Are Andresen

Fountains at McLean

1503 Lincoln Center Court, McLean, VA 22102
Floor Plans Sales Statistics 2010

The Fountains at Mclean was built in 1998 as a rental complex. It is located in the Tysons Corner area of McLean (Fairfax County) at the intersection of I-495 and Chain bridge Road (Rt 123). The complex was converted in 2003/2004 to condominiums by Crescent Heights.

The 502 unit community has a clubhouse, exercise room and a pool. The Fountains at McLean consists of multiple buildings of two styles: mid-rise and garden. The mid-rise style has controlled building access, a central courtyard and underground parking available. The garden-style has open hallways and there is surface parking only. There are numerous 1, 2 bedroom models available. Units typically come with a full-size washer and dryer.

The Fountains at McLean is located across the street from a bus transfer station. Superb shopping is right up the road at Tysons Corner Mall and at Tysons II. Freddie Mac is right across the street and groceries available from Harris Teeter beneath the Parc Crest building.

Recently Listed For Sale at the Fountains at McLean

Showing properties 1 - 3 of 3. See more Fountains At Mclean tract real estate.
(all data current as of 5/19/2012)

1. $237,000 : 1536 Lincoln Way #301b, Mclean
   
   1 bed, 1 full bath

   Home size: 762 sq ft

   Year built: 1988

   Parking spots: 1

   Days on market: 2

   Walk Score®: 77
2. $315,000 : 1541 Lincoln Way #104a, Mclean
   
   2 beds, 2 full baths

   Home size: 1,050 sq ft

   Year built: 1988

   Parking spots: 1

   Days on market: 9

   Walk Score®: 77
3. $255,000 : 1504 Lincoln Way #111, Mclean
   
   2 beds, 2 full baths

   Home size: 952 sq ft

   Year built: 1988

   Parking spots: 1

   Days on market: 45

   Walk Score®: 78

Listing information deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Read full disclaimer.

Posts About the Fountains at McLean

Tysons West Brings New Development & Walmart To Tysons

Tysons West is a new development adjacent to the Tyson West metro stop on the new Silver Line through Tysons Corner. The property was formerly occupied by the Moore/Cadillac/Hummer dealership. The project will include urban Walmart, 24-hour fitness, a renovated Sheraton Premier Hotel and a variety of other restaurants, offices, retail and residential rental units.

The location is of course fantastic – right next to the metro stop and Dulles Toll road puts you within easy reach of Washington DC, Dulles Airport, I-66, I-495 and not to mention Tysons Corner Mall. The project started in 2011 and is scheduled for completion in 2013 – the same time the new Silver Line is scheduled to open.

Some details:

• 250,000 sq/ft Retail/office in phase 1
• 300-400 residential rental units
• 440+ hotel rooms (already existing)

1br/1ba at Fountains at McLean For Sale

We are just about to list a ground level 1br/1ba at the Fountains at McLean. The unit is inside one of the controlled access buildings and comes with one garage spot. The Elm model is 626 sq/ft and has a nice balcony overlooking the interior courtyard with trees, flowers and fountains. There is also a great storage closet on the balcony.

The unit has just been refreshed with new flooring and paint and is ready for you to move right in.

What Condos in Fairfax County Are FHA Approved?

FHA financing is a popular type of financing in Fairfax County these days. From being unable to compete with the 0% down loans back in 2005 and 2006, they are now a part of over 20% of the purchases in the area.

The 3.5% down payment required is very competitive with the 10% minimum required from most other lenders. Also an FHA loan will allow you to receive the down payment as a gift in many cases (from your children or parents etc) - a useful feature for cash strapped purchasers.

Unfortunately, some purchasers run into problems with their FHA financing. Finding out that the condominium you fell in love with is ineligible for FHA financing results in disappointment, lost time and money. How can a purchaser avoid this situation ahead of time?

FHA financing is not available for all communities. To be eligible a condominium community will have to meet minimum criteria for things like insurance, owner occupancy, ownership and commercial usage. An occuring issue in Tysons Corner is that some communities have too high of a ratio of non-owner occupants(renters) to owner-occupants. A community that has more than half the units occupied by renters will in most cases be ineligible for FHA financing. That has been the case at the Gates of McLean and the Fountains at McLean.

Your real estate agent should know the local market and should be able to help you find out which communities may be troublesome in regards to FHA financing. The agent may know the status of a specific condominium based on experience or through conversations with lenders.

Your agent (or you) can also use online tools like https://entp.hud.gov/idapp/html/condlook.cfm to try to ascertian the approval status.

