"Everywhere is Walking Distance if You Have The Time"

-- Steven Wright, American comedian

The problem is these days people don't have the time.  Gone are the days of walking 4 miles uphill both ways to school.  Nowadays, parents pack the kids in the car and drive them the quarter mile door to door to drop them off to 2nd grade.  We're increasingly dependent upon our cars, even moreso the further out from a city we decide to live.

As people tire of the expenses and hassles of commuting and having to hop in the car for everyday errands and to just to grab a bite to eat, walkability has become a more important criteria for neighborhood home searches in Northern Virginia and Washington D.C.

Maybe you want to be close to the Metro, close to stores and restaurants, and leave the car at home after a long work week of commuting to the office. 

While determining where you want to live in the Metro D.C. area, you should visit the Walk Score Website.  This site was developed out of the need for homeowners to calculate the convenience of homes to stores, restaurants, work and other quality aspects of a neighborhood.

Walk Score can range from 1 to 100 depending on the proximity of the address to grocery stores, restaurants, coffee shops, bars, movie theaters, schools, parks, libraries, bookstores, fitness centers, drug stores, and other amenities.

The Walk Score website describes what makes a neighborhood walkable:

• A center: Walkable neighborhoods have a discernable center, whether it's a shopping district, a main street, or a public space.
  
• Density: The neighborhood is compact enough for local businesses to flourish and for public transportation to run frequently.
  
• Mixed income, mixed use: Housing is provided for everyone who works in the neighborhood: young and old, singles and families, rich and poor. Businesses and residences are located near each other.
  
• Parks and public space: There are plenty of public places to gather and play.
  
• Pedestrian-centric design: Buildings are placed close to the street to cater to foot traffic, with parking lots relegated to the back.
  
• Nearby schools and workplaces: Schools and workplaces are close enough that most residents can walk from their homes.

Washington D.C. was ranked the 7th Most Walkable City.  Click here to view the Walk Scores of various D.C. Neighborhoods.

Here's a screenshot of the WalkScore results and map for a home I sold in Old Town Alexandria last year:

Try it for yourself while looking at different home locations:

Get your Walk Score!

Earlier this week I realized that I just completed my first 100 days as a Managing Broker. 

It was met with slightly less fanfare and around the clock cable news coverage than the "First 100 Days of the Obama Presidency."

Just slightly!

Recognizing this milestone while driving home on Tuesday evening, I sent out an e-mail to the agents in my McLean, Virginia  RE/MAX Allegiance office:

        "While driving home this evening, I realized that it's now been exactly 100
         days since I've had the honor and pleasure of being the Broker at the
         McLean office.
 
         So although my honeymoon period may be at its end, I just wanted to remind
         everyone to please feel free to approach me at any time (reasonable hours
         only...) with issues, questions, concerns, etc. and I'll do my best to help."

I went on to discuss some of our upcoming plans for the office.

Out of curiosity, this morning I checked the total sales in the office since I took the helm. 

100 days.  100 sales (actually 101).

Not bad.

A house a day.  I can live with that.

Everyone enjoys a good fireworks display for July 4th. In the D.C. area there are some great ones -- whether it's down on the National Mall, at Fort Belvoir, over the Potomac River, or in various locations throughout Northern Virginia.

However, while some jurisdictions allow people to shoot off their own private fireworks displays, there are other cities in Northern Virginia where doing so is illegal.

The City of Alexandria is one such place. Here's a public service reminder that's out on the streets right now, just 10 days before Independence Day (this one's located on Duke Street at the exit ramp for Van Dorn Street -- right by Landmark Mall):

Ready to become a REALTOR?

Evening classes -- Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs: July 13, 14, 15, 16, 20, 21, 22, 23 5 p.m. - 9 p.m.

REGISTER ONLINE HERE: REAL ESTATE COURSE

By the way, your teacher has PERSONALITY, will train you for success and will make sure that you do not become a DESPERATE REALTOR!

Feel free to call or e-mail me for more information.

By the way, we're hiring real estate agents.

Everyone buying a home wants to know the average home prices in the areas that interest them.  People planning to sell their homes like this information too.  While real estate is extremely hyper-local, just getting an idea of prices in a particular area can be helpful.  Home prices vary greatly from one locality to the next.

Here's a quick and easy guide to the average prices in different cities and towns in Northern Virginia -- note that within each of these areas prices can vary widely depending upon particular neighborhood.  This is a general guide just to prices within the cities and towns.

I've broken it down by type of home -- detached single family, townhouse, and condo.  You should also note that these averages are based on MRIS data of currently listed homes.  The data does not include for sale by owner properties, and does not necessarily indicate the prices for which these homes will eventually sell.  The numbers are meant to give you a general landscape of the different average prices by jurisdiction.

