real estate

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.

Tomorrow is a very important day.

To honor this big day, you are more than likely to see oodles upon oodles of adorable pet photos floating around your social feeds, websites and more.

Yes, Thursday, February 20 is Love Your Pet Day. And, like so many in our area and beyond, the squad at Arlington Realty, Inc. loves its pets.

In addition to our furry friends periodically popping by the office for a treat, we know the importance a pet can make in a real estate search. In fact, in many cases, a pet policy can totally make or break a deal.

So, if you have Fido, Mittens or whatever your best friend may be named along for the journey, we want to ensure your entire family settles into an optimal scenario.

From an expansive yard for Spot to run to a cat-friendly condo to call your own, when you’re ready to embark on your pet-friendly search, we’re ready to help.

As of February 17, there are 112 detached homes, 13 townhouses and 63 condos for sale throughout Arlington County. In total, 7 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: Early Real Estate Market Conditions Are…

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: How is the market shaping up for 2020? Have things cooled down or picked up where they left off last year?

Answer: The early Arlington/Northern Virginia market conditions are… crazy. After a fast and furious 2019 for condos and detached/townhouse properties in Arlington, it looks like we’re in for another year of fast-paced sales and strong appreciation.

In some of the most in-demand markets (e.g. R-B Corridor condos and $800k-$1.2M detached) pre-inspections (buyers do an inspection before making an offer), zero contingencies and escalations 3-10% over the asking price no longer guarantee an accepted offer because there are multiple buyers offering those terms.

From the activity I’ve seen on both the buyer and seller side of this market, it seems like sellers can safely increase their asking price by 3-5% over what 2019 sales support and soon enough appraisers will have the necessary data points to support these increases, thereby eliminating much of the current appraisal risk for financed purchases.

Activity Over The Last 30 Days

The market fired up within the first couple weeks of January, but you know I never like to make statements about the market without also backing it up with data. So here are some highlights on the type of activity we’ve had over the last ~30 days (excluding relisted homes, Coops, and age-restricted housing). The data is of 7 a.m. Tuesday, February 18:

  • 223 homes listed for sale
  • Of those 223 homes, 150 (67.3%) are sold or under contract
  • Of the 150 homes sold or under contract, only 16 (10.7%) were on the market for 10+ days and 97 (64.7%) were on the market for 6 days or less (indicative of multiple offers)
  • Of the 73 homes still for sale, 37 (50.7%) are still within their first week on the market (high probability of going under contract soon) and 16 (21.9%) are $1.7M+
  • Of the 25 that sold, only one sold for below the original asking price and it was in a condo building with a major pending lawsuit that makes it nearly impossible for a buyer to get a loan. 7 have sold for over ask.

New Supply Increasing, Total Supply Decreasing Less

There is a glimmer of hope for buyers amongst all the competition and price appreciation. Arlington had a YoY increase in new listings for December ’19 and January ’20 for the first time since October ’18 (Amazon HQ2 announced in November ’18). While demand is still outpacing new supply, resulting in 45(!) consecutive months of YoY decreases in housing supply, the drop in YoY supply was below 20% for the first time since October ’18 (-8.8% drop). So what does that mean in plain English? It’s getting less bad.

(more…)

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:

3939 N. Wakefield Street
5 BD/4 BA, 1 half bath single-family home
Agent: McEnearney Associates, Inc
Listed: $1,829,000
Open: Sunday 1-3 p.m.

 

315 N. Garfield Street
5 BD/3 BA, 2 half bath single-family home
Agent: Kw Metro Center
Listed: $1,495,000
Open: Saturday 1-4 p.m.

 

5214 26th Road N.
3 BD/2 BA single-family home
Agent: Berkshire Hathaway Homeservices Penfed Realty
Listed: $1,000,000
Open: Sunday 1-4 p.m.

 

6721 Little Falls Road
4 BD/2 BA, 1 half bath single-family home
Agent: Ttr Sotheby’s International Realty
Listed: $885,000
Open: Sunday 1-3 p.m.

 

2037 N. Cameron Street
3 BD/3 BA, 1 half bath villa/townhouse
Agent: Keller Williams Realty/Lee Beaver & Associates
Listed: $790,000
Open: Sunday 1-4 p.m.

