Reston News & Market Analysis

News Headlines:

07/05/2016: Reston’s smallest village center is withering. Retail isn’t the answer, but housing might be.

Reston’s Tall Oaks Village Center’s shopping center is slowly fading away. The shopping center has been unable to attract retail business due to limited traffic volumes and visibility, which are integral to the success of any retail development. It currently has a vacancy rate of 86%. The Jefferson Apartment Group has plans to redevelop the retail shopping center with 156 residential units, 8,584sqft of retail, and 5,809 sqft of office.

06/20/2016: How will Paid Parking Affect Reston Town Center? Look Towards Rockville

Reston Town Center will implement a policy that requires visitors to pay a parking fee of $2/hour on weekdays. Parking will be free on weekends however. This policy is set to begin at the end of July. Vendors are concerned that the parking fees will deter customers from the Town Center which will ultimately lead to lower sales.

04/21/2016: Reston’s Development Laid Out in Renderings

Boston Properties has a vision for a 20-acre parcel between the Reston Town Center and the future Reston Town Center Metro Station, scheduled to open in 2020. Their goal is to replace the two office buildings currently in this space with a hotel, office space, residential, and a large park in the middle. The park would be twice as large as the Town Square Park at the Town Center, and would connect the rail station all the way through to the W&OD and then over to the town center.

07/11/2016: Pokemon GO Craze Strikes Reston Town Center

The new augmented reality mobile app, Pokémon GO, is a nationwide sensation. The app allows users to play the wildly popular game that caught fire in the 1990s. Players have been seen wandering aimlessly around the town center in search of Pokémon!

Market Statistics (May 2016):

There was a decrease in total units sold in May (137) vs. April (146), attributed to decreasing sales of both condo/coop and detached dwellings. Conversely, sales of attached dwellings increased during this same time period. If you examine the general trend since the beginning of 2016, total sales have increased from winter lows. Judging on previous trends, it looks likely for these sales to continue to climb into June and July and taper off in the fall and winter.

Compared to 2015, active inventory levels have decreased by 20%. However, if you look at trends dating back to May 2011, you can see the relatively large levels of supply, which could potentially indicate downward pressure on prices especially in the condo/coop category.

In May, the average number of days on

the market was 35, a 3% decrease from last year. The real estate market is cyclical in nature, in that there are peaks during the spring/summer months, and valleys during the winter months. As you can see in the chart above, it takes longer to sell property in the December-February time frame.