Million dollar homes in Pimmit Hills! Take a look at this stat: 8 homes are available for sale in Pimmit Hills as of 1/19/2012. The lowest priced one is a 3br/2ba listed at $379,000 and the highest is priced is a 8br/8.5ba at $1,299,000. Houses in Pimmit Hills are really changing. Read a 2011 Pimmit Hills real estate report from Soldsense: Real estate in the Pimmit Hills subdivision in Falls Church did great in 2011. Over 50 homes sold during 2011 and at a higher “similar home average” than in 2010. The increase in prices is not that significant but the trend seems clear – prices have stabilized and are slowly increasing (graph later in this post.) So, is the turnaround in prices here to stay? Are there still forclosures and short sales in the pipeline? And how long is the typical home taking to sell this year as compared to last year? Read on and you will get the information needed to answer those questions! [Read the rest plus see charts/graphs about home sale and rent prices in Pimmit Hills]

The inaugural Pimmit Hills Environmental Committee cleanup was a great success. 19 volunteers braved the cold weather on the Martin Luther King Jr holiday to collect eight bags of trash from Pimmit Run between Lemon Road and Olney parks. Volunteers also removed invasive vines such as English ivy, Bush Honeysuckle and Japanese Honeysuckle.

From the Washington Post: AEW Capital Management, following the lead of other Tysons Corner landowners recently, has decided to put three sites zoned for high-rise apartment buildings up for sale to interested developers.

The properties make up 2.59 acres along Fashion Boulevard behind Tysons Corner Center Mall, in a 19.5 acre development called Towers Crescent. The larger development already includes four office buildings, the most recent of which is 850 Towers Crescent Dr., a 13-story, 295,000-square-foot office building that AEW built with Quadrangle Development.

Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Sharon Bulova took questions from citizens during an online discussion. Here was one of the questions applicable to our area:

"What will be the cost to the taxpayers for each of the projects: the Metro extension and the Tyson's Corner renovation? How will those projects be paid for? At present, the Metro extension through Tyson's Corner represents a major headache for McLean residents: no parking for residents to use the Metro. Why not take over the old Mitre building and build a parking lot there? By adding something like 100,000 new residents in Tyson's corner, an estimated 10,000 more cars will use Rt. 123 each day. How will Fairfax County deal with this traffic?"

http://www.495expresslanes.com/ The 495 Express Lanes, opening on the Virginia side of the Capital Beltway, will provide faster, more direct options for high-occupancy vehicles and toll-paying customers.

There will be two new high occupancy toll (HOT) lanes in each direction, from the Springfield Interchange to just north of the Dulles Toll Road.

Whether you travel by car, carpool, or bus, these HOT lanes will provide greater control over your commute on the Beltway.

From Fairfax County: Fairfax County residents can recycle televisions, computers and peripheral devices -- including keyboards, speakers, printers, external drives and other such materials -- and unbroken fluorescent light bulbs and tubes on Electric Sundays. There is No Charge for Fairfax County residents to participate in Electric Sunday; however, they may be required to show proof of residency. This year's Electric Sunday events are scheduled monthly through November.

For more information please visit: http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dpwes/recycling/electric-sunday.htm

From Fairfax County: All dogs four months of age or older must be licensed. Licenses are good for one year and must be purchased by January 31st.

• License Fees: The fee to purchase a dog license is $10, for all dogs.
• License tags are issued free of charge to the owners of dogs trained and serving as a guide dog for a blind person, a hearing dog for a deaf person, or a service dog for a mobility-impaired person.

License tags may be purchased by mail, on-line or in person, as follows:

From Fairfax County: Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department units responded to a townhouse explosion, Sunday, January 8, at approximately 7:15 p.m., in the Falls Church area of Fairfax County. The townhouse is located at 2852 Pine Spring Road, Falls Church. Firefighters were initially called for a medical emergency at the two-story townhouse; however, an explosion had occurred minutes prior to their arrival. An adult male was transported to INOVA Fairfax Hospital for a non-life threatening injury as a result of the explosion.

SEATTLE, Jan. 9, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Seattle-based Nordstrom, Inc., announced today plans to open a new Nordstrom Rack in Tysons Corner, Va. The approximately 42,000-square-foot, two-level store is scheduled to open during fall 2012.

Nordstrom Rack is the off-price retail division of Nordstrom, Inc., carrying on-trend merchandise from Nordstrom stores and Nordstrom.com at 50 to 60 percent off original Nordstrom prices. Nordstrom Rack also offers a wide selection of apparel, accessories and shoes from many of the brands carried in Nordstrom stores. These items are purchased specially for Nordstrom Rack, with most at savings of 30 to 70 percent off.

From the Washington Post: The largest landowner in Tysons Corner has inked three deals for hundreds of new apartments with major development partners in recent months, signaling continued and possibly growing interest in the suburban city by housing builders from around the country.

Cityline Partners, a crew of veteran Tysons developers, is managing the redevelopment of the Westgate and Westpark office parks for DLJ Real Estate Capital Partners, a Credit Suisse company that bought the property in 2010. Cityline recently finalized contracts for new apartment developments with three builders that could mean hundreds of new units for the area in coming years if they are approved by the county. [View map of DLJ’s empire.]