One of the biggest surprises of being in real estate came in realizing how little the work turns out to be about houses, and how much more it is about walking with people as they navigate different life transitions. I love the HGTV real estate shows where the real estate agent shows a buyer three homes - and voila, they pick a house, write a contract, move in and the next time you see them they’re at a house warming party – all this in 30 minutes. As is often the case with realty TV, it’s not very real.

In real life people are dealing with all kinds of events that are driving them to move from one place to another place. Some are happy, some are sad, some are speculative but it is mostly about life changes, marriage, births, deaths, retiring, divorcing, new jobs and lost jobs. Sometimes it’s about more than one thing, a new marriage and a new job. Change is almost always hard for people; we are rarely at our best when we’re moving through transitions. Real estate agents spend a lot of time with people who aren’t at their best, but they might be more real than if you had met them at a cocktail party. It isn't always easy, but the realness of it makes it feel important, even if it's just for that short period of time when you help someone to get from one place to the next. 

So those are my random thoughts on real estate.

Here are the Reston numbers. There are currently 128 fully active properties on the market in Reston. 41 Single Family Homes, 45 Townhouses the remainder are Condominiums. Inventory of homes continues to be very low.

Sales June – today: 262 properties with a sales volume of $114,500,000.

Sales year to date: 639 properties with a sales volume of $265,851,000.