 

1804 S. Nelson Street
2 BD/2 BA single-family home
Agent: Century 21 Redwood Realty
Listed: $680,000
Open: Sunday 2-4 p.m.

 

1045 N. Utah Street #2-109
1 BD/1 BA condo
Agent: Ttr Sotheby’s International Realty
Listed: $435,000
Open: Sunday 1-4 p.m.

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Warren Blasts Bloomberg at Arlington Event — “Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts said Thursday that Michael R. Bloomberg should not be the Democratic presidential nominee because of newly surfaced comments he made 12 years ago in which he said the end of a discriminatory housing practice had helped contribute to the 2008 financial crisis.” [New York Times]

Warren Draws Big Crowd at Wakefield — Last night’s Elizabeth Warren presidential campaign event at the Wakefield High School gym drew national media, a crowd of thousands and lines that stretched around the block. The gym’s scoreboard was programmed to say “ELIZABETH WARREN” and “20:20.” Warren later addressed the overflow crowd outside the school.

Bike Rack at EFC Metro Has Cost Millions — “Metro has spent $3.8 million and taken five years to build two unfinished bike racks — at East Falls Church and Vienna Metro Stations. WMATA originally budgeted $600,000 for each rack, but the price tag has soared to $1.9 million each. The covered bike shelters will house 92 bikes, putting the price tag at more than $20,000 per bike… The projects were supposed to be completed in December of 2015 but remain unfinished in 2020.” [WJLA]

EPA May Move Out of Arlington — “The Trump administration is planning to move the Environmental Protection Agency from leased space at Potomac Yard to the federally owned William Jefferson Clinton complex in downtown D.C… The GSA plans to shift workers from One Potomac Yard in Arlington starting in March 2021, boosting occupancy in the Clinton building by about 1,200 employees.” [Washington Business Journal]

Megamansion Skews Arlington Real Estate Stats — The average sale price of a single-family home in Arlington was more than $2 million, though that figure was skewed by the nearly $45 million sale of an estate along the Potomac River, the priciest home sale ever in the D.C. area. [InsideNova]

Arlington Startup Sells to Texas Firm — “Mobile Posse announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Digital Turbine, a mobile delivery and app advertising company headquartered in Austin, TX. The acquisition by Digital Turbine builds on both firms’ strategies of creating frictionless mobile app and mobile content solutions for carriers and OEMs, thus creating effective advertising solutions for brands and app developers.” [Mobile Posse via Potomac Tech Wire]

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.

In case you were wondering, Arlington’s market is not really seasonal.

The conventional wisdom that “spring is the best time to sell” doesn’t take into account the whole picture. The “spring market” here started in January — January 3 to be exact, but any day is a good day to sell in Arlington.

Waiting until the snow melts (Snow? What snow?!), flowers bloom and the temperature stays above freezing to list your home is a thing of the past. In Arlington, buyers are looking every day of the year just hoping to find somewhere to call home.

While it’s true that more buyers and sellers transact real estate in the warmer months, that’s because there is more inventory then. For sellers, that means you have more competition for your buyer.

You can’t time most markets and the housing market is no exception. What you can do is always properly prepare your house, and price your home to sell, not sit. Days on market are your friend when the count is low, specifically three weeks or less. Once it creeps past a few weeks, buyers begin to see your home as stale inventory and think they can get a discount. This happens — even here in Arlington!

Our market still operates with an overlay of general caution and a fear of overpaying; caution is not totally thrown to the wind. Buyers know what a home is worth; while they may be willing to overpay slightly, even that has its limits.

The best thing you can do is follow the guidance of a trusted, proven Arlington real estate agent to prepare your property before going live on the multiple listing service. You only get one chance to make a first impression, so address the easy stuff like peeling/old paint, too-worn hardwood floors and have the garden spruced up as well. Yes — power wash that walkway, pare down the extra contents inside and ensure your property is as clean as can be.

Mitigate signs of past issues like an old leak so that buyers don’t assume the worst, and if something is broken, have it fixed or replaced. Pretend you are a picky buyer, and address the things that you know would bug them, even if you’ve been willing to live with those. It all but ensures a buyer will be willing to pay top dollar for your home if they feel they can just move right in.

