Bristow, VA Market Report – 4/14/11

Despite the ongoing news about rising interest rates, more foreclosures properties entering the market, and no buyers, Northern Virginia continues to sustain a steady growth in most markets.

The Bristow community however is bucking this trend for the 1^st quarter of 2011.

Market Statistics for Bristow:

The bright side is that the number of properties under contract for the month has increased over 2010, which indicates that the number of sold properties will show an increase for the month of April.  March of 2010 had fewer listings, contained a larger number of foreclosures and short sales, and was driven largely by the first time buyer tax credit, particularly is the under $400,000 price range.

Market data, commentary, and statistics proved by Jim Agnew, Managing Broker, Avery Hess, Realtors, Dulles Area Office, Centreville, VA.

At Toki Underground, Taiwanese Food is Taken to the Next Level

Over the past ten years, Washington, DC has seen a culinary boom like no other; an influx of restaurants and chefs turning this town from food backwater to a city on parallel with any in America.

One of the best parts of this transformation is that it has been all encompassing. The city has added numerous $40-an-entrée restaurants, but on the opposite end of the spectrum, there has been just as much growth in terms of quality, inexpensive eats.

In no location has this change been more dramatic over the past several years than the H Street Corridor. The booming Northeast stretch, dubbed the Atlas District, seems to add a new, delicious and reasonably priced eatery every week.

And while a lot of those quality restaurants would be hard to top, Toki Underground may have done just that.

Toki Underground opened a mere two weeks ago, but it already has the D.C. food scene buzzing. The restaurant specializes in one item, Taiwanese style-ramen soup, and does it superbly well.

Located on the second floor of a row house on H Street NE, between 12^th and 13^th, Toki Underground is easy to miss. The entry door simply has the restaurant’s logo and, nestled between entrances to bars on either side, can be hard to spot.

Toki Underground's Modest Entrance

However, because of the recent buzz, crowds are finding it. The location is very small, with fewer than 30 seats, and on a recent weeknight, the wait for a table of three was almost two hours. If you can’t be seated right away, the friendly host, usually Adrian, will gladly take down your phone number; leaving you free to wander the numerous bars that H street has to offer while your wait.

When you return, be sure to take a moment to admire the restaurants hip décor. The kitchen is right in front of you, open and visible from most seats.

The Open Kitchen Provides Added Entertainment While You Eat

The whole space is covered with graffiti art: wall-to-wall spray-painted images. Throughout the space, metal tubes have been shaped to mimic trees. They are wrapped with a thick, heavy twine to complete the look. The ceiling is given a bit of flair with reclaimed wood planks forming a high arch over the bar.

Toki Underground's Unique & Modern Décor

Once seated, your host will give you a small menu with few options. The only appetizer choice is dumplings: made from pork, chicken, beef, seafood or vegetables. All the fillings are ground in house and the wrappers are made from scratch. The dumpling come steamed, pan-fried, or fried and it would be hard to pick which is best. The pan-fried have a crispy, browned exterior that adds a nice snap, while the steamed dumplings are soft and melt-in-your mouth delicious.

Steamed Pork & Pan-Fried Chicken Dumplings

After you finish your dumplings, next comes the ramen. There are five options, each costing $10. Four of them have a Tonkotsu based broth, made by simmering roasted pork bones for over a day. There’s also a vegetarian broth offered. The four pork-based options come in four different flavors: original, curry, kimichi and miso. They are all similar, but also have subtle nuances that make a great difference.

Curry Chicken Hakata

Each soup is loaded with a tasty meat, from fried chicken to pork loin, but the best part of the soup is a sous-vide egg that thickens the broth. Sous-vide eggs are basically soft boiled eggs, but instead of being cooked in boiling water for a brief period of time, they are simmered in 145-degree water for an hour to produce a barely solid, slightly runny egg that is simply amazing.

There are several add-ons you can order to customize the ramen, from different meats to the restaurant’s homemade “Endorphin” hot sauce, which mimics Sriracha. However, none of these are necessary — the soup is stellar as is.

After your meal, finish off the experience with a dessert Bento Box.

A Cute Dessert Bento Box

The Bento Box is a small tin (usually in the shape of a cute animal) filled with four fun desserts, like a petite coconut meringue stuffed with Pop Rocks.

It’s a sweet treat to end your evening on, after a meal that’s well worth any wait.

-David

Spotsylvania County Market Report – 4/11/11

Happy Spring!  Our regional market is off to a great start this spring!  Buyers are still coming out in droves and houses are selling!

If you are considering putting your house on the market, now is a great time as inventories are still low and the average list price for solds has increased from this same time last year.

Regular sales are very sought after, especially if the house shows well and is in a good location.  Foreclosure opportunities are still out there for buyers but in a much smaller number than the past.

Our local market is very different than the market news you regularly hear on the national media.  The Washington metropolitan area and south were way ahead of the curve as far as market trends are concerned.

Our area felt the huge price reductions and the massive amounts of foreclosures and short sales start a couple of years ago. The news is always talking about falling home prices and the rise of foreclosures in parts of the country, and while prices are still a bit all over the place, our area is different than the nationwide average.

Spotsylvania’s average sold price and average list price for solds have both increased compared to this time last year!  The average sold price for attached homes (townhomes, etc) and the average sold price for detached home has also increased again!  Please read on for our latest stats:

While some of these stats show a slight decrease, new listings are up 13.99% and houses just placed under contract with a contingency are up 64.52%.  That shows what a strong month March was and that pace is so far being matched in April.  Hopefully this market trend will continue and Spotsylvania will continue to see a thriving Spring Market!