ALEXANDRIA

Detached         $975,816
Townhouse       $909,432
Condo             $323,811

ANNANDALE

Detached          $614,283
Townhouse       $339,196
Condo              $139,810

ARLINGTON

Detached          $995,863
Townhouse        $718,379
Condo              $522,667

BURKE

Detached          $644,839
Townhouse       $311,589
Condo             $189,975

FAIRFAX

Detached        $746,033
Townhouse      $450,917
Condo            $261,364

FALLS CHURCH

Detached        $776,188
Townhouse     $467,817
Condo           $423,050

MCLEAN

Detached       $2,085,052
Townhouse       $853,474
Condo             $500,265

RESTON

Detached        $777,019
Townhouse     $478,080
Condo           $365,362

SPRINGFIELD

Detached       $565,446
Townhouse    $315,143
Condo           $159,780

You can certainly see the disparity between the different locations.  Use this as a handy-dandy guide to helping you choose where to purchase your next home.  The average home in McLean is obviously very different from the average home in Springfield.

Of course, for a more detailed pricing guide broken down to a more micro level including zip codes or particular neighborhoods, feel free to contact me anytime.

Hip bars, cool restaurants, close to a beach, affordability, young & beautiful population. 

Sure these are all things that attract newly graduated college students.  But what really gets them flooding into any metropolitan area is the prospect for work.  College grads go where the jobs are.  They have no choice -- those college loans have to be paid off somehow!

While the rest of the country is bleeding jobs, the D.C. area is adding them. According to a report from Reuters, college graduates increasingly see the Washington DC area as a very attractive place to live and work:

        "D.C. is the only place where we can point to
        that is actually adding jobs right now, and we
        also know that the government is hiring thousands
        of people to oversee both the (economic) stimulus
        package and all the associated projects," said
        Marisa Di Natale, Senior Economist for Moody’s
        Economy.com.

The article discusses how many graduates are "shunning Wall Street for Washington."  When I graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1995, most of my friends (many of them Wharton students) went up to New York City to start their careers.  I came down to D.C. for law school, practiced law, stuck around, got married, and got into real estate.  At the time, my path was the anomaly.

Apparently no more! 

Jobs = College Grads = Growth of Economy = Housing Market Recovery

Consider it a chicken and the egg question. You know, which came first?

What's the Starbucks Effect?

It's the idea that super-cool Frappuccino joints increase the value of homes in the neighborhoods where they decide to locate their coaches, cappuccinno makers, and coffee bean grinders. Do these caffeine peddling haunts increase property values or do they just open up in communities where the more expensive homes already exist -- thus taking advantage of a customer base that can presumably afford the Vente Iced Skim Mocha No Whip?

I decided to find out by taking a look at some of the facts and statistics here in Northern Virginia.

First, I watched the following video about Arlington, Virginia which has been making the rounds towards the end of last week. If you live in the area and haven't seen it yet, it means you haven't been on the internet in about a week. If you are outside Northern Virginia, you may miss some of the inside jokes but understand that this spoof hits it on the head about the culture of Arlington (or at least North Arlington). Make sure you watch this through the end...

So, inspired by this recent video, I decided to examine whether the Starbucks Effect existed in Arlington and Alexandria by reviewing the hard data about housing prices. It was only after completing this research that I discovered that the The Starbucks Effect is a well-documented phenomena. Follow along.

Arlington Virginia boasts 12 Starbucks stores -- 3 in zip code 22201, 3 in zip code 22209, 4 in zip code 22203, and 2 in zip code 22207. The areas located in Arlington zip codes 22202, 22204, 22205, 222206, and 22213 have no Starbucks stores, in other words, they are Starbuck-less.

Let's examine the average listing price of homes in the various Arlington locales:

Arlington Areas with Starbucks:

Zip Code       # of homes available       Average Price

22201                     129                       $696,923

22203                       54                       $519,798

22207                     143                     $1,197,137

22209                       87                        $945,433

TOTAL                         443                                 $856,981

Arlington Areas without Starbucks:

Zip Code        # of homes available     Average Price

22202                    76                          $727,312

22204                   144                         $423,608

22205                    39                          $906,418

22206                    40                          $392,451

22213                    10                          $871,315

TOTAL                     309                                   $569,698

Wow! The average listing price for a home in a Starbuck-less neighborhood is nearly $300,000 less than those in the high-caffeine areas of Arlington. Note to Starbucks management: You may want to consider opening up a branch in the 22205 zip code of Arlington!

