A "stacked townhouse" listing tells you the shape of the home and nothing about how you would own it. Under Virginia law, condominium status comes from recording condominium instruments, so the building's form doesn't decide it. Fairfax County's own board materials have described "stacked condominium units" as "two-over-two townhomes," using the two labels for the same product.
That gap between label and title is getting more relevant around Herndon. The office parks along Sunrise Valley Drive near the Herndon and Innovation Center Silver Line stations are being rezoned for housing, and much of what's planned is stacked product. It's coming at a time when the regional attached market, condos especially, has more inventory than it has had in years. A Herndon buyer looking at attached homes now is entering a segment where supply is growing in two ways at once: resale listings now, and new stacked units later.
The word "townhouse" doesn't settle three things that change the transaction
When a two-over-two is a condominium, the Virginia Condominium Act defines what you buy as a unit plus an undivided interest in the common elements. That structure brings in three processes a fee-simple townhouse buyer might never deal with in the same way:
- Assessments set by the condominium instruments. Common expenses are assessed to unit owners under the statute's allocation rules and the community's own documents. Two homes with identical floor plans can carry very different monthly costs.
- Financing that depends on the project, not just the buyer. HUD insures FHA loans on condo units only in FHA-approved projects or in projects that meet its Single-Unit Approval requirements, according to HUD's condominium guidance. A buyer can qualify personally and still find FHA unavailable on a particular unit. A future seller can face the same limit on their pool of buyers.
- A resale certificate with a cancellation window. Virginia's Resale Disclosure Act requires a certificate covering assessments, fees, special assessments, approved capital spending, reserves, the budget, financial statements, the reserve study and certain pending legal matters. If the certificate arrives before ratification, the default cancellation period is three days unless the contract sets a different one. If it arrives after ratification, the buyer has three days from receipt. If it never arrives, the purchaser may cancel before settlement.
No source establishes that every two-over-two in Northern Virginia uses condominium title. Each community has to be checked in its recorded documents. That check matters more now because of where the new product is being built.
Why vacant offices are becoming stacked homes
The clearest example is Coppermine Commons III, a five-story office building at 13851 Sunrise Valley Drive in the McNair area south of Herndon, near the Innovation Center station. It went up in 2001. David Gill of Wire Gill LLP, the developer's attorney, told supervisors the building was "basically completely vacant." Arlington-based Felice Development Group bought the 4.7 acres from Cannon Hill Capital Partners for $12.5 million in 2024. On Aug. 25, 2026, the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved rezoning it for 98 townhouses, 40 conventional and 58 stacked, according to FFXnow.
The site has to hold a lot. The zoning district's normal density is 20 units per acre. Because 12 units are set aside as affordable housing for households at or below 60% of area median income, Felice is allowed 21.39 per acre. Roughly 35% of the property will be open space, including a 0.3-acre public park with a playground and a bocce court, and the homes will be served by 282 parking spaces. More than half of the 98 homes on that footprint are stacked units.
Woodland Park, closer to the Herndon station, follows the same pattern at a larger scale. On Sept. 23, 2026, the Fairfax County Planning Commission recommended approving a rezoning for 34.7 acres between Sunrise Valley Drive and the Dulles Toll Road. The site is currently four office buildings, three garages, a day care, a surface lot and a tennis court. The parcels are held through LLCs controlled by Buchanan Partners, and the zoning applications come through an LLC controlled by The Pinkard Group, as FFXnow reported. One office building, fully leased to MANTECH, would stay.
| Project | Location | Planned homes | Status as reported |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coppermine Commons III | 13851 Sunrise Valley Dr., near Innovation Center | 40 townhouses, 58 stacked townhouses | Rezoning approved Aug. 25, 2026 |
| Woodland Park, option 1 | Sunrise Valley Dr. and Wood Oak Dr., near Herndon station | 319 townhouses, 110 stacked townhouses | Planning Commission recommended Sept. 23, 2026; no board hearing scheduled as of Sept. 30 |
| Woodland Park, option 2 | Same site | 244 townhouses, 110 stacked townhouses, 230 multifamily | Same |
| Nell at 555 | Near Herndon station | 399 apartments | Under construction; first move-ins forecast for early 2027, per May 2026 reporting |
| 575 Herndon Parkway | Near Herndon station | 525 apartments in a seven-story building | Approved by Town Council April 28, 2026 |
Not one detached home appears anywhere in that pipeline. The for-sale homes are townhouses and stacked townhouses, and the remaining units are rentals. The schedules for the two rental projects come from spring reporting and may have moved since then.
