Buying & selling in Reston

Reston at a glance

Reston is a census-designated place in unincorporated Fairfax County, not a town or a city: there is no municipal government, so Fairfax County issues the permits, provides the services and sends the only real-estate tax bill (Source: Wikipedia). Robert E. Simon bought the land and launched the community on April 10, 1964, planning it around village centers with their own shops and housing, man-made lakes and common open space; the name is his initials plus -ton (Source: Reston Town Center Association). It runs along the Dulles Toll Road and Silver Line corridor between Vienna and Dulles Airport, with Fairfax County Parkway on its east side and the Town of Herndon, a separate incorporated town with its own government, to the north and west.

Most of the ground is covenanted. The Reston Deed places the majority of homes under Reston Association, a private association with an annual assessment, a Design Review Board and rules on exterior changes, while a share of the newer buildings near the Metro stations and in Reston Town Center were approved without joining it (Source: FFXnow, August 2023). The stock divides by era. The original villages hold cluster townhouses grouped around shared land rather than fenced yards, plus Lake Anne's concrete mid-rise and high-rise units; the later subdivisions hold detached houses on cul-de-sacs off Reston Parkway and the village-center roads; and Reston Town Center and the station areas hold condo and apartment high-rises.

Reston, village by village

Reston was planned as a set of village centers, each with its own shops and housing types, and later grew a downtown and three station areas — the county-wide picture is in the Fairfax County guide; these are the parts of Reston buyers ask about most:

• Lake Anne Village — Reston's first village center, built around the man-made Lake Anne with a waterfront plaza, shops and a mix of townhouses, mid-rise and high-rise units. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the Virginia Landmarks Register and sits in a Fairfax County Historic Overlay District, so exterior changes to contributing buildings go through the county's historic-district review on top of Reston Association covenants (Source: Virginia Department of Historic Resources). The cluster townhouses nearby, grouped around shared common land instead of individual yards, were a planning departure for Fairfax County when they were built.
• Reston Town Center — The planned downtown, opened in fall 1990 with Market Street retail, a cinema, Clyde's and the Hyatt Regency once the Dulles Toll Road's 1984 opening made the site reachable; Boston Properties, Lerner Enterprises and JBG Smith expanded it afterward (Source: Reston Town Center Association). Residential here is high-rise condo and apartment, and much of it sits outside Reston Association under the separate Reston Town Center Association, so the assessment, the amenities and the rules differ building by building (Source: FFXnow, August 2023). Its Silver Line station opened on November 15, 2022 (Source: WMATA, 2022).
• Wiehle–Reston East and Reston Station — The east end of Reston along the Toll Road, where the Silver Line's first-phase terminus, Wiehle–Reston East, anchored a wave of Comstock-led high-density development after it opened. Newer buildings here were approved without a commitment to join Reston Association, and a buyer should confirm membership status on the specific building rather than assume the trails, pools and assessment come with it (Source: FFXnow, August 2023).
• Hunters Woods and South Lakes — Two of the five original village centers, on the south side of the Toll Road, set in townhouse clusters and detached subdivisions around Lake Audubon and the Walker Nature Center, a forested Reston Association park with trails on Glade Drive (Source: Wikipedia). Hunters Woods also holds a Reston Community Center facility. Homes here are the ones most likely to back onto Reston Association pathways and common land, which is worth understanding before you plan a fence or a deck.
• Tall Oaks and North Point — The remaining original village centers, on the north side toward Herndon, mostly detached subdivisions and townhouse clusters knitted together by Reston Association pathways (Source: Wikipedia). The Town of Herndon next door is a separate incorporated jurisdiction with its own government, so a Reston address and a Herndon address are different transactions even where the two touch.

Five things locals know

A few things that shape a purchase in Reston and rarely make the listing sheet:

• Much of Reston Town Center is not in Reston Association — More than 3,000 residential units approved in Reston's Transit Station Areas, including projects by Comstock, EYA and Aperture, came with no commitment to join Reston Association, an issue the Fairfax County Planning Commission took up on July 28, 2023; some Town Center buildings answer instead to the separate Reston Town Center Association, while their residents still use the trails, pools and parks RA maintains (Source: FFXnow, August 2023).
• The 2026 Reston Association assessment is $890 — Reston Association's board adopted its 2026 budget on November 13, 2025 by a 7-2 vote, setting the annual member assessment at $890 per household, up 5% from $848 in 2025, inside a roughly $24 million budget. It is a private assessment paid to the association, not a tax, and it is a recurring carrying cost for most Reston homes (Source: Reston Association, November 2025; FFXnow, November 2025).
• There is one property-tax bill, and it comes from the county — Because Reston is unincorporated, the Fairfax County real estate tax is the only one on a Reston home: $1.12 per $100 of assessed value for Tax Year 2026, down from $1.1225 in 2025, set in the FY 2027 adopted budget. Special districts can still appear on a bill — the Stormwater Service District at $0.0325 per $100, or the Dulles Rail Transportation Improvement District, which applies to commercial parcels — so check the specific parcel in the county's assessment lookup (Source: Fairfax County, FY 2027 budget).
• One of Reston's Metro stations is named for the town next door — The Silver Line's Herndon station opened on November 15, 2022 alongside Reston Town Center station in the line's Phase 2, and it sits inside Reston rather than the Town of Herndon it is named for; with Wiehle–Reston East, the first-phase terminus, that gives Reston three stations on one line (Source: WMATA, 2022).
• The downtown came after the toll road — Reston Town Center's first phase opened in fall 1990, after the Dulles Toll Road opened in 1984 and put the site on a direct road to Tysons and Dulles Airport; Robert E. Simon had bought the land and founded Reston in 1964, and the downtown was part of his original plan (Source: Reston Town Center Association).