Thinking this might just be an anomaly, I took a peek at the data for neighboring Alexandria. 11 Starbucks stores grace the streets of Alexandria Virginia. Not surprisingly, 9 of these are in zip code 22314, the Old Town Alexandria area of town which gets the most tourist traffic, and yes, the most expensive homes are located. The other 2 stores are located in zip codes 22301 and 22302. There are no Starbucks stores in zip codes 22304 or 22305.

Let's take a similar look at the data for Alexandria:

Alexandria Areas with Starbucks:

Zip Code        # of homes available      Average Price

22301                     37                          $778,912

22302                     46                          $434,531

22314                    240                         $923,212

TOTAL                      323                                   $837,087

Alexandria Areas without Starbucks:

Zip Code      # of homes available       Average Price

22304                 166                          $420,382

22305                   42                          $598,279

TOTAL                     208                                 $456,304

Once again, the numbers show that on average your purchase of a home in an Alexandria area served by Starbucks will cost you an additional $300,000+.

Starbucks Effect? Yes or No. You decide. I'm going to have my morning coffee tea.

One final note: It's no surprise to me that a two story Starbucks, and one of the busiest branches on the East Coast is located right next to my office in McLean Virginia -- zip code 22101. The average listing price of a home in that zip code is $1,657,101. McLean was recently named the most affluent community in America.

Maybe, just maybe, it was The Starbucks Effect!

This morning, Inman News reported that RE/MAX has national TV to itself.

As a managing broker of an office at one of the largest, and the most productive RE/MAX franchise in the entire RE/MAX system, I greeted this news with excitement.  I already knew that RE/MAX dominated national television, and in fact, almost all advertising mediums -- print, online, radio, and t.v.  At the RE/MAX Convention back in March, the company told us that they expected their share of television advertising to increase this year from 50% to probably about 65%.

However, nobody predicted that RE/MAX would be the ONLY real estate company to advertise on national television.

As soon as I saw this news, I immediately e-mailed it to our brokerage CEO and our lovely Director of Career Development (a nice title for our head recruiter). 

I also tweeted this news.  This afternoon, I saw that somebody (an agent from another company -- which has no television advertising, and in fact, very little advertising at all), retweeted my post and sarcastically added:

"AND?"

Well, here's the AND...

And, why RE/MAX National Television advertising matters, whether you are somebody looking to buy or sell a home, or an agent looking to align themselves with a real estate company.

Some basic facts:

• According to the latest data from the World Bank, over 95% of American households own a television.
  
• According to that same data, about 75% of American households use the internet.
  

Advertising online is great, but for the best branding, those who ignore television in favor of an internet only strategy miss out on many potential buyers and sellers.

According to the article, "RE/MAX says it "vigorously promotes its brand" with a mix of television, cable, radio, print and Internet advertising, and has recently made the move into social networking. In addition to YouTube, RE/MAX also maintains a presence on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn."

That's why "Nobody in the World sells More Real Estate than RE/MAX"

As of today, June 8th, there are 397 homes on the market for sale in McLean, Virginia.  80 of these were listed for sale within the last 30 days

This chart shows the current inventory, number of pending sales and average list price sorted by neighborhoods within McLean:

The average listing price for all homes currently on the market in McLean is $1,751,018.  Of the 397 homes, 256, or 64% of all McLean Virginia homes listed for sale are priced above $1 million.  Interestingly, there were 55 sales of homes in McLean in the last 30 days.  16 of these, or 29% sold for over $1 million.  The discrepancy points to the fact that the higher priced homes are not selling as rapidly.

However, the average sales price of a home in McLean, Virginia in the last 30 days was $906,848.  Certainly nothing to sneeze at!

Additionally, there are 152 pending sales in McLean.

As most health conscious people do these days, I found myself comparing the nutritional labels on various cereal boxes, juice containers, frozen meals, and other assorted products in the grocery store during my most recent trip to the supermarket.  This got me thinking...

What if businesses, specifically, real estate agents were required to have accurate labels describing how they practice their business?  How would that read?  Would it be a service to the public to advertise the truth about each agent?

Here's some things that I would like to see on the "nutritional" labels of each REALTOR to aid consumers in choosing the agent for their purchase or sale of a home:

• ETHICAL BEHAVIOR
  
• TRUSTWORTHINESS
  
• KNOWLEDGE OF THE REAL ESTATE PROCESS
  
• KNOWLEDGE OF THE GEOGRAPHICAL AREA
  
• NEGOTIATING SKILL
  
• ENTHUSIASM
  
• YEARS OF EXPERIENCE
  
• SALES RECORD
  
• EDUCATION
  
• % OF RETURNED PHONE CALLS

To me, these items represent the protein, or "the meat" of being a REALTOR.  I'm sure you may have other ingredients to add to this list.

Is your real estate agent all fat & carbs, or do they have protein?

Wouldn't it be nice to know upfront?