This week in Arlington, some 62 homeowners listed their properties for sale. 59 buyers ratified contracts, and 32 of those were on homes listed within the past seven days. Right now, there are 150 available properties for sale.

Some interesting notes:

Of the 32 homes that went under contract their first week on the market, 29 were priced below $1 million.

Of the 150 available homes, the median price is $1.22m and the average is $1.44m.

The Andors Real Estate Group’s new website will be up and running next week. In the interim, 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.

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Lots of New State Laws May Be Coming — “In the 35 days since the 2020 legislative session began, Democratic lawmakers in Virginia advanced laws to restrict access to guns, raise the minimum wage, decriminalize marijuana and ease restrictions on abortion. They sprinted to pass hundreds of bills before a deadline: February 11th, ‘crossover day,’ when all bills must be passed by at least one chamber or be scrapped.” [WAMU]

Plastic Bag Tax Among Bills Under Consideration — “The Senate passed a version of the bag fee bill shortly before midnight that would impose the five cent tax in Northern Virginia but allow localities elsewhere in the state to decide for themselves whether to have the fee… The House also voted to ban foam takeout containers starting in a few years.” [WTOP]

Tomorrow: Winter Bike to Work Day — “It’s cold outside but that doesn’t mean you have to give up riding your bike. In fact, we want to encourage you to warm up to cold- weather biking on International Winter Bike to Work Day. This year we will have our pit stop at Gravelly Point on the Mount Vernon Trail.” [Eventbrite]

Per-Square-Foot Home Prices — “The city of Falls Church zoomed past the District of Columbia to be the local jurisdiction where home-buyers spent more, per square foot, than anywhere else in January. The median per-square-foot cost of $453 for Falls Church property for the month was up 13 percent from a year before, while the $449 recorded in Washington was down 7.2 percent… Arlington placed third, up 9 percent to $399 per square foot.” [InsideNova]

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.

Happy Valentine’s Week, lovebirds.

And, if you somehow forgot that V-Day is in only two days, you are incredibly welcome for the reminder!

Whether you totally dig this affection-filled holiday or hate it beyond belief, now is an incredible time to be dedicating a little bit of that love and attention toward real estate.

Okay, so the home of your dreams may not give you a bouquet of roses or a box of heart-shaped candy. But it can prove to be an incredible investment and a major game changer in your quality of life.

If and when you’re tired of writing that landlord of yours a check each month, the team at Arlington Realty Inc. is prepared to help you achieve your home-owning dreams.

Just as in the world of love, there’s much more to it than a simple swipe right. You’ll want a team that truly gets it, has your best interests at heart and the experience to back it up.

And now on to this week’s numbers…

As of February 10, there are 112 detached homes, 15 townhouses and 60 condos for sale throughout Arlington County. In total, 6 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: Resale Value of New Construction

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: We bought a new home in Arlington five years ago and are considering selling, but we’re concerned about the resale value of new homes given the amount of newer homes being built in the market. Do you have any data on how new homes do when they resell for the first time?

Answer: The new/newer construction market is the only Arlington sub-market that is anywhere close to properly supplied, with almost 4.5 months of inventory available (number of homes for sale divided by average sales per month = months of inventory).

Most housing economists say that a market is at balance for buyers and sellers when there is six months of inventory. For comparison, sub-markets like one-and-two-bedroom condos, <$1M detached homes, and townhouses each have between one and three weeks of supply.

New Homes Are Appreciating…

There’s a logical case to be made that when a new home (built within the last decade) gets resold, it will struggle to compete with other brand-new homes given how similar these homes have been over the last ten years, combined with the amount of supply in the market. Fortunately for owners of recently built homes who may sell in the near future, that logic does not prevail and new homes are being sold for more the second time around. 

…But Just A Little

There aren’t a ton of data points yet (most people buying expensive new construction will be there for a long time), but just enough that I think we can start to get a good idea of how new homes (that aren’t new anymore) from the past decade perform when they’re resold into a market with many similar new homes.

To study this, I identified homes built since 2012 that have since resold, excluding homes that sold within one year of their original purchase or any homes with major improvements since the original purchase or clearly left in disrepair.