Per the online tool, these communities may* be FHA approved: Falls Church Gardens, Renaissance 2230, Idylwood Towers,  The Gates of Westfalls, The Pavillion, The Regency, The Palladium, Lillian Court, One Park Crest, The Colonies, The Rotonda, The Westerlies, Park Terrace, Vienna Trail, Westbriar Plaza, Westwood Village, Woodburn Village

Some communities that may not* be FHA approved at this time: McLean House North, Gates of McLean, Fountains at McLean

*The list of communities are in no way guaranteed and may not be correct. Keep in mind that being an FHA approved community can change – and sometimes your transaction will be the one that alerts the FHA to changes in the ownership ratio or other issues. There is no way to know for sure until a lender has processed your loan and received the official FHA approval for your mortgage. Sometimes different phases within the same community(or what appears to be the same community) may have different approval results as well.

If you are looking to purchase a condominium in the Tysons Corner area, please give us a call at 703 560-3424 or contact us. We will be happy to discuss the various options with you and help you find a great home!

Mixed Messages On Market at the Fountains at McLean in Tysons Corner

There is excitement in Tysons Corner with the new Silver Line metro nearing completion this year. Many new communities will now be within walking distance to the metro for the first time – Fountains at McLean being one of them.

The number of sales are down at the Fountains at McLean. There were only 15 homes sold in 2011 (versus 24 homes sold in 2010.)

The 1-bedroom prices were likely affected by three short-sales and two foreclosures. The average price for a 1-bedroom at the Fountains at McLean is now at $195,618 (down from $217,184 in 2010.) The average 2-bedroom price kept pretty stable at $304,500 in 2011 (down a little from $308,125 in 2010.)

The average rent keeps going up with the number of rentals being at about the same level of 37-42 per year for the last 4 years.  

The sales mix has reverted back to 2009 levels again this year. In 2009 about 35% of the sales were foreclosures or short sales. In 2010, only 8% of the sales were foreclosures or short sales. This year the percentage is up to 33% again. 

Homes on average sell for 94.9% of the original list price. They sell on average for 97.6% of the final list price. On average, a home takes 52 days to sell.

There are 3 pending home sales at the Fountains at McLean as of 1/29/2012. One is a 1-bedroom unit with an asking prices of $210,000. Two are 2-bedroom units listed at $250,000-$309,900.  Both the 2-bedroom units are short-sales.

To get a better understanding of the overall price curve in the neighborhood, we need to do some comparison on a model basis. Below is a graph showing the price trends for all the models over the last few years.

As can be seen from the above graph, the average prices seem to be back to 2009 prices after trending upwards a little bit in 2010. This could be caused somewhat by the buyer credit program in 2010.  

A continuing concern at the Fountains is that the investor ratio has been high (number of non-owner occupants.) Lenders are hesitant to give loans in developments where this rate is too high (generally 50% and over.) It seems to now have reached a level where purchasers typically need a 20% down payment to qualify for a mortgage. FHA loans with 3.5% down-payment seems to be unavailable in the community at this time.

Moving on to rentals, rents seem to have remained pretty steady with both 1 and 2 bedroom units going up a bit. With 41 units rented in the MLS in 2010 and 38 last year(2011) the competition for tenants should remain competitive.

The Fountains at McLean is a great neighborhood with reasonable prices that would make a wonderful home. If you would like to discuss selling or purchasing (5 Reasons We Rock For Buyers!), please give us a call at 703 560-3424 or contact us.

Fountains at McLean In Tysons Corner Sold 2011

The market activity at the Fountains at McLean in Tysons Corner has been slow so far in 2011. The community is still affected by a high investor ratio making a 20% down payment likely.

There are three pending sales at this time (two of which are short-sales that may or may not go to closing.)

Here are the 4 sales that have taken place this year so far:

Two of the sales were foreclosures. One interesting thing to note is that in February a regular resale sold for less than a comparable unit that was a foreclosure. There were differences (floor etc), but it does show that a foreclosure isn’t always the lowest priced unit.

There are few properties for sale in this community currently. As buyer demand is high, now is a great time to sell if you have been thinking about it. We specialize in Fountains at McLean – please contact us so we can show you how we can help.

(Sold data is from MRIS but is not guaranteed)

Tysons Corner West Park Transit Station Expected To Close

According to the Fairfax County Transit Development Plan, the Tysons Corner West*Park Transit Station will cease operation when the Silver Line starts operating. The transit station is located across from the Fountains at McLean at the corner of Jones Branch Drive and Spring Hill Road.

A proposed plan for the site is converting it into a bus garage for the new Tysons Link bus service. The new Tysons Link bus service is planned to help ferry residents from the surrounding communities into Tysons Corner for work and to the Silver Line for metrorail access. The West*Park transit station seems to be the preferred choice as a hub for those buses based on the low cost (the County already owns the land), the central location and easy access.

