Chesterbrook Woods, McLean
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Anonymous
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Hi Everyone,
There is a neighborhood website about Chesterbrook Woods Neighborhood homes and community, services, What's nearby, schools. Hope you may find this helpful! www.chesterbrookwoodsneighborhood.com |
Anonymous
Not sure why you're resurrecting this years old thread, but flash forward a few years and this area is in trouble. Check out listings at 1449 Laburnum and 1412 Laburnum to see what I mean. There are others. Not selling after months on the market. Sad because it's a nice area but apparently does not appeal to younger buyers. The neighborhood mostly consists of old, large homes desperately in need of updating and lots of work to maintain. |
Anonymous
Or check out this listing for a house on the same street under contract. The area is doing just fine. Chesterbrook/Longfellow/McLean is one of the top 2-3 pyramids in NoVa. https://www.redfin.com/VA/McLean/1424-Laburnum-St-22101/home/9409505 |
Anonymous
Well we don't know the contract price, but even if the seller got full price on that one (doubtful) the house only appreciated 8 percent in eight years, which is less than inflation. And there are many that have depreciated. Check out 6005 Copely, which finally sold for barely $1 million after literally years on and off the market. You still think the area is doing well? The problem is that most of these homes should be torn down and rebuilt, but they are too expensive for that. So buyers are attracted to Arlington and Vienna instead, which are much hotter markets. It's only going to get worse in that area. Avoid. |
Anonymous
Arlington and Vienna (really, the Town of Vienna, not 22181 or 22182) have more crappy tear-down candidates than Chesterbrook Woods, but new builds in Arlington are expensive and Vienna is too far out if you need to commute to DC. There is a market for older mid-sized homes in both Arlington and McLean, and you aren't going to convince people otherwise by pointing to a couple of million-plus houses that are sitting during the quiet months. |
Anonymous
| A decade ago, the elementary school for that neighborhood had about 545 kids, and this year it has over 670. |
Anonymous
Five years later? Why are you trolling around looking for ancient threads? 
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Anonymous
That's about when this thread started. 
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Anonymous
The owners of 1449 before the current ones were friends of mine. I owned the house next door for years, it's now an Alzheimer's residential care facility, as are many houses in the neighborhood. That's part of the problem, along with the fact that the FFX/Arl county line runs through the neighborhood, so kids don't go to the same schools. The lots are also pretty small, about .25 of an acre, maybe .3. Many houses are nice, many need updating, it really depends. Tons of teardowns on some streets (Woodley), nothing on others. Very convenient access to DC, very inconvenient to Toll Road or Beltway. So it's all about what you need/want. |
Anonymous
We do know the contract price. 06/19/2009 $1,234,000 FROM BROMME JEFFREY S TO ANDRE DOUGLAS M Current owners did nothing to the house, all the reno was done be previous owners. |
Anonymous
So it looks like this website was started by a Keller Williams realtor. I like the neighborhood and it's location, but don't like realtor spam, so let's flame away. Here goes - how does it feel to live in a big house, but still be zoned for McLean not Langley? |
Anonymous
Oops, sorry, that was for 1449 Laburnum. Here's the info for 1424: Date Amount Seller Buyer 03/29/2010 $1,285,000 GARDNER BETTY S BALDRATE BRIAN C Presume you meant for current sale, though. Will have to wait until it's done to see. |
Anonymous
It's not just a few homes, those are just examples. Look at 1438 Ironwood Drive and see how many times they have tried to sell that one over the past 3+ years before taking it off the market in June. I'm sure it will be back on this yearn The point is that you can buy a crappy tear down in Arlington or Vienna for $800K and then build a new house. Those houses were never very grand to begin with, so it works. In Chesterbrook Woods and much of McLean, the sellers want $1.2 for their faded glory dream home, so the economics don't work for a new build. Buyers are left with a horribly dated (and still relatively expensive) home that needs lots of updating and maintenance just to make it somewhat livable. Who wants that? I'm sorry, but I am not paying for your 1960s mansion. Will be interesting to see what happens in McLean as more residents die off. Either prices will have to come down to make them tear down candidates, or the market will continue to suffer. I imagine someone will be having the same debate about Craftsman homes in Vienna around 2070, but we're not there yet. |
Anonymous
There are less expensive houses than these in both Chesterbrook Woods and other parts of McLean that are teardowns, and they are torn down and replaced with new homes that typically are more expensive than new builds in Arlington, Vienna or Pimmit Hills. And as long as people are paying $1.1 million for older homes in Arlington and McLean, seller will try to get as much as they can for their homes. McLean is no different than North Arlington in this regard. There are renovated ramblers in both areas that sell for over a million. |
Anonymous
There may be some, but more homes than not are like the examples provided. There are not entire neighborhoods of tear downs like you see in Vienna, and even Pimmit Hills for that matter. And so those areas are booming while Chesterbrook Woods is not. There are so many other examples, not hard to find. |