Photography and digital painting have been dancing for 20 years.
Digital painting has been around since the mid 1980s with MacPaint, Corel Painter and Photoshop.
The invention of sensitive touch screen devices like the Ipad have made it much more fun than using a mouse.
You use your finger for
brush and paint selection, and can control the result by the speed and pressure utilized.
The artistic tools available are almost endless and enable you to attempt many different styles. The photo above is very clean with almost no under painting....or layers...with much of the photo allowed to show through.
Alternatively, you can create great depth using different brush sizes, and building deep layers, allowing very little of the original photo to show through and get get a sweet impressionistic look.
You do not need any art training to use the modern programs. In fact, they are art training in relatively painless form.
You mix paint, select brushes, determine style, and have at it without mixing mess or clean up.
Use a photo as an integral part of what you are doing or just as inspiration.
What is happening in the Fairfax County Real Estate market? That is the most frequently asked question we get.
There is no need to speculate; here are the major statistics through the month of January 2012.
The cherry blossoms have come and gone but Fairfax County's low unemployment rate (half the national average) combined with record low interest rates have kept the price recovery motoring along.
We tend to like longer term statistics since they smooth out seasonal aberrations and monthly anomalies and help illustrate any the strength or weakness which underlies the market.
Below is the 5 year median price trend for Fairfax which mirrors that of all NOVA counties. The market bottomed in 2009 and has been recovering a significant amount of the equity loss from the freakish never before seen price highs of 2005.
Hover your cursor over any point on the graphs to get a monthly read...they are interactive.
The existing inventory of re-sale homes is at a 3 year low. Short supply and strong demand has edged prices upward. Although Northern VA home prices took a beating between 2006 and first quarter of 2009, we have been spared the devastation that occurred in the "Sand" states of Florida, California,and Nevada. Full recovery is years away for those hard hit areas.
As always, the strong economy of our area has cushioned us from the worst.
Well priced homes under $350k in good locations and in good condition have been getting multiple contracts within a few weeks of coming on the market.
Upper end properties ...above $750k ,are moving more slowly even though some of them had sold for over a million once upon a time.
Jan and I have sold more new construction homes in the last year couple of years than we ever have. This is directly due to the low inventory of existing property combined with strong builder incentives.
However, builder's business actually has gotten so good in the last 9 months that they are cutting back on those sweet seller subsidies for buyer closing costs and the generous incentives for buyers options.
That said, there are some select builders who are offering some great options and subsidies, to get folks to come visit in the cold winter months.
My guess is that as the weather warms, these subsidies will shrink.
Once a given, the old $10k in buyer closing cost subsidy and $15k for options can no longer be assumed to be the norm.
Those builders that survived the plunge from 2006 to today are trying to get back in the black.
We have one of our clients in a lottery for a select lot....whoa! Crazy no?
The national news regarding real estate is NOT US.
Homes are selling...As an example, 400+ new homes sold in 2011 in the Ashburn community of Brambleton...an amazing #.
Thanks for stopping by our blog and come back often.
If you need information on new homes or any other area of real estate, drop us a line. We will do our best to get you what you need.
Fairfax real estate agents, homes for sale in Fairfax VA 22033, Townhouses for sale in Fairfax, Listing Agents in Fairfax, condos for sale in Fairfax, new homes in Fairfax, Fairfax home buyer's agents, Realtors
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Jan and Steve Bachman are full time Realtors® with RE/MAX, specializing in Homes for Sale in Fairfax, Loudoun, Prince William and Arlington Counties.
Welcome to the Little Rocky Run February 2012 Single Family Home Sales Report and neighborhood photo tour.
Yes this is a pretty long post, with photos and a video.... the idea is to make kind of a mini website for the community.
If you are not familiar with the neighborhood, Little Rocky Run consists of 1653 single family (detached) homes and 1069 town houses on 950 acres with 250 acres of open space.
The detached homes across from Centreville High School have a Clifton 20124 address, while the townhouses across New Braddock Rd, have a Centreville address in zip code 20121.
The following reports cover thesingle family detached home section of the community and will help you keep track of current home sales activity on the Clifton side, as well as sales trends over the last 3 months.
Once in the homes for sale reports, click on the mls # to expand the listing and the camera icon to see any pictures there might be.
The links in these reports generally EXPIRE in 30 days from the date of this post and become non functioning. Check in monthly for current data. OR just drop us an email and we will send you the current sales figures or set you up on an auto search so that you will ALWAYS have current data.
Major "daily need"shopping options are only 1.5 miles away in 2 directions with, Fair Lakes, Fair Oaks Mall and Fairfax Corner entertainment and mega shopping venues within a 15 minute drive.
Twin Lakes Public Golf Course run by the Fairfax County Park Authority is right across the street. The golfer and deer photos were taken there.
