real estate

Ask Adam: Spring Real Estate Market

By ARLnow.com

Editor’s Note: This monthly sponsored Q&A column is written by Adam Gallegos of Arlington-based real estate firm Arbour Realty. Please submit follow-up questions in the comments section or via email.

What should we expect from the spring real estate market in Arlington?

It feels like spring is already here in some ways. The sun is out and daytime temperatures have been hovering around the mid 50’s. Buyer demand is as high as I have seen it in recent years. People are even showing up to open houses. This is unusual for February.

Besides the cherry blossoms, the only thing missing is housing inventory. For example, I started working with a new client about three weeks ago. He wants a one-bedroom condo in Clarendon within a generous price range. There are lots of those, right? Unfortunately not. We have yet to look at a single home, because there are not any available for him to even consider.

In recent years we kept our fingers crossed for buyer demand to pick up. We now have ready, willing and able buyers, but not enough homes to go around.

Home owners have long been conditioned to believe that spring is the best time of year to sell a home. I’m hoping that the current drought of housing inventory in Arlington will soon be quenched by home owners throughout town that are simply biding their time until the “spring market” before they list their homes. Personally, I’ve been advising potential sellers to get their homes on the market as soon as possible — while competition is low.

Where are the current home buyers coming from?

We are all aware that mortgage interest rates are at all time lows. What you may not be aware of is that rental rates have been climbing to record-breaking numbers in Arlington. For a mid-range two-bedroom apartment in Clarendon you could easily be looking at $3,500 per month. Because of low interest rates and high rental rates, it’s not hard for many would-be-renters to build a case for transitioning to home ownership.

Does this also affect the higher end market?

I think it does. I call it trickle-up economics. For example: Sarah sells her condo in Ballston to a first time homebuyer so she can purchase a townhouse in Rosslyn. Jim sells Sarah his townhouse in Rosslyn so he can purchase his dream home in Lyon Village. As you can see in this example, the sale of Sarah’s condo to a first time home buyer, trickled-up to affect the purchase of a higher priced home in Lyon Village.

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Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Ballston Parking Garage Rate Hike Approved — On Saturday the Arlington County Board approved a proposed increase in parking rates at the Ballston Public Parking Garage. The parking rate hike, the first at the garage since 1996, will have the biggest impact on those who park on weekends, who were previously paying a $1 flat rate. The county said the increase was necessary to pay for repairs and upgrades to the garage. Also discussed: the effect of Arlington’s living wage requirement on personnel costs at the garage. [Arlington County]

New Streetlights Green-Lit for the Pike — Also on Saturday, the Board approved a $1.2 million contract to install new LED streetlights along part of Columbia Pike. County officials said the new streetlights will improve safety, energy efficiency and aesthetics along one of the busiest pedestrian sections of the Pike. [Arlington County]

‘Pipestem’ Compromise Reached — A developer and neighbors in the Leeway Overlee neighborhood reached a compromise on the developer’s controversial plan to build a new home on a “pipestem” lot on N. Nottingham Street. As part of the compromise, the house — located behind another home and connected to the street by only a thin strip of driveway — will be smaller than originally proposed and will include a detached garage. [Washington Post]

Home Prices Up in Arlington — Fewer homes were sold in January compared to a year ago, but the fact that there were fewer homes on the market helped to raise average and median sale prices by nearly 10 percent. The increase in home prices was led by double-digit increases in townhouse and condo prices. [Sun Gazette]

Flickr pool photo by Damiec

Duplicate Real Estate Assessments Sent Due to Error

By Katie Pyzyk

Real estate assessments were mailed out to Arlington residents several weeks ago, but there appears to be a glitch with some of them. A number of home owners reported being confused about why they received more than one assessment.

Assessor Tommy Rice explains that there were errors in some addresses, and unit numbers were erroneously omitted on some envelopes. Although the postal service managed to get some of the mailings to the correct recipients, not all made it to their destinations. Therefore, second notices with complete addresses were sent to all affected property owners. The actual assessments were not altered.

Blame apparently lies with the software used by the county’s print shop. Arlington will be recovering the costs of the duplicate mailings from the software vendor.

