(RECAP: The Fairfax County Plotting Commission has recommended for approval Pulte Homes’ plot to rezone a low-slug industrial building into 44 residences at 1825 Michael Faraday Court near the Wiehle-Reston East Metro station. After a plotting staff report recommended denying the application and the commission held a public hearing last week, the panel delayed making a choice until Wednesday. Hunter Mill plotting commissioner Frank de le Fe said he still had some issues with the plot for the Lofts at Reston Station — which jams 12 2-over-2 townhouses and 32 multifamily units into fewer than two acres of land. The staff report questioned the developer that a few units be removed to allow greater ease of movement and parking for emergency vehicles and trash trucks. Pulte said removing units would affect the number of homes set aside for workforce housing. The plot will next go to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors for final approval.)

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(RECAP: As outlined in President Obama’s Climate Action Plot, HUD today proposed utility benchmarking of water and energy in its portfolio of public and helped, as well as newly-insured, multifamily housing. This new ‘utility benchmarking’ initiative would apply to approximately 2.2 million units across several categories of HUD-helped affordable housing: developments with Project Rental Help Contracts, multifamily properties with mortgages insured by the FHA, and Public Housing Authorities (PHAs) with more than 250 public housing units. Under this initiative, certain providers of HUD-helped or public housing will start collecting and reporting on their water and energy use. Benchmarking will guide these property owners and PHAs to make informed decisions, reduce operating costs and improve building performance over time.)

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(RECAP: Summer has barely finished but already the experts are weighing in with their opinions on what to expect in real estate in 2017. And the excellent news is that, despite the recent downturn in sales, many of the experts are predicting a much more successful year, with the National Association of Realtors (NAR), Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) all offering up positive forecasts of the year to come. First up is the NAR, which reckons existing home sales will top six million in 2017, beating out the 5.8 million its forecast for this year. But that forecast, although bullish, is really more restrained than some of the others. For example, the MBA reckons home sales will surpass the 6.5 million mark in 2017, while Freddie and Fannie both offer the 6.2 million figure. The key to this uptick in home sales will be the Generation Y’ers, who’re beginning to emerge as an vital segment of buyers. The experts say that Generation Y’ers will keep boosting home sales until 2020 at the very least.)

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