Dulles Home Guy

Homes and Trends in DC's Dulles Area

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DC Airport Authority: $1.3B For DullesRail

Posted by dulleshomeguy on July 11, 2009

Dulles Airport authority is selling $1.3B worth of bonds to fund the phase II DullesRail extention from Wiele Ave to Ashburn.

This is merely the first in several bond offerings.

WBJ:

According to a statement, the bonds will be the authority’s first to be secured by revenue from the Dulles Toll Road. The debt sale hasn’t yet received credit ratings.

The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority will use toll revenue to help finance and build the Metrorail expansion project to Dulles International Airport.

The 23-mile rail line will link Metro’s existing system with Dulles airport as well as Tysons Corner and Loudoun County.

Western Fairfax land owners (mostly commercial) are set to vote to fund their part to construct 3 stations:

  • Reston Pkwy
  • Herndon-Monroe
  • Oak Hill/Route 28

The 51% vote is looking iffy.

Rail line will construct straight to the airport otherwise promises the airport authority.

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Blogging: Social Media Keystone

Posted by dulleshomeguy on July 10, 2009

At the recent WordPress blogging platform conference WordCamp MidAtlantic 2009 in Baltimore MD, the key note speaker Anil Dash had some things to say about the state of the social media sphere and referenced blogging as the transformative social media keystone.

Anil Dash made a splash not only appearing at the conference but speaking at what audiences see as a competitor.

Dash is the vice president of Six Apart, the company that produced the early-to-market blogging platform TypePad.

WordPress:  Blogging By Storm

For the uninitiated, WordPress (the platform on which DullesHomeGuy.com is published) has become a free flowing/volunteer developing blogging platform similar to what Linux is to Microsoft Windows.

Of course, bloggers/writers/content providers themselves are mostly unpaid and volunteer their talents, ideas mostly out of a passion for their subject.

WordPress adherants and self appointed software developers spend hours tweaking and improving the technical side of WordPress and are very passionate about changes.

Architects have established a culture of feedback and mostly get a thumbs up as told by continuing success of the product.

David Vs. Goliath

As is often the case, early-to-market platforms fade as newer competitors emerge.

Typepad to Eblogger to WordPress?

Eblogger/blogspot/blogger.com emerged as a leading competitor over the course of the late 2000s.

Google spotted and bought up the startup and integrated it into its expanding offerings.

For independent minded techies, Google now supplants Microsoft as the too powerful villain, fueling the development of WordPress.

As Social Media Spins…

Blogging has become the keystone on which the social media realm is spinning says Dash.

The major media focuses on myspace and facebook which misses the systemic impact of social media.

Those platforms are merely the bling communication devices that are supplanting now old school and spam filled email.

Commercial Developers:  Heads Up!

The DC area has a lot of bubbling under social media entrepreneurial activity focused in Northwest, Bethesda-Rockville MD and Reston-Oak Hill VA.

Commercial real estate developers would be wise to key an eye on potential future users of their buildings.

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Kincora: Industrial Buildings at Nokes Blvd

Posted by dulleshomeguy on July 8, 2009

Developers of the proposed Kincora development at the SW corner of Route 7 and Rt. 28 in Sterling/Ashburn VA propose switching the free standing office buildings at Nokes Blvd to industrial uses (in proposed development plan) as publically stated by a developer representative at the recent Loudoun Board of Supervisors hearings regarding construction of a minor league baseball stadium at the site.

“We have interest from light assembly and data center customers to occupy buildings on that site.”

As part of the initial overall proposed package, which has yet to gain supervisor approval, Kincora’s developers had placed office buildings at the corner of Nokes and Rt. 28.

Now with a glut of empty area offices–mostly in Fairfax’s portion of Route 28 (South), Loudoun (north Rt. 28) continues to attract industrial use attention.

The Kincora land is very narrow at this junction and this area is quite a distance away (quarter mile?) from the proposed integrated town center/mixed uses near the conditionally approved baseball stadium.

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Herndon Northside Metro Access

Posted by dulleshomeguy on July 8, 2009

Northside pedistrian access from Herndon Parkway and nearby Spring Street is debated with the Herndon City council.

Fairfax Times:

Much of the logical area in which a kiss-and-ride facility could be planned—generally the 500 block of Herndon Parkway–belongs to private land owners who may not support the idea.

“We don’t have the flexibility to force anybody to do anything,” he said. “The Town has no authority to push it, force it to make it happen.”

Herndon landowners are under pressure by the economy and anti-metro groups in Tysons to vote “no” on the phase II taxing district to help pay for construction of 3 western Fairfax County metrorail stations.

DullesRail is currently under construction in the Tysons area and is approved and funded to Wiele Ave in Reston.

Herndon-Monroe station would be cheaper to construct than the Reston Parkway station or Oak Hill Station near Rt. 28 as H-M already has its parking garage and bus transit center constructed and operational.

Dulles airport authority owns the toll road access road land where the stations would construct and has promised to build the rail lines with or without Western Fairfax stations.

The airport is funding the airport station itself.

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Leesburg VA Fireworks Viewing Spot

Posted by dulleshomeguy on July 4, 2009

mello-yelloBy now, its widely known that Leesburg’s Independence Day parade through old town and the fireworks at Ida Lee Park (915pm) are the largest July 4th celebration in the Dulles area.

But what if a friends and family “grilling event” is scheduled in your own back yard?

And you still want the flavor of an in-person fireworks display?

In the past couple years, many Leesburgers have come to the conclusion they can have their BBQ and view the fireworks too–without the Ida Lee exit traffic hassles.

