… the Sun Gazette’s Winter Real Estate Guide can’t be far away!
Whatever might hit us this weekend surely is going to be nothing like the weekend before the 2016 Winter Real Estate Guide, the one that dropped two feet of snow or more on the local area and caused me to camp out of the office (then in McLean) for two nights to try and make sure we actually got it out on time.
Not looking quite so bad this time around, but it could cause us to rework some scheduling. Can’t miss a press deadline, you know — never, never, never!
Speaking of the real-estate market, the new data ara in, and home sales across Northern Virginia in 2021 were up a whopping 17 percent from 2020. That’s the largest year-over-year increase, in percentage terms, since the 32.6-percent bump up in 1999, according to the data we borrow from the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors and other sources.
‘MOTHER FAIRFAX’ RIDES AGAIN, IF ONLY IN OUR MEMORIES: As noted several times previously, I have denuded my home of old editions of newspapers from my past, keeping only a few of particular interest. Everything else has gone to recycling.
I found one from 1994 where the cover featured former (and now late) Fairfax County Supervisor Martha V. Pennino, discussing her post-political life.
I remember the interview well; we conducted it at her home in Vienna, which was located on a street near the golf course with one of the golf-themed names (“Niblick Drive,” maybe?).
Pennino’s long service in elected office, first on the Vienna Town Council and then on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, led her to receive the nickname “Mother Fairfax.” As I noted on several occasions, although hopefully not in her presence, if one receives an appellation that starts with “mother,” then that wasn’t a bad one to have.
- Scott McCaffrey