custom outdoor spaces and personal wellness offerings, the office of the future will also be more experiential now that the office must compete with the home environment.

“If the purpose of the office is going to be more about collaboration and coming together, then inherently it’s going to be a little bit more about hospitality,” said Biberaj. “So as people are thinking about getting back, part of it is creating an ecosystem that warrants people actually getting up and leaving their home.”

Companies may shrink their footprints to create this new experiential space, but they are going to be more willing to upgrade to a higher-quality space in a prime location that provides the amenities that employees want.

“We are seeing an acceleration of “flight to quality” within the office ecosystem, demonstrated by factors such as building access to extensive retail, adjacency to metro and mass transit, high-end building amenities, views and natural light, and building efficiency,” Gregorios said.

David Cornbrooks, Senior Managing Director, Savills North America said that the Ballston Exchange building in Arlington is a great example of a building that companies may upgrade to for quality. It has numerous collaborative spaces, outdoor areas and is right in the heart of Ballston, across the street from the recently transformed Ballston Quarter and its exciting dining and entertainment offerings.

Arlington is ideally positioned for the shift to the experiential office with its 18-hour, mixed-use development, and proximity to transit. Biberaj said that the value proposition for companies looking at Arlington is similar to pre-pandemic, but “it’s amplified. Amenities you may have taken for granted before now, you really value and appreciate.”

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