Here’s a summary of my findings:

  • 53 homes met the criteria, nearly all in North Arlington
  • Average appreciation on resale was 6.7%
  • Average annualized appreciation was 2.1%
  • Only seven homes sold for less than they were bought
  • Sixteen homes sold for at least 10% above what they were bought
  • On average, it took 64 days for these homes to go under contract, about 30% longer than the entire detached home market during that same period

Cause For Concern?

For those who own a new(er) home, you may be underwhelmed by these numbers relative to what the rest of the market is doing — compared to other detached homes in the Arlington market, new homes are appreciating at a noticeably slower rate.

Part of that is due to the fact that there’s a much higher supply of similar new/newer homes for sale so that will naturally keep prices more stable. Another reason is that it takes longer for the upper end of the market to appreciate, so the growth we’ve seen <$1.25M hasn’t impacted the $1.5M+ market as much.

So is a new home a bad investment because it appreciates less than other homes? Not at all.

First, one of the reasons buyers pay a premium for new/newer homes is because your maintenance and repair costs should be significantly lower for the first 10-15 years. Investment value isn’t only about what you buy and sell for, it’s also about how much you spend between the two transactions keeping the house operating (often more valuable than appreciation).

Second, for most families, a new/newer home offers square footage and a floor plan they can’t find anywhere else so the non-financial/quantifiable benefits are significant. Opportunities to customize to taste also factor into the non-financial/quantifiable return that owners may receive.

The new construction market operates differently from the rest of the housing market. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to me at [email protected]. And a quick plug for two custom homes on ¼ acre lots I’m selling in Bellevue Forest, being built by James McMullin, Arlingtonian and third-generation Arlington developer/builder. Demolition and excavation will start in the next month!

If you’d like a question answered in my weekly column or to set-up an in-person meeting to discuss local real estate, please send an email to [email protected]. To read any of my older posts, visit the blog section of my website at www.EliResidential.com. Call me directly at (703) 539-2529.

Eli Tucker is a licensed Realtor in Virginia, Washington D.C., and Maryland with RLAH Real Estate, 4040 N. Fairfax Dr. #10C Arlington, VA 22203, (703) 390-9460.

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:

1607 N. Bryan Street
6 BD/5 BA, 1 half bath single-family home
Agent: Re/Max West End
Listed: $2,325,000
Open: Sunday 1-3 p.m.

 

4523 Wilson Boulevard
3 BD/3 BA, 1 half bath villa/townhouse
Agent: Washington Fine Properties
Listed: $1,299,000
Open: Saturday 1-3 p.m.

 

2500 N. Upshur Street
3 BD/2 BA, 1 half bath single-family home
Agent: Kw Metro Center
Listed: $986,000
Open: Saturday 1-4 p.m.

 

261 N. Park Drive
3 BD/3 BA single-family home
Agent: Long & Foster Real Estate Inc
Listed: $799,900
Open: Sunday 1-4 p.m.

 

1101 16th Street S.
2 BD/2 BA villa/townhouse
Agent: Neighborhood Real Estate Llc
Listed: $699,000
Open: Saturday 10 a.m.-12 p.m.

 

4880 28th Street S. #B
2 BD/2 BA condo
Agent: Samson Properties
Listed: $535,000
Open: Sunday 1-4 p.m.

 

4933 7th Road S.
3 BD/2 BA, 2 half bath condo
Agent: Compass
Listed: $475,000
Open: Sunday 2-4 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.

My name is James Andors and I am thrilled to be continuing what Ron Cathell started eight years ago with Just Listed.

This column helps thousands of Arlingtonians keep their finger on the pulse of our aggressive and fast-paced Arlington housing market and you can expect I’ll do the same. Each Friday morning I’ll keep you thoroughly informed about our local real estate market as well as dig into relevant topics impacting housing, market trends, inventory and where we believe we’re headed.

My family moved to Arlington in 1993. Our team, the Andors Real Estate Group, was established by Louis Andors and we’ve been specializing in Arlington real estate for 25 years. Over the years, we have helped hundreds of Arlington buyers and sellers move in, move out and move around this great community. I grew up here, went to Arlington County public schools, and I am very fond of this special part of the Capital region we all enjoy so much. It’s a pleasure to be writing this and I hope you enjoy!