The location would not be a heavy maintenance facility – is it more thought of as a bus garage with facilities for driver check-in and parking.

Foreclosures – A Tale of 5 Communities

The Washington D.C. metro area has done extremely well compared to the rest of the country. Still, foreclosures and short sales have had a dramatic effect on the real estate values also here. The effect is often hyper-local with the number of foreclosures varying greatly from one county, city and community to another.

In Tysons Corner the effect has not been as dramatic as in for example Herndon, Chantilly or Manassas. To give you a general idea of the foreclosure activity in the Tysons Corner area I put together a quick comparison of the number of distressed sales in 5 communities.

Pimmit Hills Built in the 1950’s, the 1,500+ single family homes typically have a quarter acre lot. The community is located off Rt 7 in Falls Church close to Tysons Corner. Home prices range from the low $300’s for a rambler with 3 bedrooms and 1 bathroom and upwards to $1M homes.   The number of distressed sales seem to have peaked in 2009. Very few shortsales – still some foreclosures.

Gates of McLean Gates of McLean was built in 1998 as a rental complex. It is located in the Tysons Corner area of McLean (Fairfax County) at the intersection of I-495 and Chain bridge Road (Rt 123). The complex was converted in 2003/2004 to condominiums by Crescent Heights and sold out in less than 9 months. Gates of McLean is located next to the new Tysons-McLean metro. The number of distressed sales seems to have peaked in 2009 also in this property. Still quite a bit of distressed sales there though.
Fountains at McLean The Fountains at Mclean was built in 1998 as a rental complex. It is located in the Tysons Corner area of McLean (Fairfax County) at the intersection of I-495 and Chain bridge Road (Rt 123). The complex was converted in 2003/2004 to condominiums by Crescent Heights. The Fountains at McLean had a lot of foreclosures but also here they peaked in 2009 and really slowed down from 2009 to 2010.
Idylwood Towers Early 1970’s condominium located in the Tyson’s Corner area of Falls Church (Fairfax County).  Idylwood Towers consists of two apartment buildings with about 14 floors each. Idylwood Towers is located about 1 mile from West Falls Church metro station. The number of foreclosures went from close to zero in 2008 followed by a spike in 2009. The number of foreclosures were down in 2010 again.
Woodburn Village Woodburn Village is a 1960’s garden community with about 600 condominium units. Woodburn Village is located about where Gallows Road intersects with I-495, behind Fairfax Hospital in Annandale. The community has 1, 2, 3 and 4 bedroom units. This community really got hit hard with prices falling to less than half the price of where in 2005/2006. For example, 2br units went from high $200’s to low$100’s. While the number of foreclosures is down, short sales are taking over. Prices have stabilized over the last year and may even have shown a small increase in 2010.

Based on these 5 communities, it seems that the number of distressed sales peaked in 2009 at a typical 30% of the total number of units. Most communities seem to be on the way to recovery though a few still have a way to go.

Based on this limited amount of data it would seem like we may have the worst behind us. That would be great news indeed!

Tysons Corner Metro Stations – What’s In A Name?

While most of us have gotten used to the temporary placeholder names for the 4 new metro stations in Tysons Corner, the final names for the stations have started to take shape.

The proposed new names are as follows:

Tysons East => Tysons-McLean
Tysons Central 123 => Tysons I & II
Tysons Central 7 => Tysons Central
Tysons West => Tysons – Spring Hill Road

The other 4 stations will be named:
Reston-Wiehle Ave
Reston Town Center
Herndon-Reston West
Herndon-Dulles East

The above names were approved by Fairfax County Board of Supervisors’ - they are still subject to final approval from Metro’s Board of Directors.

What Is The Zip Code For Tysons Corner?

Up until last week Tysons Corner did not have its own postal address. However, the U.S. Postal Service has now approved Tysons Corner or Tysons as an official address that can be used with zip codes 22102 and 22182 (you may recognize those addresses as being for McLean and Vienna.) 

Tysons Corner has yet to be approved for its own dedicated zip code but will likely qualify for one in the future based on projected growth. Regardless, those living in area will finally have the option to associate their home with Tysons Corner as opposed to having to use Vienna or McLean.

Wal-Mart planned for Tysons Corner

According to the Washington Post a new Wal-Mart is planned in Tysons Corner at Rt 7 and Westwood Center Drive.  It will be a smaller store than the typical super centers – focusing more on groceries and fresh food. It is planned for the site of the Moore Cadillac dealership and will be a quarter mile from the Tysons West Metro station. Planned completion is 2013 assuming the lease negotiations are successful.

With the Harris Teeter near the Tysons Galleria and the Safeway off Anderson Road, Wal-Mart should bring some welcome choice to the area.