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Hattip Contrarian -- Loudoun assessments dropped last year:
"“You can’t compare what happened in a townhouse to a single-family detached,” he said.
The Sterling district, which has been hit particularly hard by foreclosures, saw a decline in residential property value of about 30 percent, whereas the Blue Ridge District on the western end of the county saw a decline of about 13 percent. Condos in Sterling lost nearly half their value on average, dropping from a total assessed value of about $440 million last year to just under $250 million this year.
“Property owners are affected in drastically different ways,” said Lori Waters, R-Broad Run".
19 comments:
Lemme try this again...botched up the first one...
Hi folks,
I don't hear much about the Springfield area in here. I have viewed a few properties that look nice but what about the area? Is it a war zone, partly so, or are there good areas to live in there? I would appreciate any thoughts.
Tom C
That's essentially where we're looking as well. No, it is not all a war zone. In fact, as far as I can tell the main reason it feels like one is that the only stores in Franconia Springfield mall other than the anchors are all teeny-bopper stores, so you have a bunch of young thug-wannabees congregating there.
There are dodgy areas, I don't like the area NW of Lee High School, too many beat-up cars, no trees, and the nicer houses, you have to walk through the bad areas to get to the metro.
That's why we've been looking in the acres upon acres of townhouses towards Kingstowne. Because it's still walkable to FS station, has decently rated schools, and doesn't feel dodgy. But the houses in Springfield are definitely coming down to earth quick, and we need to start seriously considering them. So far we've only walked Beverly Forest (which we loved) and Beverly Park (which is rapidly going back to its' rightful place as good sized rental housing for the base). So, anything else you find out would be great. Do you live in this area now?
I've also liked what we've seen of Burke (one suburb to the west, but still on the VRE).
Basically we ended up in this general area because the schools were way better than Huntington, and the area near the metro didn't give off that scary feeling that Huntington does. (although 2 of my husband's friends live stumbling distance away from it).
Tom C, I'm looking in the West Springfield area. Prices still need to come down a good bit. It seems that a lot of the inventory was taken off of the market for the winter, and I believe there's a big shadow inventory out there. Anyway, you asked about the neighborhoods.
I don't know of any bad neighborhoods from Kings Park, south along Rolling Road to the Fairfax Co Parkway and west to Burke. They all seem pretty ok. There are good schools, the neighborhoods seem pretty safe. I think most of the crime here is bored teenagers.
I know people in West Springfield who drive to work, take the Pentagon bus & catch public transportation form there, and slug. VRE also has a station. Once the HOT lanes are complete I may consider looking for slugs myself.
Downside is that much of the area was developed in the 60s and 70s, which means all of the houses are some variation of the ranch. And everything is pricing them as if they're made of silver (down from gold two years ago). I can think of only a handful of houses in the area that are interesting.
Thanks Contrarian!
Almost time to go pick up that CHEAP vaca house in Phoenix (rather Scottsdale!)!
How's about one in Sedona - anyone know what's going on in that Market ??
Or is Sedona too Fab & differant to drop like a rock like the rest of Az is??
Cara,
No, I am still in Florida awaiting my PCS orders. Still fixing up my house down here too. I was looking at some houses in the kingstown area too, having been told that the mall area is pretty rough. I saw some nice houses in the mix though, so I will want to look there when I do my House Hunting. I like the looks of Burke too, saw a few nice homes there.
I have been told to avoid the Hybla Valley, that its not a good area...but I was told there are good opportunities in Centerville, which is a bit far but there are VanPools to the Navy Yard from there (40 minute at 6am.)
So I am learning. Thanks for your reply and thanks to Ralph too.
BTW, I saw a listing in Alexandria yesterday that said. House in suction status...ha, where does that leave the seller...too funny.
Amazing. A knockdown-rebuild on my block was completed in less than six months, put on the market in December and today has a sold sign on it. Asking price $1.2 million. Over twice what was paid for the knockdown. My favorite feature of the house: The french windows on the backside visible from the front door that should lead to a deck, but since there wasn't enough room left in the back yard, they just nailed a couple of two-by-fours across it. Check out the pix here:
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/4622-15th-St-N-Arlington-VA-22207/12066563_zpid/
The first picture is, for some reason, the original house that was knocked down this summer; the rest are from the new place.
This is, in a sense, good for me, as it props up the value of my little place. But I'm really, really stunned. Are there people with that much money sloshing around? How can they not worry about things like, oh, your builder might be out of business by September so forget the warranty on the house that got thrown together in three months. If there are morons willing to buy in this market, and apparently pay top dollar, I'm giving serious consideration to just putting my place up for sale, sitting on the cash, and renting for a couple of years....
G, I went past that house. It is directly across from a church or school and houses on the block are very close together. On the other hand it was built by Sunnyside/Springberg, which is one of the higher quality buiders, and the commuting location into DC is great. It looks as if other, very similar houses are going up around it, which probably helps cost mgt. Probably appeals to young families who'd like one of those McMansions but couldn't quite stretch the budget for it.