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Ovechkin Buys New House — Capitals star Alex Ovechkin may be ditching his $1.6 million home in Arlington’s Waycroft-Woodlawn neighborhood for some tonier digs. Ovechkin recently bought a $4.2 million, 11,000 square foot house in Fairfax County. He’ll have some extra time to get settled — the Capitals captain just decided to skip the NHL All-Star game after being suspended for three games. [ProHockeyTalk]

Grocery Store Bike Parking Guide — Need to do some grocery shopping, but worried about where to park your bike while you’re in the store? If so, the BikeArlington web site has just the resource for you: a complete guide to bike parking at 16 Arlington grocery stories. [BikeArlington]

Live Music Comes to Melody Tavern — Live music has come to Melody Tavern (3650 S. Glebe Road), a recently-opened music-themed restaurant/lounge near Potomac Yard in south Arlington. Live jazz and blues performances will start at Melody Tavern tonight, and will continue on nearly every night except Mondays through the end of February. The restaurant will also be holding a grand opening event from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m on Feb. 3. Arlington County granted Melody Tavern a live entertainment permit over the weekend. [Facebook]

Homeless Count Underway — An effort to provide a count of the number of homeless individuals living in Arlington County started at 4:00 this morning and will continue through midnight. The annual volunteer effort is being organized by the Arlington Street People’s Assistance Network. “This local count is part of a nation-wide count that occurs during the last ten days in January in order to collect accurate data, understand trends, justify requests for federal funding, and measure community progress towards preventing and ending homelessness,” A-SPAN said.

Flickr pool photo by Alex

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

30th Anniversary of Air Florida Crash — Thirty years ago today Air Florida Flight 90 took off from Reagan National Airport, slammed into the 14th Street Bridge and plunged into the icy Potomac River, killing 78 people. Only five people on the plane survived the crash. [Wikipedia, Washington Post]

Bondi Releases Statement on Tax Lien — County Board candidate Melissa Bondi has released a statement to supporters regarding the recent revelation of her tax troubles. “Blog commenters very recently have begun attacking me about two issues,” Bondi began. “The attacks have been sudden, nasty, highly personal, and intended to derail the excellent work we have done together as a campaign.” Bondi said that she has hired a tax advisor “to get to the bottom of this as quickly as possible.”

Il Radicchio Back Open After Sewage Backup — Il Radicchio (1801 Clarendon Blvd) closed temporarily on Jan. 3 due to a sewage backup, according to public records. The Italian restaurant reopened on Jan. 6. [Washington Post]

Seller’s Market in Arlington — Only 0.5 percent of all homes in Arlington were listed for sale late last year — a statistic that is a likely indicator of stiff competition between home buyers. [Washington Times]

Flickr pool photo by Divaknevil

Crime Report: Surprise Guest Edition

By ARLnow.com

In this week’s Arlington County crime report, a real estate agent got a bit of a surprise upon entering a for-sale property and discovering someone sleeping there.

UNLAWFUL ENTRY-ARREST, 12/23/11, 500 block of S. 25th Street. On December 23 at 9:30 am, a realtor found that a subject had broken into a property and was sleeping there. Lorenzo Brown, 19, of Landover, MD, was charged with Unlawful Entry and Destruction of Property. He was held on a $5,000 bond.

This week’s crime report also includes several items we’ve already told you about: the arrest of a bank robbery suspect, the robbery of a gas station, several arrests on Christmas Day. See the rest of the report after the jump.

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Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Board Members Argue for New Taxing Powers — Arlington County Board members aren’t too pleased with the Republican-controlled state legislature’s reluctance to grant new taxing power to localities. County Board Chairman Chris Zimmerman called Virginia Republicans “extremists” who want to “wreck government” by not giving localities enough ways to raise revenue. [Sun Gazette]

Arlington Accepts Homeland Security Grants — Arlington will accept nearly $1.35 million in federal homeland security grants, after receiving County Board approval last night. The grants will be used to purchase license plate reading equipment and mobile surveillance trailers, for use by law enforcement agencies throughout the National Capital Region. [Arlington County]

Va. Square Building Sells for $62 Million — The office building at 3601 Wilson Boulevard, known as One Virginia Square, has changed hands. The building was purchased by an investment firm for $61.8 million. The previous owner acquired the building for $42.2 million in 2004. [Washington Business Journal]