Commentary and market stats provided by Amy Cherry-Taylor, Business Manager, Stafford Regional Office.

Search for Home in Spotsylvania County: www.averyhess.com

At Top Golf, You Don’t Need to be a Master to have Fun

The Masters teed off today, signaling the unofficial start of golf season for the general public. The weather is warming up and it’s time to hit the links.

Of course, most people’s golf clubs have been in storage somewhere for the past six months. And golf requires a level of practice that people just don’t get in the cold snowy months. Anyone that’s headed straight to the course after a winter off, knows it’s better to hit the driving range a few days beforehand.

But heading to any old driving range and smacking hundreds of golf balls can be a tedious affair. So if you are looking for a way to jazz up your warm up, then Top Golf in Alexandria is just the place to visit.

Top Golf is located directly across from the Kingstowne Towne Center at the corner of Kingstowne Boulevard and South Van Dorn Street. The massive facility is the perfect place to hone your game before the season kicks off.

What exactly is Top Golf? Well, in essence, it’s a game of competitive practice.

To play at Top Golf, one must first become a member of the range. But that’s simple to do. Top Golf has all sorts of membership deals for first-timers and friendly staff members are there to explain it all. A membership can be purchased for as little as five dollars, with a game (twenty balls) costing six dollars after that.

Top Golf staff member, Ian, explaining all the package options.

The higher level of membership you purchase, the cheaper games become. If you plan on going frequently, be sure to explore the multi-visit options. To play competitively, everyone in your party must purchase a membership.

After signing up, you’ll head to an electronic golf ball dispenser and receive a bucket of balls, each containing an undetectable computer chip inside.  These balls are assigned specifically to you and the system uses the chip to track your shots.

Insert your Membership Card into the electronic ball dispenser to receive your golf balls

With a bucket of balls in hand, you are now ready to head to the two-story range, find a bay and start golfing. When it’s your turn, place your balls in the holder and drop one ball at a time through the dispenser so the scanner can read the ball and record your score after you hit it.

Throughout the range are a number of targets varying in size. Targets close to the driving range are smaller, approximately five yards wide. The further away the targets get from the golfer, the wider they become. In the middle of each target is a pin. The closer you get the ball to the pin, the more points you can score. The targets farther away are naturally worth more points. For example, the target farthest from the range, simply landing anywhere within the zone scores the golfer six points, whereas getting very close to the pin in one of the shorter targets will only net a golfer four.

View of the targets from a second story bay.

There’s also extra points offered throughout the golfer’s round. The 11th ball of every game is a bonus ball. If you get your ball in a certain area of a certain target, the score for that shot doubles. Additionally, making shots in a row helps increase your score.

Top Golf can be fun for all golfers, no matter your handicap. There are all sorts of contests to level out the playing field. There are accuracy games you can play on the closest targets; consistency challenges for hitting the same targets consecutively; and of course, for the big hitters, driving contests aimed at the range’s farthest target.

Throughout your games, servers stroll through the area, offering food and drinks at reasonable prices.

If you are looking to make your visit to Top Golf a family affair, the facility also has one of the biggest miniature golf courses in the area. There are two different 18-hole courses. To play, it costs just six dollars for kids under 13 and seven for adults.

So while you may not be able to play with the pros in Augusta this weekend, you can feel like one, competing with your friends at Top Golf.

-David

Silver Spring, MD Market Report – 4/05/11

Silver Spring, Maryland is certainly SHINING!

Like the beautiful city itself, housing in Silver Spring is seeing some shiny spots – despite all the doom and gloom the media is continually throwing at all of us.

The Real Estate market statistics for zip codes 20905 and 20912 are moving in the right direction.

Zip code 20905 has a Total Sold Dollar Volume up +75.49% to $3,694,000.  The number of Closed Sales versus this time last year is up 80%. This is a tremendous upswing!

Another big mover in Silver Spring is the 20903 zip code. Sporting a Total Sold Dollar Volume of $2,347,900, this number is up +265.72% in comparison to February of 2010.  Closed Sales are up +266.67% and the Median Sold Price is $230,000.

I am really excited to see what the Spring Market will bring. Improvements all around have me saying the Real Estate Market in Silver Spring, Maryland is definitely shining!

More About Silver Spring, MD:

Silver Spring is a suburb of Washington, D.C. with both urban and suburban areas.  With a community of over 76,000 people, Silver Spring is a happening place.  Its borders run as far north as Burtonsville, south to the dividing line with the District of Columbia and west to Chevy Chase and Rockville.  Silver Spring is located on the Red Line of the Metro system and the Silver Spring stop is the most used station in Maryland.

Looking for something to do outdoors this spring? Silver Spring has many amazing parks to explore:

Rock Creek Park which passes along the west side of Silver Spring, offers hiking trails, picnic grounds, and bicycling.  On weekends, its main road, Beach Drive, is usually closed to motor vehicles.

Sligo Creek Park follows Sligo Creek through Silver Spring and offers hiking trails, tennis courts, playgrounds and bicycling. On weekends, parts of Sligo Creek Parkway are also closed to motor vehicles.

Jesup Blair Park is a 14.5 acre park that has recently been renovated. In the park you’ll find a soccer field, tennis courts, basketball courts and a picnic area.

Wheaton Regional Park is located in “greater” Silver Spring and includes covered tennis courts, an ice skating rink, baseball fields, playgrounds, picnic areas, stables and Brookside Gardens, a 50 acre park with arboretums, nature center and magnificent gardens to stroll through.

Market data and commentary provided by Kathy Fleskes, Rockville Managing Broker.
Search for homes in Silver Spring, and all of the DC Metro: www.averyhess.com