U r b a n T r e k k e r

The Best Home Designs in Arlington

The winner of Design Arlington 2009 Awards Program. These designs below are just beautiful. You'll be more impressed when you digging into more details (more like before and after) about their places, here. 

Awards of Excellence

 Fort Scott Residence,
(2765 Fort Scott Drive)

Owners: Michael Reamy and Andres Tremols
Architect: David Jameson Architect, Inc.
Other: Carl Petty Associates, Ltd.Spout Run Residence,
(2758 North Nelson Street)

Owners: David Harris and Elena Sterlin
Architect: David Jameson Architect, Inc.
Others: Added Dimensions, Inc.McGlone Residence,
(4521 32nd Road North)

Owners: William McGlone and Lisa Ruskowski
Architect: Wiedemann Architects, LLC
Others: McNamara Brothers, Inc.; Frank Chow, P.E.ECO-Art,
(Crystal City Water Park)

Sponsor: Crystal City Business Improvement District
Artist: Sergio Martinez
Others: Vornado/Charles E. Smith; Archstone-Smith

Awards of Merit

Flynn/Harless Residence,
(521 North George Mason Drive)

Owners: Eileen Flynn and J. Paul Harless
Architect: Susan Woodward Notkins Architects, PC
Others: Smeda, Inc.; Tony Beale, P.E.; Clark’s Lumber & MillworkHibbitt Residence,
(1028 North Daniel Street)

Owner: Karen Hibbitt
Architect: Moore Architects, PC
Others: GN Contracting; Structural Design Services, PLLC

220 Twentieth,
(220 20th Street South)

Owner: Vornado / Charles E. Smith
Architect: Dorsky Hodgson Parrish Yue
Others: Balfour Beatty; HOK; Hartman Design Group

The Shelton,
(3215 24th Street South)

Owner: AHC, Inc.
Architect: Bonstra Haresign ARCHITECTS
Others: Harkin Builders; Landscape Architect Bureau

The Wooster and The Mercer Lofts,
(1600 Clarendon Boulevard and 1615 North Queen Street)

Owner: Abdo Development, LLC
Architect: Cunningham|Quill Architects
Others: Abdo Construction, LLC; Davis Construction;
Ehlert/Bryan, Inc.; GHT, Ltd.

Kettler Capitals Iceplex,
(609 North Glebe Road)

Owner: Arlington County Board
Architect: Architecture, Inc.
Others: VIKA, Inc.; RTA Group;
Rathegeber Goss Associates

Arlington Arts Center,
(3550 Wilson Boulevard)

Owner: Arlington County Board
Architect: cox graae + spack architects
Others: McMullan & Associates;
Century Engineering, Inc.;
R.C. Fields, Jr. & Associates

[via Arlington County]

Seriously, Snow Again?

We barely came out of last week's monster storm. And now another one is on its way? A possible 16" of snow, possible.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from urbantrekker's streaming

Segmenting Green

The many shades of green consumers.

Posted via web from EcoTwist's Streaming

Snow Storm: 17"?

Crossposted at UrbanTrekker's streaming

Maybe. And it's not done yet. The weatherman said about 20-30" for metropolitan DC. These pictures I took from my stoop...

 1 of 2

Smackdown: Fairfax vs. Montgomery county

In politics, this is what you call opposition research. By looking outside, Montgomery county assigned 2 staffs to do a comparative data report. (Because Fairfax "snatched" a couple of big businesses relocating to the area - I think Hilton is one of them- instead of Montgomery county). The report released by Office of Legislative Oversight Montgomery counties gives Fairfax county the bragging rights for the number of jobs, income, and crime rate. Though, Montgomery county is ahead in terms of percentage of land preserved for open space/ parkland. In terms of population, Fairfax has more population density per square miles, 2,570 persons/sq.mi vs. 1,912 persons/sq.mi for Montgomery.

Comparative data, via Office of Legislative Oversight Montgomery county.