Taking advantage of Leesburg’s hilly topography, crowds gather at the Kohls/SuperTarget parking lot and across Edwards Ferry Road at the Staples parking lot–both of which lie up on a ridge over looking WalMart with a clear view towards the fireworks.

Powers that be don’t like the hundreds that gather in a “flash mob”– in an unofficial way on what technically is private property.

But upon conclusion of the fireworks, crowds quickly zip away back to their subdivisions in about 15 minutes.

Most police are tied up at Ida Lee with the thousands there.

Officers who do arrive are on standby and are outnumbered.

If you hesitate or stop alongside US 15 Bypass, you will be immediately noodled into moving or ticketed as stopping alongside this expressway is verboten.

Happy Fourth where ever you decide to spend it!

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Organic Farms, Subdivision Amenity

Posted by dulleshomeguy on July 2, 2009

Organic farms are the new subdivision amenity according to NYT:

…realized a 61 percent premium on the sale of its sites, compared with similar parcels with no farm nearby; and claimed a $2.8 million pretax profit by selling 785 of 800 lots, while keeping 1,000 acres open.

“We have 16,000 subdivisions around golf courses, where developers found they could charge a lot premium of 25 to 50 percent over comparable tract subdivision. But most people who live on golf courses do not play golf.”

This new land use mixing is a challenge for stuck-in-the-eighties zoning rules with separate agriculture, residential, commercial and industrial.

In Fairfax County, Blueberry Hill fits this profile though the homes have no direct views of the farm.


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Freddie Mac Allows 125% Refis

Posted by dulleshomeguy on July 2, 2009

Freddie Mac is now allowing mortgage refinancing at 25% greater than a home’s value.

This is an attempt to aid homeowners who are underwater (owe more than house is worth) to refiance from adjustable rate loans to fixed loans.

…qualified borrowers will be able to obtain McLean-based Freddie Mac’s (NYSE:FRE) Relief Refinance Mortgages with loan amounts up to 125 percent of the current value of their property.

From what I’m hearing on the street:  “Who wants to refi, even if you can qualify, if you’ve ‘lost’ $100,000 on your house?”

About 50% of Dulles area homeowners are underwater on their mortgages.

Many neighborhoods exceed -30% price declines which will resolve towards zero when distress sales are eliminated.

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Reston Company Launches SmartPhone

Posted by dulleshomeguy on July 1, 2009

A Reston company launches its version of a smart phone with a twist:

WaPo:

…will combine terrestrial wireless service with its upcoming satellite service.

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Fairfax County To Become Giant City?

Posted by dulleshomeguy on July 1, 2009

Fairfax County executive proposes to change the status of Fairfax County into that of a city according to WaPo:

Griffin told the Board of Supervisors that city status would allow Fairfax greater autonomy over taxes and transportation.

But it would also turn the tables on the nearby capital city: With 1 million residents, a new Fairfax City would dwarf the District of Columbia, which has fewer than 600,000.

The idea has intrigued some supervisors because it would help Fairfax County gain control over its road network.

Fairfax could simply negotiate with state officials to take control of the roads.

But by attaining city status, officials would gain greater authority to raise taxes and fees to pay for road maintenance and operations.

The Virginia Department of Transportation is running out of money for basic maintenance, such as median mowing and road striping, and state lawmakers have deadlocked over how best to provide the money necessary to alleviate congestion in Northern Virginia.

As the state of Virginia pays for almost no roadwork in northern Virginia due to political wrangling and borrowing from the state’s transportation fund, NoVa is on the short end of the stick with road improvements.

Fairfax City and Falls Church are their own independent counties/cities.

Maybe Fairfax City could become “Lil Fairfax”.

Vienna and Herndon are incorporated towns within Fairfax County.

The vast majority of residents live in unincorporated Fairfax County which provides water and emergency services.

Turning a county into a city is similar to what occurred in Toronto ON.

Jacksonville FL comes out as a statistical anomaly as Florida’s largest city–by land area that is– as it has incorporated all of Duval County as the city limits.

Los Angeles City forcibly incorporated the whole of the San Fernando Valley to consolidate water supplies/delivery.

The movie Chinatown shows this era in the early 20th century.

This incorporation gives LA the odd distinction of having a downtown on the edge of its boundaries and most of its land area across a mountain range.

San Francisco has a combined city/county status.

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Special Needs School Breaks Ground

Posted by dulleshomeguy on July 1, 2009

Special Needs School breaks ground at an historic mansion/estate in NW Leesburg VA according to Leesburg Today:

An enthusiastic crowd of elected representatives, parents and friends of students at Aurora School for autistic and developmentally disabled children, and members of The Arc of Loudoun gathered at Paxton for a groundbreaking ceremony to mark the beginning of construction.

Not only will the 16-acre property, including Carlheim and five other buildings, get a major face-lift, but also it will become the new home of the Aurora School when students move in to the Margaret Paxton Memorial Learning and Resource Center by the end of the year.

Built in 1872 by wealthy industrialist Charles Paxton, the home was deeded by his widow, Rachel, in 1921, to become a home at no charge for needy, convalescent children of Leesburg and Loudoun County, to be named after her daughter, Margaret.

Today’s groundbreaking marked the culmination of efforts by many people to continue the use of the property in accordance with Margaret Paxton’s will.

Clemyjontri Park (photos) and Jill’s House, both in McLean VA also serve the special needs population.

Area public school systems have renowned programs.  Check with county schools for info.

Hanes said the trustees will put up about $3 million to bring the property up to code, including renovating the gymnasium and auxiliary buildings, and rehabilitating the first floor of the mansion for administrative offices.

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