This week has been more of the same for Arlington home buyers and sellers — we’re very short on inventory and many homes sell within just days of hitting the market. Sometimes homes sell before the “For Sale” sign ever goes up, though I expect we’ll see less of that going forward.

Our local multiple listing service, BrightMLS, has just finished the rollout of new Coming Soon/Off-market rules and regulations effective February 1. The main change — homes must be listed in BrightMLS within one business day of any public marketing. The home can be entered into Active status (ready for showings) or Coming Soon status (no showings allowed yet). This new policy is designed to gain maximum exposure for sellers and provide the widest possible selection for buyers.

This week some 64 Arlington sellers listed their homes for sale, while buyers ratified 41 contracts. 24 of the ratified contracts were on homes listed within the last seven days.

Last week we had 149 active listings and this week we’re left with 161. Absorption dropped just a bit this week — I expect the uptick in holdover inventory will be under contract by next week’s column…

Interest rates have stayed low this past week triggering a huge boom in mortgage refinances.

Current homeowners — this can save you money! Refinance applications are up 15% from last week and are now at their highest demand levels since 2013 per the Mortgage Bankers Association. They estimate the average savings of incoming refinances will be almost $300 per month.

New mortgage applications are up 5% this week. The average 30-year fixed rate mortgage has held steady at 3.5%, no appreciable change from last week. If you’re a little farther into the ownership of your home, the 15 year is as low as 3%.

Next week we’ll talk a bit about why not all Arlington homes sell right away and how you can ensure your home ends up IN the market instead of sitting ON the market.

Please feel free to comment below and I look forward to writing for you next week! Additionally, if there are specifics you would like to see me cover, you can leave those in the comments as well.

The Andors Real Estate Group’s new website will be up and running next week. In the interim, 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.

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Amazon Buys Pentagon City Site — “Amazon.com Inc. has quietly purchased the 6.2-acre Pentagon City site where its first pair of HQ2 towers will be built. Acorn Development LLC, an Amazon subsidiary that is often listed when the company files for permits or makes land acquisitions, purchased the Metropolitan Park site on Jan. 15 from JBG Smith Properties (NYSE: JBGS) for $154.95 million, according to Arlington County records.” [Washington Business Journal]

Waverly Hills is Hot — “‘Hot’ is a subjective term in any context, including real estate. While it’s possible to measure the number of sales, price increases and how quickly homes sell, what draws one buyer doesn’t always appeal to other buyers.
According to Redfin real estate brokerage, Willowsford in Ashburn, Va., and Waverly Hills in Arlington are the No. 1 and No. 5 hottest neighborhoods in the country.” [Washington Post]

Next Step for GMU Expansion — “University officials released a request for proposals Tuesday, looking for developers interested in teaming up with Mason to build a new home for the Institute of Digital Innovation on its Virginia Square property. The building is set to include a mix of uses across its 460,000 square feet, with room for classes and research labs alongside space for companies big and small looking to partner with the university.” [Washington Business Journal]

High Water Bill Saga Continues — Residents are still seeking answers to the recent spate of high water bills, even though it appears that the drought — and outdoor irrigation — during that time period is to blame. The COO of Arlington’s Dept. of Environmental Services “said about 3,900 people, 11 percent of the county’s residential customers, had their bills double. He said during the 2016 drought that number was about 2,000 to 2,500 people.” [WUSA 9]

Macy’s to Close Stores — Facing major retail headwinds, Macy’s is planning to close 125 of its stores, nearly a fifth of all of its current stores, over the next three years. So far the exact location of most of the closures have not been announced. There are two Macy’s stores in Arlington, at mall in Pentagon City and Ballston. [Wall Street Journal]

Va. Lawmakers Considering Stronger SLAPP Law — “Many states have enacted tough laws making it harder to get away with so-called SLAPP suits: nuisance litigation designed to bury its targets in paperwork and fees. Virginia, however, is considered friendlier to those kinds of filings, and some experts and advocates say that has become a problem.” [Washingtonian]

View More Stories