G, yes, that house is expensive, but there are plenty of other knock-down new-build houses going up in this part of N. Arlington. One a few blocks away just got started three weeks ago. Which all demonstrates that regardless of the wishes of many of the people who post here, prices are likely to remain high in N. Arlington.
Gruntled: When I was looking at places in 2002, there were a bunch of new townhomes in Fairfax where the builder had "just nailed a couple of two-by-fours across it" instead of building a deck.
We asked the builder's representative what the deal was. He perked up and said that that was a "Juliet Balcony", as if it was a great feature. The look my realtor gave the builder's representative was priceless. It basically said "You've got to be sh__ting me..."
from the article contrarian posted:
"The assessor’s office on Friday already received its first application for a review from a property owner lobbying for a $7,000 increase on the assessment on his approximately $160,000 property, Kaufman said."
Is this common -- someone appealing their assessment because they think it's too low? Are people really willing to pay higher taxes because they think having a higher assessment might make their house sell for more?
Ralph!
Glad to have found you! We walked around Van Dorn Village this weekend, and determined, that yes, it was indeed nice tidy townhouses and convenient to the metro. (i.e. it's fine, but not our first choice of location or neighborhood, and we don't want to pay $300k for it unless we "have" to).
So, we haven't had a chance to check out the areas that are walkable to the VRE stations in Springfield or Burke. Any insight into those areas? Like a neighborhood in particular that you like within 1.5 miles of a stop?
A new hire at work is coming soon and intent on buying upon arrival in Springfield, so he may be even more interested than me.
Tom C. If there's a particular house or houses you've spotted online and you want to ask about the nieghborhood, let me know and I can scout it out, as I'm looking in the same general area, but purely in the preliminary stage (can't buy til August at the soonest).
And I totally second Ralph's statement, I seriously think most of the "crime" here is bored middle class teenagers.
Tom C
I love the kingstowne area, btw. But that's because I live there. There's a lot of nice houses and neighborhoods in Kingstowne, I would just avoid anything built after 2002, because the buyers will soon all be underwater, and the building may be of questionable quality (although I have not personally verified this of anything in Kingstowne). The commute to the Navy Yard from here is 15 minutes at 6 am, 25 at 7:00. Hard to beat that.
Cara,
OK, now that sounds like a good commute time from Kingstown. I am still all over the map, literally. I think close-in, but believe I will miss the quiet of the suburbs, then I think of the suburbs and dread the long commute. I have been focusing on Burke and Alexandria areas, but now am expanding out to see what a ratio I get from housing cost to commute time. I don't want to be house poor after taking a big salary increase to come up there.
Anyway, I will keep you posted. Looks like my house hunting trip will be around the first week of February, and I am mostly just confused about the Burke/Alex. or Herndon/Vienna angles.
I'm listening y'all.
Tom C,
A commute via public transit may take time, which is a cost in and of itself, but is way less stressful. The metro website has a trip calculator (or the old version did) which will allow you to find out exactly how long the trip would be from Vienna and how frequent the trains are. Personally, I equate a 20 minute drive to a 40 minute combined metro ride plus walk as being a fair and equal trade, stress/time wise. Then again, if my commute doesn't involve walking, I'm not committed enough to get any other exercise...
On the bright side, if there are things that pull you to both close in and further suburbia, that probably just means you'll be happy where-ever you buy so long as the price isn't causing you angst. Much of the close-in has quite a suburban feel, though, which may actually be part of why it's so expensive.
Tom C, Ralph, Leo?,
So I just took a look at the Burke TH listings on redfin and frankly. Lots of stuff out there for under $250k that's totally walkable to the two VRE stations!!! Woohoo! We may have a winner.
So, 2 questions, does anyone have a handle on rents in those neighborhoods? (i.e. is the rent also less than in Kingstowne ~1700 TH in walking distance to metro). And the scary part (for me since I'm not in a position to buy now) is that on frankly there are more listings under contract than not amongst the heavily discounted (relative to tax assessment) townhomes. So, this makes me worry that the supply of ones that I might like will dry up by August. Or is that paranoid given how many townhome developments are right next to those VRE stops?
Cara,
I obviously don't know much about the rents, so I am no help there. However, I have seen a big uptick in properties hitting the market in the last week. Maybe it is just circumstance but I think the floodgates are opening after the end of year moratorium and pause...
Lots of stuff at my level all over the place, and I am not shy of sweat equity potential as long as its not structural or gross.
You're right, I am likely to be happy finding a house anywhere that I don't have to stress about having overpaid or overextended my debt threshold.
And we go on...
My house in Loudoun lost $140,000, about 15%, in value. Needless to say, we're happy that our huge tax bill will decline.
Still waiting to see what the tax man bringth on our other house in Fairfax. Anyone know when those assessments go out?
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