Little Rocky Run is convenient to New Braddock Rd (for a straight run up into Fairfax), and Routes 28, 29, and 66 which provide access to the rest of the world.
The community was planned so that recreation activities are easily accessible to residents. There are:
3 recreation centers
3 pools with adjoining baby pools
3 multi purpose courts
7 tennis courts (2 lighted)
16 tot lots
3 miles of walking trails
Little Rocky Run is served by the following schools...
(the Union Mill elementary school boundary is pretty convoluted and starts with a small section off route 29 and expands west across New Braddock Rd.
School boundaries change and 3rd party on line school info is not always up to date or accurate.
A follow up email or phone call to the school would also beadvisable. Boundary studies are currently under way...expect changes.
Thanks for stopping in! If you would like to visit some of the homes in Little Rocky Run as they come on the market, please drop us an email and we will make it happen.
No one will bother you and all the listings that meet your specifications will come to an electronic organizer that you can access by email at your leisure.
If you are a Little Rocky Run home owner, and would like a free analysis of your property's current market value, please drop us an email.
We are happy to be of service, with no obligation and no pressure :-)
As you can see on the graph below, Fairfax County median home prices bottomed in first quarter 2009 and have been working their way up since.
From early 2006 until the market bottomed, the power lay with buyers. As you can see, the market is much more balanced with a slight edge to sellers. Housing inventory is at a three year low, pushing prices higher for the limited homes available.
Little Rocky Run, Clifton real estate agents, homes for sale in Clifton 20124, Townhouses for sale in Clifton, Listing Agents in Clifton, condos for sale in Herndon, new homes in Clifton, Clifton home buyer's agents, Realtors, Little Rocky Run Homes for Sale
Follow Jan and Steve at the places below
Jan and Steve Bachman are full time Realtors® with RE/MAX, specializing in Homes for Sale in Fairfax, Loudoun, Prince William and Arlington Counties.
Slug line to the Pentagon and Ft Belvoir....a Washington DC institution.
A couple years ago, I wrote a blog post about transportation options for folks moving to a duty station at the Pentagon.
Alert reader Nancy Murray, a retired Navy commander who was stationed at the Pentagon some years back, left a comment that she had "slugged in from Fairfax Station".
I had forgotten about THE SLUG LINE.
Slugging is a cross between organized hitch hiking and random carpooling.
It is human ingenuity at its best. As my friend Rich who slugs to the State Dept. says: "Slugging is an example of a government policy (HOV lanes) creating the desired government result (cheap alternative transportation) without government involvement".
What is slugging? Well, slugging has become so organized and entrenched that is has its own superb website that explains the whole thing better than I can.http://www.slug-lines.com/:
" The system of slugging is quite simple.
A car needing additional passengers to meet the required 3- person high occupancy vehicle (HOV) minimum pulls up to one of the known slug lines.
The driver usually positions the car so that the slugs are on the passenger side. The driver either displays a sign with the destination or simply lowers the passenger window, to call out the destination, such as "Pentagon," "L’Enfant Plaza," or "14th & New York."
The slugs first in line for that particular destination then hop into the car, normally confirming the destination, and off they go."
If you or friends are moving out of Northern Virginia ...away from Slug Central to the more peaceful climes of Colorado Springs and you need real estate assistance....a good place to start would be our alert reader friend Nancy Murray.
Nancy is a Realtor in Colorado Springs with knowledge of DC and miltary relocation...from both sides.
You can see Nancy's profile at:Nancy Murray once you are at Nancy's profile, you can check out her Colorado Springs real estate blog by clicking on it over on the left side of the profile page.
She would be happy to help make your relocation a smooth one.
Follow Jan and Steve at the places below
Jan and Steve Bachman are full time Realtors® with RE/MAX, specializing in Homes for Sale in Fairfax, Loudoun, Prince William and Arlington Counties.
Thanks for stopping by our Herndon Home's Sales Report for February 2012.
Our goal here is to show the big picture of what is happening with median home prices as well as market activity.
If you have heard that real estate is doing terribly, look at the data below and make your own judgment. Northern VA's unemployment is one half the national average.
Fairfax County has the highest median family income in the nation for large counties and Loudoun is number one for those counties with under 300,000 residents.
I don't know about you, but to me it looks as if prices came down from their highs in 2005-2006 to bottom in early spring 2009.
What the future holds, know one knows..... but we can say what is happening today and what has happened in the past with 100% accuracy.
Check below and see what you think.....
If you are not familiar with Herndon VA, it is near Dulles Airport and along with its neighbor's Reston, Ashburn, Vienna and Tysons Corner it forms the backbone of the hottest high tech job market in the country. Let's see what the guy below has to show us about Old Town Hermdon
If you have a Herndon Virginia address, there is a very good chance that the home you are living in was built after 1985.
Well, what did Herndon used to look like before it became a large star on the map of the Information Super Highway?
