According to Loudoun County, if you're listing a home in Sterling this fall, you'll sign a line on the Virginia Residential Property Disclosure Statement that didn't exist in most transactions before the middle of 2025. It has nothing to do with your roof, your HVAC, or your survey. It has to do with airplanes, and most sellers who last closed a house here before that point have never seen it.
The confusing part is that a lot of people in Loudoun County believe the opposite happened. Back in 2024, state lawmakers introduced bills aimed at stripping localities of the power to require their own real estate disclosures, and Loudoun's Dulles-area noise notification was the one disclosure caught in the crossfire. The story that circulated afterward was that the disclosure got weakened. It didn't. Virginia replaced a patchwork local rule with a statewide one that reaches further than what Loudoun had on its own.
The Fight Loudoun Almost Lost
As Loudoun Now reported, in early 2024, House Bill 467 and companion Senate Bill 354 moved through the General Assembly with the stated goal of stopping a "patchwork" of local real estate disclosure ordinances across the state. Senator Locke's version passed the Senate on January 23, and Delegate Simon's identical House bill followed on February 1, clearing 95 to 4. Neither bill mentioned Dulles by name, but Loudoun's Airport Impact Overlay District notification requirement was the only mandatory local disclosure the county had on the books, which meant it was the one rule actually at stake.
The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority pushed back hard, arguing that removing the local requirement would mislead buyers and increase pressure to limit Dulles flights. The Committee for Dulles, a business advocacy group tied to the airport, filed comments asking legislators to protect future residents' right to know what they were buying into. Loudoun Now reported that Loudoun's own legislative liaison told the Board of Supervisors the county was "engaging in a ton of lobbying activities" to keep the notification alive.
The compromise that eventually took shape didn't just preserve Loudoun's local rule. It built a new floor underneath it for the entire state.
What the 2025 Law Actually Requires
The Virginia Residential Property Disclosure Act was amended again in 2025, enacted March 18 and effective July 1, 2025. The new provision requires every residential seller in Virginia, not just those in Loudoun, to include specific language on the standard disclosure statement when a property sits near a public use airport. The form states that the owner makes no representations or warranties about the property's proximity to a public use airport or about aircraft noise from nearby flight operations, and that purchasers are advised to use whatever due diligence they think is necessary to figure out if the home sits within a flight path or airport noise zone.
That's a meaningfully different mechanism than what existed before. The Virginia Code says Virginia's older disclosure law covers military air installations only, and it requires the seller to name the specific noise zone off the locality's official zoning map. Dulles isn't a military installation, so that older statute never covered it. Before July 2025, the only thing standing between a Sterling buyer and total silence on aircraft noise was Loudoun's own local ordinance, the exact rule two state bills nearly eliminated.
The 2025 law also directed the Virginia Department of Aviation to build a public noise contour tool and hand the web address to the Real Estate Board so it can be printed directly on the disclosure form. That tool now exists at the department's noise contour site, giving buyers a place to check before they write an offer instead of relying on what comes up during a showing.
Loudoun's Older Layer Still Applies Too
The state law didn't retire Loudoun's own Airport Impact Overlay District. The AIOD is a zoning tool the Board of Supervisors first adopted in the early 1990s, and it still governs what can be built, not just what has to be disclosed. The district uses three noise tiers based on the FAA's day-night average sound level measurement, called Ldn. Inside the 65 Ldn line, new residential construction isn't permitted at all. A 60 to 65 Ldn band and a one-mile buffer beyond that carry their own land use restrictions.
The county last redrew those boundaries on January 17, 2023, using updated noise exposure maps the Airports Authority published in 2019. That redraw affected roughly 59,000 properties around Dulles, some added to the district and some removed from it. During that review, Loudoun County planning staff also proposed clarifying that AIOD disclosure should apply at every sale of a property inside the district, not just the first sale after construction, a change worth confirming with the county if your Sterling home last changed hands years ago and you're not sure which version of the notification applies.
Which Parts of Sterling This Actually Touches
Sterling sits close enough to Dulles that the airport shapes daily life for some blocks and barely registers for others. The homes most exposed to jet noise, particularly during early morning departures, tend to be south of Route 7 and east of Route 28, closer to the runway approach paths. Established neighborhoods like Cascades, Countryside, and Potomac Falls generally see minimal impact, since their layout and distance from the flight corridor keep most of the community outside the higher noise tiers.
That distinction matters more than a single median price ever could when you're comparing two Sterling listings. A four bedroom colonial in Countryside and a similar home two miles south near Route 7 can carry the same square footage and the same asking price while sitting in entirely different noise and disclosure positions. One may require nothing more than the standard statewide language. The other may fall inside the AIOD's 60 to 65 Ldn band, with its own zoning history and its own line on the county's overlay map.
Before You List or Write an Offer
A few concrete steps make this easier to work through instead of guessing:
- Check the Virginia Department of Aviation's noise contour tool for the property's exact location before you sign a listing agreement or submit an offer.
- Pull the address against Loudoun County's Airport Impact Overlay District map through the county's GIS portal to see which tier, if any, applies.
- If you're selling, expect the due diligence language on the state disclosure form
- If you're buying a home built or last sold before July 2025, don't assume a previous disclosure statement covers you. The requirement is triggered by this sale, not the property's history.
A Few Questions Worth Asking Directly
Does this apply to condos and townhomes, not just single family homes? Yes. The statewide disclosure requirement and the AIOD both apply based on the property's location relative to the noise contours, not the type of structure on the lot.
What if my home is just outside the AIOD boundary but I still notice aircraft noise? The county's own guidance acknowledges that noise doesn't stop cleanly at a mapped line. Weather, wind direction, and which runways are active on a given day all affect what's actually audible on the ground, even for homes just outside the 60 Ldn buffer.
Do I need an attorney to complete the disclosure? The form language is standardized by the Real Estate Board, so most sellers can complete it without legal help. If a title issue or an existing AIOD zoning question comes up, that's a good moment to loop in a real estate attorney before ratification, not after.
If you're getting ready to list a Sterling home or you're comparing a few addresses near Dulles before you write an offer, it helps to know exactly which disclosure applies to which property before the paperwork lands in front of you. Brett Selestay can walk through the specific noise tier and disclosure requirements for any Sterling address you're considering. Let's Connect.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
