Burnt Mills Hills, the best kept secret in Silver Spring

I am amazed at how the market has recovered in Chevy Chase and Bethesda. It is getting very frustrating to find suitable homes for my clients in this area. And, when a nice home comes up on the market, it seems like there are already a number of folks waiting in line with offers. Many of them above the asking price.

That brings us to the beautiful neighborhood of Burnt Mills Hills. This small community (about sixty homes) located near Lockwood Drive and New Hampshire Ave offers up what I consider the best luxury home values in the close-in Metro area. Consisting of mostly older homes built just before and after World War II the community features quality homes build on broad expansive lots with lots of trees and privacy. It is the large lots that get me. Similar homes are just impossible to find elsewhere without traveling further out.

A number of homes in the neighborhood were designed by John Nutter, a local architect of some renown who at 101 years of age still lives in Burnt Mills Hills in the home he designed for himself. Fourteen of the homes in Burnt Mills Hills are Mr Nutter's designs.

The problem with Burnt Mills Hills is that there are very few listings ever on the market at any time. Currently there are no homes for sale there and only two homes have sold in all of 2013 so far. The first one is on Jarboe Ave. and it sold for $960,000 in October

And the second home sold back in the summer of 2013. It was on Burnt Mills Ave and sold for only $799,000 which seemed like a very good price to me. 

If you are getting frustrated with the lack of good homes and skyrocketing values in Bethesda and Chevy Chase then I suggest you take a look at some of the great neighborhoods such as Burnt Mills Hills that are located along the New Hampshire Ave corridor in Silver Spring. For a list of homes currently on the Market in this area you can go here. 

FDA Growth Benefits Surrounding Communities.

It has been a couple of years since I last posted about the Food and Drug Administration White Oak Campus. When I last reported the total work force at the FDA was just pushing past the 5,000 workers mark. Actually, in the past two years this number has not changed much. However, there is still major construction going on and the scheduled completion of a few new buildings should give the facility a boost in it's worker population. By 2017 the projection number of workers should exceed 8,000 employees. After that there is no real projected growth for beyond 2017 as the campus will be pretty much built out. However I would not be surprised to see more buildings and space open up with the passage of time as that seems to be the norm for all government facilities.

Originally there was a lot of griping and resistance to the FDA coming to White Oak but it seems that most objections have faded away and the local communities have not only accepted the new facility but embrace it as well. Hillandale, my own community, which abuts the campus is a good example. I really think the stabilizing real estate market in Hillandale owes a lot to the growth of the campus.  To be sure, our road traffic is a little worse but the FDA has brought a lot of good paying jobs to the area and we have seen a number of FDA employees purchase homes in Hillandale, not to mention some of the other surrounding neighborhoods such as Burnt Mills Hills, and Burnt Mills. We have also seen our local Key Middle School and Cresthaven Elementary School reconstructed as modern, state of the art facilities. We waited a long time in Hillandale for this to happen but the FDA campus seems to have helped move this process along. When my wife and I first moved to this area, I jokingly referred to the New Hampshire Ave. corridor between the White Oak  and Hillandale Shopping Center's as  "dining's death valley." There were just so few options for decent dining out. Nowadays it is different with both shopping centers offering a broad choice excellent places to eat.

With the arrival of the FDA my community is really shaping up to be a great place to live and work. And as any Realtor will tell you. The neighborhoods around the FDA campus offers up some of the best home values in close-in Montgomery County. Click on this Hillandale link if you want to see what is on the market in Hillandale and the rest of the 20903 zip code. And if you are curious about the value of your own home you can go here to get an estimate of your home's worth in today's market.