As my children would say, what did it look like in the "olden days" which to them means the 1960's.
Don't forget, you can set up your own private home search right here.Search Like an Agent.No one will bother you.
Just play around. No hassle, no spam, we won’t bug you. Fresh listings emailed to you. Want more info. Drop us a line. You’re in control.
Want to take a tour of homes you like in Herndon, Reston or Sterling? Drop us a line and we will make the arrangements.
Herndon real estate agents, homes for sale in Herndon, Townhouses for sale in Herndon, Listing Agents in Herndon, condos for sale in Herndon, new homes inHerndon, Herndon home buyer's agents, Franklin Farm, Chantilly Highlands, Bradley Farm, Franklin Glen, Old Town Herndon
Follow Jan and Steve at the places below
Jan and Steve Bachman are full time Realtors® with RE/MAX, specializing in Homes for Sale in Fairfax, Loudoun, Prince William and Arlington Counties.
Sorry... this is a long blog post with lots of pictures.
If you have no interest in jobs or Reston don't read it.
It has to be long to scratch the surface of the economic and natural beauty that can be found here.
You can get to all these offices easily by bicycle or internal commuter bus.
It is time you relocate to the US' first planned community and the hottest job market in the country...most of the world comes here too! Makes for great food!!!
Man that's a good photo. United Healthcare...water front.
OK. So you do not think that buildings are beautiful.
Well, unless you are a subsistence farmer, you will need a job and a building to work in.
Jobs are nice...so are pay checks. Reston has an unemployment rate of less than 3%, while the current national number is over 9%.
Reston is an internationally known planned community whose goal was to revolutionize post-World War II concepts of land use and residential/corporate development in American suburbia.
Reston is an unincorporated census-designated place located in western Fairfax County, Virginia in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.
As of the latest unofficial estimates, Reston has a population of 60,353. Although it is not a city and does not have a traditional central business district, the Reston Town Center is becoming a focal point or "downtown" for business and transportation connections within the community, with several high-rise office buildings and condos and apartments, restaurants, a cinema, a hotel, and shops.
Some municipal, government-like services are provided by a nonprofit corporation, Reston Association. Reston also straddles the Dulles Technology Corridor and is home to the world headquarters of three Fortune 500 corporations, , as well as the United States Geological...more
Reston Careers
Among the most common occupations in Reston are Management, professional, and related occupations, 60%. Sales and office occupations, 21%. and Service occupations, 9%.
Approximately 76 percent of workers in Reston, Virginia work for companies, 16 percent work for the government and 5 percent are self-employed.
The leading industries in Reston, Virginia are Professional, scientific, management, administrative, and waste management services, 25%; Educational, health and social services, 13%; and Information, 11%.
What homes are for sale in Reston zip code 20190 today?
What have prices been doing over the last year here?
Can you show me some unfiltered statistics so I can make up my own mind about future market trends?
Welcome to the real estate market report for Reston Zip code 20190 for February 2012. The geographic area of Reston with the 20190 zip code is bounded by the toll road (267) and Route 606 (Baron Cameron.)
Here's what's on the market as of February 7, 2012.
Click the links above to get to the report. Once inside click the mls # for all the info on each individual property. Clicking on the camera or movie reel icons will show whatever pictures have been provided:
How long will it take me to sell my house in the current market?
What are the median prices in this zip code and what is the pricing history here?
The graphs at the bottom of this post help answer those questions with data from the past 5 years....just follow the trends.
However, a zip code is a small sample size so I added the Fairfax county 5 year history so you can see the underlying big picture.
Prices in 20190 can range widely depending on the mix of homes sold in a month ie: more condos sold vs. single family properties would report a lower price that month.
The graphs are interactive so you can hover your cursor over a spot and get a digital read.
If you would like to visit some of the homes in Reston as they come on the market, drop us an email and we will make it happen.
OR....If you would like a free analysis of your Reston home's current market value, please contact us.
We are happy to be of service, no obligation and no pressure.
Follow Jan and Steve at the places below
Jan and Steve Bachman are full time Realtors® with RE/MAX, specializing in Homes for Sale in Fairfax, Loudoun, Prince William and Arlington Counties.
Disclaimer: ActiveRain Corp. does not necessarily endorse the real estate agents, loan officers and brokers listed on this site. These real estate profiles, blogs and blog entries are provided here as a courtesy to our visitors to help them make an informed decision when buying or selling a house. ActiveRain Corp. takes no responsibility for the content in these profiles, that are written by the members of this community.
Alternatively, you can create great depth using different brush sizes, and building deep layers, allowing very little of the original photo to show through and get get a sweet impressionistic look.
The following reports cover the
If you have a Herndon Virginia address, there is a very good chance that the home you are living in was built after 1985. 
Live and work in Reston VA.
Reston Jobs
Reston Industries
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