By: Rebecca Shillenn

What: Midtown Reston Town Center

Where: 11990 Market St., Reston

Number of Units: 293

Prices: One-bedroom units start in the low $500,000s; penthouses with two or three bedrooms go for more than $1 million.

Here’s this week’s roundup of the ten top sales in the region, as reported by American City Business Leads.

The most expensive was in Potomac’s Bradley Farms neighborhood, where the houses—Swiss chalets, Versailles-inspired palaces, opulent plantation homes, and glass-and-steel contemporaries—sell for $2 million and up. It’s home to plenty of VIPs, including Ritz Camera CEO David Ritz, real-estate mogul Nathan Landow, former Wonder Woman star Lynda Carter, and Comstat exec George Kappaz.

$5,000,000—8801 Persimmon Tree Rd., Potomac
$3,900,000—2438 Belmont Rd., Massachusetts Ave. Heights, Northwest DC
$2,640,000—914 Georgetown Ridge Ct., McLean
$2,482,561—1497 Lily Loch Way, Great Falls
$2,440,000— 21030 Georgia Ave., Brookeville, MD
$1,911,250—10522 Fox Crest Court, Great Falls
$1,800,000—14609 Chesterfield Rd., Rockville
$1,638,655—15606 Crimson Spire Court, Silver Spring
$1,550,000—8609 Rayburn Rd., Bethesda
$1,550,000—4324 N. 23rd St., Arlington

They’re eco-friendly, shapely, relatively cheap, and vanishing like a delicious Chinese take-out meal. They’re Kwytza (pronounced KWAI-DZA) Kraft’s lamps from Bryan Parks, an American who spent three years in Kunming, a city in the south of China. Fashioned from sanitized bamboo chopsticks used in restaurants in China, the lamps are a stylish addition to any home, green or not.

Parks, who owns a workshop in China, had the lamps made in a different Chinese workshop until he grew uncomfortable with labor practices there. Though he’s bringing production to his workshop and introducing a new line, he’s sold out of the original lamps.

A limited number are available from retailers. We headed online to see where we could scoop up the leftovers and fell in love with the clean, curvey look of the “Mey” lamp, pictured above. The cheapest “Mey” lamp we could find was at bluehouse, a Baltimore store with an online shop, where it goes for $29 plus shipping.  We also found it for $65 at the Art Institute of Chicago and for $68 at Green Home Environmental Designs.

Tony Podesta collected $1.9 million for this contemporary in Falls Church.

Two bigwigs with connections to the Bill Clinton White House recently made real-estate deals. 

Walter Dellinger, who was a legal adviser to Clinton, and his wife, Anne, bought a two-bedroom, two-bathroom condo in a building near Dupont Circle for the list price of $1.1 million. Dellinger heads the appellate practice at the DC law firm O’Melveny & Meyers. During the Clinton administration, he was US solicitor general and worked in the Justice Department. Anne Dellinger, also a lawyer, has worked at Hogan & Hartson in DC and was a special assistant to then-FBI chief William Webster in the 1980s.

Democratic lobbyist Tony Podesta sold a two-bedroom stone-and-stucco contemporary in Falls Church’s Lake Barcroft neighborhood for its list price of $1.9 million. The renovated house has water views. Podesta, brother of former Clinton White House chief of staff John Podesta, heads the Podesta Group in DC.

As the 2008 presidential campaign ramps up, we couldn’t help but wonder whether Podesta will put some of that $1.9 million to work helping one—or all—of the eight Democratic hopefuls.

This white sectional couch with ottoman is going for $900 on Craigslist this week. If it's in as good shape as the picture indicates, $900 would be a great deal. More pictures are available here.

More cool stuff:

• Mahogany and rattan sofa for $650
• Vintage school desk and chair for $65
• Antique Victorian fireplace insert for $1000
• Slate coffee table for $200
• Mahogony coffee table for $75
• Solid wood full size bed frame for $125
• Antique rocking chair for $165
• Two-piece hutch for $75
• Pottery Barn wine rack/bar for $70
• Crate and Barrell dining table with 4 chairs for $350

Thanks, Craigslist! 

By: Lauren Masterson

Feeling overwhelmed by the eruption of new condo buildings in the District?  A "Metropolitan Open House" this weekend hosted by Wells Fargo and McWilliams Ballard, a real estate sales and marketing company, offers potential buyers a chance to learn more about 23 new buildings in DC. A variety of building sizes, price ranges, and neighborhoods including Capitol Hill, Penn Quarter, and U Street will be showcased.

Sales representatives from each building will be on hand to show patrons pictures, architectural renderings, and floorplans, so come armed with questions. Even if you don't walk away with a new condo, you'll leave with a better understanding of the District's ever-changing condo market.

February 24, 2007 | Noon - 3PM | Halo, 1435 P Street, NW
Click here for more information or to RSVP.

A weekly look at the most expensive house deals in Washington

This week's top ten:

$4,500,000 - 12995 Wyckland Drive, Springfield, VA
$2,319,355 - 40887 Grenata Preserve Place, Leesburg
$2,290,000 - 4405 Stanford St., Chevy Chase
$2,288,889 - 11213 Marwood Hill Drive, Potomac
$2,000,000 - 5630 Wisconsin Ave., Chevy Chase
$1,975,000 - 17654 Canby Road, Leesburg
$1,950,000 - 3509 Macomb St., NW
$1,945,000 - 6412 Ruffin Road, Chevy Chase
$1,860,000 - 4201 Yuma St. NW
$1,800,000 - 8815 Brickyard Road, Potomac

More fun numbers:

• 5: number of sales that broke $2 million 

• 51: number of sales that broke $1 million

• 95: number of sales that broke $800,000