October, 2009
Time and time again, my husband has relayed just how hairy the traffic can be commuting to DC Monday through Friday. In fact, I usually harass him and tell him just that he’s just an eager beaver and really just wants to get to work early. Well, it’s hard to imagine just how many cars can be on the road to the DC area at one time until you have actually seen it with your own eyes.
Today, I had the “honor” of experiencing commuting to the DC area for myself. I have a couple clients who scheduled a home inspection in Arlington for 8am. My only hope of making it on-time was to stop at a commuter lot and pick up a couple ‘slugs’ (non-derogatory term for commuters). Actually, I was really nice and picked up three for my trip North on I-95. This is a user-user situation. ‘Slugs’ use the driver to get up to the DC area and the driver uses them ‘slugs’ to legally drive in the High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes. It’s a situation that works extremely well in our area and is really a win-win however you look at it. As I looked out the passenger window and witnessed first-hand the gridlock of those who were not in the HOV lanes, I was simply in awe. I can’t help but wonder how one makes it to work on-time without using the HOV lanes. I can only imagine that they must feel helpless sitting in the seemingly endless line of traffic that must produce a steady dose of daily stress.
I read a recent article that said only drivers in Los Angeles endure rush hour delays more brutal than Washingtonians. Well, congratulations to for the dubious achievement of having the second worst traffic location in the nation.
Last week, I wrote a blog article on the pricing difference between the Fredericksburg Real Estate Market and the Northern Virginia area. This is where the real decision is for those who work up North. Do you buy a home South of DC where you can get a more affordable home? Or, do you incur the additional cost and purchase a home closer to the DC area to avoid the commute? Everybody has their priorities and you have to think about what works best for yourself and your family.
Finally, I’d like to thank my husband who endures this commute every day so our family can reside in the Fredericksburg area. I now completely understand why he leaves so early, but I can’t say that I will stop harassing him, (where would the be the fun in that be!!)
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What a difference a few miles can make! Earlier this week I showed homes in a few Northern Virginia areas (Falls Church, Arlington, Alexandria) and it was eye-opening to see the vast difference in home prices and home sizes between the Northern Virginia housing market and the Fredericksburg Real Estate market.
What do you get in the Northern Virginia area for your buck? Basically, if you are in the $350,000 to $400,000, you can expect to find homes built in the 1950s and 1960s. Some of the homes may have been renovated, but many are quite dated. Well, getting a renovated home probably sounds great, but you will likely have to sacrifice on size. Of the 9 listings that we intended to look at, only one of them provided the square footage in the listing. It was 1276 sqft, four (small) bedroom, 1.5 bath, rambler built in 1954 with an asking price of $352,000.
Now, let’s look at the Fredericksburg Real Estate market and the Stafford area. In this area, within the same price range as above, you can expect to find a selection of 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath homes, with a basement and two car garage. An fair estimate of square footage tends to be between 2200 – 3500 sqft range. Additionally, many of these homes are regular re-sales. That is an irregularity in today’s market.
Now, those of you who are reading this and are in the mindset that I am slamming the Northern Virginia area, I want to be very clear that I am NOT. I, myself, was simply reminded of the significant difference or ‘bang for your buck’ between the two areas. Location, location, location remains a major driving factor in real estate pricing.
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Over the last two weeks I have had the special privilege of spending a lot of time with my wife’s cousins Jimmy and Nancy. They came to visit us from further down south in the Peach State, and helped us work on our new home.
Nancy has an exceptional eye for detail and a fantastic knack for taking the simplest ideas and making them brilliant when it comes to country decor. She also has vast experience in home ownership and has shared many functional ideas with me over the years. This article is to introduce what will hopefully be a long series of tips on country decorating and functional tips from our cousin Nancy. These articles will be called Nancy’s Country Tidbits. I intend for the information to be more on the country decor topic than functional tips, but regardless I think the information will be very valuable to many in the Fredericksburg real estate market.
Today I am going to start with just a little tip that Nancy shared with me this past week. I came home from working some buyer clients last week, and found Jimmy and Nancy painting one of the hallways in my home. Did I mention they are very energetic and make the perfect house guests? 
Anyway, when they stopped painting for the day, they had intended to resume within the next couple of days.
A few hours later I found my paint tray (with paint in it,) roller, edger, and a paint brush in a plastic bag in the refrigerator. No need to re-read the last sentence… yes it was in the refrigerator. Nancy shared with me that enclosing those items in plastic and putting it in the refrigerator will keep the paint from drying out, and prevent you from having to clean the brush and roller, when you intend to use it again within a couple of days.
Sure enough, on Tuesday of this week, the items came out of the refrigerator and were put right back to work. The paint wasn’t dry, the brush and roller were ready to go. I sure wish I had learned this tip years ago.
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