The new supply is attached, and so is the slack
Regional inventory had already shifted toward attached homes before any of these projects broke ground. The Northern Virginia Association of Realtors' August 2026 report, released Sept. 14, shows active condo listings up 44.8% year over year, from 915 to 1,325. Townhome listings rose 29.9%, from 469 to 609. Detached listings fell 8.5%, from 1,091 to 998. NVAR's footprint includes Fairfax County and the Town of Herndon, so these are regional figures and not a Herndon-only count.
Bright MLS's August 2026 data for the Washington, D.C. metro, current as of Sept. 4, shows how differently the three segments are moving:
| August 2026, D.C. metro | Detached | Attached/townhomes | Condos |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median sold price | $835,000 | $588,000 | $386,500 |
| Median days on market | 14 | 17 | 34 |
| Months of supply | 2.15 | 2.37 | 4.30 |
Condos stand apart. In Bright's August condo report, condo closed sales fell 22.7% from August 2025, from 1,152 to 890. The median price slipped 5.7% from $410,000. Median days on market went from 25 to 34, and months of supply rose from 3.11 to 4.30. Detached homes, meanwhile, sat near two months of supply and sold in about two weeks.
This explains why the ownership question in the first section matters. A stacked townhouse with condominium title shares the legal structure, and possibly the financing limits, of the segment that is softening fastest. To a buyer it can look like a townhome, but on paper it may be priced against condo competition.
Fairfax County's attached average is still climbing
The Fairfax County figures make this harder to read. MarketStats by ShowingTime data, reported by FFXnow on Sept. 15, shows the county's average attached sales price rising 4.5% in August 2026 to $577,988. The average detached price fell 1.9% to $1,174,860. Countywide active listings at the end of August were 1,985, up 20.3% year over year.
Fairfax's "attached" category combines townhouses and condominiums in one average. With regional condo prices falling and condo sales dropping by more than a fifth, a rising combined average suggests the mix of attached sales moved toward pricier homes. It does not suggest attached homes across the board gained value. The available data doesn't separate the two inside Fairfax, and it can't be broken down to Herndon's 20170 and 20171 ZIP codes. That uncertainty is a reason to compare individual communities instead of relying on a single "attached" figure.
What the timeline means for a purchase this fall
As of FFXnow's Sept. 30 report, the Board of Supervisors had not scheduled a Woodland Park hearing, and the application still carried two development options. Coppermine has its zoning approval, but no delivery date appears in the reporting. So the stacked homes near Herndon's stations are a future factor in the market, not a current one. This fall, attached buyers are choosing among resale listings in a segment that already has more inventory than it did a year ago.
Two future effects are worth understanding. First, a resale two-over-two or condo near the stations may eventually compete with new units nearby. That depends on whether and when Woodland Park is approved and built. Second, the Woodland Park plan sets aside 12% of units as affordable or workforce housing. The for-sale units in that set-aside would be split evenly among households earning 70%, 80% and 100% of Fairfax County's area median income, which was $166,100 for a household of four in 2026. The plan also includes 2.68 to 2.88 acres of public park space and a 10-foot shared-use path along Sunrise Valley Drive.
Quick answers
Is every stacked townhouse a condo? No source supports that rule. Condominium status depends on whether condominium instruments were recorded, so each community's documents decide it.
Where does the monthly fee show up before I'm committed? In the resale certificate. It lists assessments, fees, special assessments, reserves and the budget. The statute sets default cancellation windows tied to when you receive it.
Why can a buyer be approved for FHA and still not get it on a specific unit? FHA insures condo loans only in approved projects or in projects that meet Single-Unit Approval requirements, so the building's status matters alongside the borrower's.
When will the Woodland Park homes be available? The reporting gives no availability date. The Planning Commission's Sept. 23 recommendation still needs a Board of Supervisors hearing, which hadn't been scheduled as of Sept. 30.
If you're comparing a two-over-two, a condo and a townhouse around the Herndon stations, I can pull the recorded documents and resale certificate for each community you're considering. That way you can compare fees, financing eligibility and ownership type side by side before you write an offer. Reach out to Selestay Group and let's connect.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
