Not everything about the developments is attractive, though -- many residents could do without the harvest gold and avocado green appliances that date from the condo conversion days.
So homeowners such as David Beckerman are busy upgrading the interiors of their condos, ripping out the old, dated kitchens, bathrooms and windows.
Parkfairfax, built in 1941 and 1942, has 1,684 all-brick garden-style condo units.
(Photos Rich Lipski -- The Washington Post)
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Beckerman, who bought a two-bedroom condo in Parkfairfax last year for $203,000, overhauled his kitchen soon after he bought the unit.
"The kitchen looked like it was stuck in the 1960s," Beckerman said. So he installed a new sink, new appliances, new cabinets and new granite countertops. He put in a terra cotta tile floor, lowered the kitchen ceiling and put in spotlights. He also installed a washer and dryer.
"There's so much renovation going on now," Meyer of Re/Max Allegiance said, "people are re-doing their kitchens, their bathrooms, tearing down walls, replacing the old windows, putting in washer-dryers."
Tom Mayhew redid his bathroom, and put in new floors and windows throughout the two-bedroom unit he bought in Parkfairfax two years ago for $182,000. He plans to soon put his condo on the market to trade up to a single-family house.
Mayhew is so confident that the unit will sell quickly -- he is thinking of pricing it at $320,000 -- that he is looking for a place to buy before he sells. "I know my condo will sell in less than a week," he said. "And I could get a bidding war going, too."
If prices go up much more, Parkfairfax and Fairlington may soon be out of reach for their traditional residents -- members of the military, defense workers and first-time homeowners.
Abbott from the Army said many of his military colleagues, for example, are now opting to live farther from the Pentagon in less expensive areas.
"I don't know how many more military people will be able to afford it," Abbott said. "I'm single and so I have a little bit more money. People with kids and families are moving way south, out to Fredericksburg."
Agent Peggy Parker from Long & Foster Real Estate Inc.'s office in Fairlington agrees.
"Fairlington attracts Pentagon people, that's for sure," Parker said. "But the young people who work there can't afford to live here anymore. The military doesn't pay them enough to be able to buy. With a condo in the $400,000 range, you often need two incomes to qualify."
Parker said, "Historically, this was a neighborhood for first-time buyers. But now, it's becoming a neighborhood for move-up buyers."