Getting around

Reston has three Silver Line stations of its own, all in the Dulles Toll Road corridor: Wiehle–Reston East, the line's first-phase western terminus, and Reston Town Center and Herndon, which opened together on November 15, 2022 as part of Phase 2 on the way to Dulles Airport and Loudoun County (Source: WMATA, 2022). The Herndon station is inside Reston despite its name. Fairfax Connector, the county bus operator, runs routes from the villages into Wiehle–Reston East and Reston Town Center stations. No VRE or MARC commuter rail reaches Reston. Off the rails, the W&OD Trail passes through on a Reston Parkway access point — 45 paved miles from Shirlington to Purcellville, open 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily under NOVA Parks (Source: NOVA Parks) — and Reston Association maintains more than 55 miles of its own paved pathways linking the village centers, lakes and neighborhoods, which is how many trips inside Reston actually happen (Source: Reston Association).

By car, the Dulles Toll Road opened in 1984 and runs along Reston's south edge to Tysons, the Beltway and Dulles Airport, with the Silver Line in its median (Source: Reston Town Center Association). Reston Parkway, Sunset Hills Road and Sunrise Valley Drive are the internal arterials, and Fairfax County Parkway closes the east side. Parking is a covenant question more than a street question: cluster townhouses generally come with assigned spaces in shared lots run by the cluster association under Reston Association rules, detached houses have driveways and garages, and Town Center and station-area condos handle garage spaces building by building — read the parking rules before you commit to a townhouse.

The market & what to expect

Reston prices split by association status and era before anything else. A cluster townhouse at Lake Anne with county historic-overlay review and Reston Association design review on the exterior, a detached house on a cul-de-sac with the RA assessment and pathway access, and a Town Center high-rise condo with a monthly fee and possibly no RA membership at all are three different transactions with three different buyer pools. The Transit Station Areas around the three Metro stations are where the county's Reston Comprehensive Plan steers new density, so buyers there should expect ongoing construction. NVAR's monthly reports cover Fairfax County together with Arlington, Alexandria, the cities of Fairfax and Falls Church and the towns of Vienna, Herndon and Clifton, and do not break Reston out, so no current Reston-only median is published by a source this guide can cite.

Across Northern Virginia as a whole, the median sold price in July 2026 was $750,000 on 1,582 closed sales, with a median 21 days on market (Source: NVAR, July 2026). That is a regional figure, not a Reston one.

For buyers, the first work is confirming three things on the specific property: that it is in unincorporated Fairfax County, which means one county tax bill and county permits; whether it is inside Reston Association, and what the current assessment and design-review obligations are; and whether it sits in the Lake Anne overlay district. For sellers, the job is pricing to the buyer pool the home reaches — cluster, subdivision or high-rise — and getting past exterior work and its association approvals documented before they become a contract problem. The buyer's guide and seller's guide lay out how Kelly runs each side, and the Great Falls guide covers the larger-lot area to the north if you are weighing both. For a read on a specific cluster, street or building, get in touch.

Why work with Kelly in Reston

Kelly Balmer is Vice President & Partner, Mollaan Babbington Group at Compass, licensed in DC, Maryland and Virginia, with $130M+ sold over 13+ years and a 5.0 Best-of-Zillow record across 130+ reviews. Her office is at 1313 14th Street NW in DC, which matters in Reston, where many buyers are weighing a Silver Line commute against Arlington, Tysons or the District, and where the covenant layer on top of county rules is the part out-of-area buyers most often misjudge.

In practice that means telling you early whether a specific home is inside Reston Association or one of the buildings that never joined, and what that does to the monthly cost and the exterior rules; reading the cluster or condo documents alongside the RA covenants before an offer rather than after; flagging the Lake Anne overlay district when it applies; and pulling comparables at the cluster or building level instead of the Reston level. On the sell side she prices to the specific buyer pool a home reaches, documents prior exterior work and its approvals before they become a contract problem, and handles every transaction personally.

Kelly Balmer
Vice President & Partner, Mollaan Babbington Group at Compass · Licensed in DC · MD · VA