Loudoun Community Spotlight: Hawks View Glen in Leesburg

Hawks View Glen is a community of 36 town homes built in 2005 by K Hovnanian Homes. Hawks View Glen is located near the intersection of East Market St (Route 7 business) and the Route 15 bypass in southeast Leesburg, Virginia.

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The typical square footage is just under 2100 square feet with all of the town homes having pretty much the same floor plan. The main differences in the floor plan and square footage is whether the town home has a 3 level bump out or not and how the kitchen is situated. With the bump out, square footage is around 2100 square feet. All of the town homes have a one car garage and are brick front.

You enter on the main (basement) level with the door to the garage immediately to the left or right of the front door. Directly in front of you is a hallway leading to the walk out basement and backyard and stairs leading up to the second level.

As you get to the top of the stairs, the kitchen, eat in kitchen area and sun room (sun room is only there if there’s a 3 level bump out)  is to the rear of the home while the dining room and living room are to the front of the home.

The third (top) floor consists of the master bedroom, master bathroom, 2nd and 3rd bedrooms, full bath in the hallway, washer and dryer and linen closet. The master bedroom and master bathroom are pretty large for a town home especially if it has the 3 level bump out, which puts the bathroom in the bumpout. The master bedroom is the entire width of the town home and almost a perfect rectangle while the master bathroom is made up of the entire 3rd level bump out. The 2nd and 3rd bedrooms aren’t huge, but still a good size for a town home of this size.

The backyards on these town homes are larger (deeper) than average. Most of the town homes in the middle of the community have fences while some of the ones on the north/east side of the community do not and none of the ones on the south/west side of the community have a fence.

The town homes on the south/west side of the community all back to mature trees, the W&OD Trail and small power lines that run along the W&OD Trail. The town homes in the middle of the community back to other town homes. The town homes on the north/east side of the community back to mature trees.

One drawback of the community is that there are no amenities within the community – no clubhouse, no pool, no tot lots, etc. If you want access to such amenities, you’ll have to turn to neighboring communities or general county amenities. But then again, if you’re not a pool person nor care about tot lots or a community club house, you may not care.

The community is currently going through a foreclosure/bank-owned and short-sale frenzy. As of yesterday (July 15, 2009), there are 8 properties for sale or under contract – 5 are short-sales and 3 are foreclosure/bank-owned properties. Everyone who bought a home in this community paid considerably more than what their property is worth today. That can often lead to a high level of foreclosures and short-sales, which seems to be the case in this community at the moment.

On the bright side, these properties are now being purchased at much more affordable prices and during a time when lending guidelines are much more strict than in years past. This should help lead to increased mid to long term stability within the community.

P.S. Click here if you can’t see the slideshow of Hawks View Glen at the top of this post. And click here if you don’t see the embedded Google Map near the beginning of the post.

SEARCH FOR HOMES FOR SALE IN HAWKS VIEW GLEN

Loudoun Community Spotlight: Pulte Homes, Windermere in Ashburn

This Loudoun County Community Spotlight falls on the Pulte Homes Windermere community in Ashburn, VA. The Windermere community is located near the corner of Claiborne Parkway and Croson Lane immediately next to the Broadlands community.

Windermere is a mix of large town homes and medium sized single family homes. A total of 91 town homes and 83 single family homes will make up the community. Pulte has built or sold about 35 percent of the total homes so far and they’re expecting to sell the remainder of the community within the next 18 months. That puts completion of the entire community at about 24 months.

In speaking with the Pulte sales staff, I found out that they’ve already sold 9 homes this month (that’s a lot for new construction especially in a community of only 174 homes). I’m sometimes skeptical at how busy they say they are, but I’m going to believe them on this one – there at the same time as I was today were three Buyer’s Agents with their clients, two other sets of buyers without an agent and one set of buyers about to write a contract. And that was at 3:30pm on a Wednesday.

Base Prices/Models

Prices on the town homes start at $380K for the Westley II interior model (2296 – 2735 sq ft) and $390K for the Tyler exterior model (2411 – 2857 sq ft).

Prices on the single family homes start at $524K for the Kenley model (2696 sq ft on upper two levels); $533K for the Wynnewood model (2770 sq ft on upper two levels); and $542K for the Jamestown model (2974 sq ft on upper two levels).

Delivery Dates

Delivery dates vary, but count on about 4 to 6 months on the town homes and about 6 months on the single family homes. There are some “spec” homes available for earlier delivery including a Tyler model in the low $400K’s with a September delivery date.

Incentives

Pulte is offering some incentives as far as closing costs if you use their preferred lender. As for wiggle room in the base prices and/or options, there may or may not be any – that’s a secret I’ll only share with my clients (it’s only fair).

Amenities/HOA fees

Two things that popped out at me were the lack of amenities and not-much-return HOA fees. There are no amenities in the community yet, the HOA fee is $86 for single family homes and $100 for town homes. Considering what other communities within Ashburn and Loudoun County charge for HOA fees and the amenities they offer, Windermere has high HOA fees with little offered to home owners in return. In case you’re wondering…neither I (nor the sale rep from Pulte) could figure out why the town home fees are higher than the single family home fees.

Photos/Video Tour

There should be a slideshow of community photos I took at the top of this post (click here if you don’t see it). And don’t forget to check out my two-part video tour of the Windermere Pulte Homes Westley II and Tyler model town homes – part one and part two.

Visiting the new homes sales center in person

Make sure you have your Buyer’s Agent with you when you visit a new home/builder sales center. Click here to find out why.