A real estate assessment rate hike of 23 percent has played out in hundreds of different scenarios across Fairfax County.
In the southwest portion of the county, where land can still be found, those who have medium-sized houses on large lots have been hit at a higher rate than most of the county, even though Fairfax Station's assessments grew at just a 20 percent rate.
The Crosson family lives on a five-acre lot in Fairfax Station, in a home they bought nearly seven years ago for $295,000. Dennis and Mary Beth Crosson liked the idea of the 2,000-square-foot home, and they liked the tree-lined lot for their two grade-school aged children even more.
Now, they are seeing the dark side of owning both land and a home in Fairfax County, as their assessment has steadily risen for the past several years.
"We were really happy," said Mary Beth Crosson. "The last two years, there has really been a substantial increase."
According to Crosson, their most recent assessment showed their house improving from $202,400 to $225,880, and their land up from $291,000 to $466,000, making the total price tag over $650,000.
"I'm upset because this is a home we plan on probably retiring in," said Crosson. "It's a beautiful lot, and our children are young now. If I'm looking at this kind of increase now, what will I be looking at in another 10 years?"
THE CROSSON family's home is average by Fairfax County standards, but the desirability of their land and the recent development of larger homes in the neighborhood have caused their mortgage costs to climb.
The Crosson's next door neighbor, Bruce Dickinson, moved to the area of Fairfax Station, located on a private road near Fairfax Station Road, from Annandale for similar reasons as the Crossons.
"We wanted more privacy, we wanted a large amount of land for Fairfax County," he said.
Dickinson said his assessment increase this year was 28 percent, a jump of $250,000. He said that this increase is just par for the course, and he and his wife and prepared to bite the bullet.
"It doesn't make us real happy when it comes to mortgage payment time, but if we elected to sell the house, we would use that assessment to get a better price on the house," he said. "I've got no beef with anybody."
They built the house, just over 6,000 square feet in June 2002, on a 6.5-acre lot. It's a substantially larger house than that of several of the neighbors, but Dickinson said he likes it so much he encouraged one of his friends to buy a lot with an abandoned farmhouse on it nearby. They have leveled the farmhouse and plan on building a large home there too.
"We knew all the while, and we thought long and hard about it, we ran the numbers," he said. "To us, it was worth it."
According to Janet Coldsmith, real estate division director for the Fairfax County Department of Tax Administration, construction of newer, larger houses near smaller houses doesn't have that much of an effect on the smaller house's value.
"We tend to compare the … older homes to other older homes. We try very hard to compare apples to apples," she said.
Coldsmith also said that with the amount of infill in many areas in the county, places like Fairfax Station, where large lots still exist, are desirable, and that means the land value will continue to rise.
"There are some areas that have larger lots, and those are valuable for being able to build more on those lots," she said. "There's not much undeveloped land left in the county."
The problem with her neighborhood, said Mary Beth Crosson, is that the area of Fairfax Station where she lives is regulated by the downzoning regulations to protect the Occoquan Watershed.
"When you're in a development like this, you're not allowed to subdivide. It's not like we could do anything with the land," said Crosson.
And for those, like the Crossons, who have established roots in Fairfax County, moving isn't desirable, but staying is rapidly becoming a headache as well.
"All my family lives here in Fairfax County. I wouldn't want to move away," she said. "All we can hope for is that at some point, this spinning out of control for the housing market will come to an end."