                                                   Montgomery County                 Fairfax County

Land area                                     497 miles                                    395 miles

% of land preserve as open space    38%                                            15%

Population (2008)                         950,980 people                          1,015,302 people

Budget approved FY10                  $4.47 billion                                $4.34 billion

Expenditure per resident               $4,706                                       $4,316

Sources of revenue:

Property tax                                32%                                             57%

Income tax                                  27%                                            none

Other tax                                     7%                                               11%

All non tax revenue                      34%                                              32%

Tax rate:

Residential (per $100 assessed)  from $0.975 to $2.835                from $1.066 to $1.113

Commercial  - ditto                    from $0.975 to $2.835                from $1.176 to $1.443

No. of jobs  (2007)                     654,728                                       855,842

Unemployment                            5.2%                                            4.7%

Housing:

Total housing units                    365,083 units                                393,365 units

Median housing price ('08)         $489,400                                       $523,300

Foreclosure rate                        2.4%                                              3.3%   

Sure, jobs attracted more people to move to Fairfax. Fairfax has 200,000 more jobs than Montgomery! However, there's other things to consider when it comes to choosing where you want to live, work and play. Fairfax spend less per resident as oppose to Montgomery. On the other hand, taxes higher in Montgomery county than Fairfax. What about schools? Oh well.. you can continue digging in the data...       

Read full report, here.

Nearly $2 Billion for Region's High Speed Rail Funding

  

The $2 billion allocated for the region - Virginia, Maryland and mid-Atlantic states, which is part of the stimulus funds. However, Virginia didn't get the $1.8 billion it requested for the 19 high-speed rail projects from Petersburg to DC. $620 million slated for upgrading 480 miles of track in the Southeast corridor from Charlotte - Raleigh - Richmond - Washington DC. Maryland and DC gets the $1.2 billion for development along Northeast corridor, from DC to Boston.

Full story here.

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image: bullet train Shinkansen 500, Japan

Washington DC's Foreclosure Up 1.7% from 2008

Image via Wikipedia

The second wave of foreclosures? The first wave was because of toxic loans. The second, (I believe) this has something to do with job losses.

The Washington region ranked 48 out of 203 metro areas with 56,347 foreclosure notices in 2009, for a rate of 2.6 percent of housing units. That’s up 1.7 percent from 2008.

The Baltimore area ranked 108 out of 203 metro areas examined in RealtyTrac’s report. There were 15,064 properties that received foreclosure notices in 2009, or nearly 1.4 percent of the region’s housing market, up 27.9 percent from the year before and 88.7 percent from 2007.

[via Washington Business Journal]

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Assessment is Not What the House is Worth

Some people mistakenly believed that assessment is the same as appraisal, including my neighbor who came by the other day. He thinks that assessment is appraisal. It is not. It's two different thing. Assessment is what the local government assess of the value of a property based on a formula - for tax purposes. It could be mass appraisal, not independent appraisal, like when you want to get financing from your lender. You get to how much your house is worth, usually after an appraiser is sent out to preview your house, at the request of a lender. If you are selling, lender put the order on behalf of buyer. Based on what the appraiser sees (including improvements), recent comps, the appraisal would then give his/her professional opinion on the value of that property (either use for financing or refinancing).

Though, if we look at the example below, Arlington County's formula for tax assessment is directly linked with how much the house would sell. Assessments are made at 100% of value. However, for some other jurisdictions, like the District of Columbia, it is a different story. DC uses a different formula than Arlington. They use what they call the 'assessment ratio,' which is the assessed value/ sale price ratio. To me, DC's formula it's kind of complicated to figure it out. There's so many different average variations they use. (You can read here for more). The assessment ratio is then used to get to the estimated fair market value.

Here's my interpretation..

Assessment vs. Appraisal

Resources:

District of Columbia FY Assessment Ratio Report

Arlington County Real Estate Assessments

Feds Pulls Out of Mortgage Market

Just in time before the Spring season, the Feds is pulling out of the market. This will affect home buying. The mortgage lifeline is drying out. The Feds been propping the housing market in keeping interest rates low for awhile. But, market haven't fully recovered yet. In Washington DC, 2009 home sales was definitely better than 2008, but it's total number of homes sold still lower than 2004.

These dissenters also warn that mortgage rates could shoot up, perhaps to 6 percent or higher, because private investors buying securities would demand a greater rate of return than the Fed. To reach it, lenders may have to raise rates for consumers.

[via Washington Post]

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• Rates on 30-year home loans fall to 5.06 pct (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

It's short & sweet. 10 Ways to Help Cities Grow Smarter http://ow.ly/ZpaG