New Columbarium at Arlington National Cemetery — Arlington National Cemetery is constructing a new columbarium to hold the cremated remains of more than 20,000 deceased military members. Construction on the building is expected to begin in January and wrap up in mid-2013. [Associated Press]

Flickr pool photo by BrianMKA

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Goldman Sachs Invests in Rosslyn — Investment giant Goldman Sachs has acquired a majority stake in 3 million square feet of office space in Rosslyn. The acquisition includes trophy properties like the gleaming metal-and-glass 1000 and 1100 Wilson Boulevard towers. The office space represents 30 percent of Rosslyn’s 10 million square feet of commercial real estate. [Washington Post, BusinessWire]

County Wants Residents to Stop Smoking in Parks — Arlington’s parks department is planning on politely asking visitors to county parks to refrain from smoking near ballfields, pavilions and playgrounds. The initiative will use signs, not the force of law, to try to get visitors to comply. [Sun Gazette]

Reagan Statue Unveiled at DCA — A 9-foot bronze statue of President Ronald Reagan was unveiled yesterday at the airport that bears his name. The $900,000 statue, located in front of Terminal A of Reagan National Airport, was paid for by the private Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation. [Washington Times]

Flickr pool photo by Christaki

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Arlington Wages High, Growth Low — Arlington residents earn some of the highest weekly wages in the nation ($1,549/week), but the county’s wage growth is slowing. [Sun Gazette]

Songwriters Come to Iota Club — A group of 9 singer-songwriters from around the region will be performing at Iota Club in Clarendon (2832 Wilson Blvd) tonight. Among the musicians scheduled to take the stage are Brittany Jean and Justin Trawick. [Facebook, Clarendon Nights]

Health Care Company Signs Clarendon Lease — A behavioral health care company called ValueOptions has signed a lease for 37,250 square feet of office space in the heart of Clarendon. [CityBiz Real Estate]

Flickr pool by Reid Kasprowicz

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Penzance Buys Another Arlington Building — Local real estate firm Penzance is upping its investment in Arlington. The company just closed a multimillion dollar deal to buy a 7-story office building at 1555 Wilson Boulevard in Rosslyn. The building, which houses tenants like the Washington Business Journal and George Washington University, is across from another Penzance-owned building at 1500 Wilson Boulevard. Penzance plans to renovate the 1500 Wilson Property, while at the same time moving forward with plans to build a large new office building in Clarendon. [CityBiz Real Estate]

AHC Pays Back Loan, Expands to P.G. Co. — Nonprofit, Arlington-based affordable housing developer AHC Inc. has repaid the remaining principal and interest on a $1.5 million loan it received from Arlington County in 1994. The loan was used to buy the Harvey Hall Apartments, a 116-unit affordable apartment complex in Columbia Heights West. AHC was able to repay Arlington the remaining $717,167 on the loan thanks to a refinancing. Meanwhile, AHC is planning to expand its service area to Prince George’s County, Md. [AHC Inc., CityBiz Real Estate]

Groundbreaking for Crystal City ‘Gateway’ Project — The Crystal City Business Improvement District broke ground on a $300,000 project that will beautify a triangular lot that serves as the southern gateway to Crystal City. “It’s part of a larger effort to replace the concrete neo-brutalism [architecture of Crystal City] with modern glass and steel,” writes reporter Michael Lee Pope. A revamped northern gateway is also in the works. [WAMU]

Photo courtesy Jay Cohen

New Apartment Building Coming to Ballston

By ARLnow.com

The Goodyear tire store and service center in Ballston will likely be torn down at some point next year to make way for a new apartment building.

The current one-story building is located at 650 N. Glebe Road, across from Ballston Common Mall and one block from Harris Teeter. A developer is planning to build a new 6 story apartment building on the site, starting next year. The new building, tentatively dubbed “The Crimson on Glebe,” will include some 115 to 150 apartments, with 9,000 square feet of ground floor retail space at the corner of Glebe Road and N. Carlin Springs Road.

Arlington County’s Site Plan Review Committee is expected to discuss the building proposal in November. The developer hopes to start construction on the building next year, with construction wrapping up by mid-2013, according to the Washington Business Journal.

Meanwhile, long range planning for the American Service Center site adjacent to the 650 N. Glebe project is underway. The county’s Long Range Planning Committee is expected to conduct a meeting on the site on Tuesday, Oct. 25.

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