Green trends poised for take-off
Green building starts to really take off!
According to a recent survey conducted by NAHB and McGraw Hill Construction, there has been a 20 percent increase since last year in builders dedicated to green building issues. The number is expected to rise by another 30 percent in 2007 to 64 percent of builders either heavily or moderately involved in green building projects, the survey said.
Choosing green will have to be, in my opinion, a financial decision. Witness the recent rise in people using public transit and buying bikes.
Is the perfect gasoline storm upon us? I like some of these predictions:
- All locally produced goods, and especially food, will become increasingly cost competitive.
- Bicycle sales and related services will skyrocket.
- Motor cycle and scooter use will become more common during the warm months.
- Developers will gravitate to the higher density “live/work/play” planned community models.
- Traffic congestion will be mitigated as carpooling and errand sharing become more commonplace.
- Cynicism toward alternative designs and life styles will be reduced.
Start with supply. … That ensures a steadier stream of production, which will make prices more predictable and will kick-start some economies of scale. Over time, increased demand and decreased production costs will lure additional players, which helps create still greater efficiencies, boosting output and lowering costs.
It’s about the economy, stupid. Some early adopters will certainly buy into the green movement because it’s the “right thing to do.” Most will not until they see the direct impact on their pocket books. Simple as that.
Technorati Tags: charlalbemarle, green, real estate
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Charlottesville Blog Carnival
The Charlottesville Blog Carnival is hosted this week by Duane Gran. Next week’s carnival will be hosted here. If you see a particularly fascinating or insightful (or not) post between now and next Thursday at 7pm, please email me.
Golly, what’s a carnival? If you are interested in hosting the carnival, contact Waldo.
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May Newsletter is out!
The May Newsletter is finally complete. Please email me if you would like a copy.
Technorati Tags: albemarle, charlalbemarle, charlottesville
Search for sex offenders
One of the standard disclosures on our real estate contracts is the Virginia version of Megan’s Law.
Now, we have this - a national google mashup of the National Sex Offender Registry. This is our State site (no mashup).
Whatever your thoughts over whether sexual offenders are recidivistic or not, this is certainly an excellent resource for my clients.
Hat Tip: Andy Kaufman
5th Street/Avon Road coming soon?
If only …
A major feature of the project will be a developer-funded public road that will link Fifth Street and Avon Street Extended, a connection that the County is eager to see—especially now that the massive Biscuit Run development has County drivers fretting about increased traffic in the area.
It seems that the only time a new road has a chance of being built, it comes from private money. Hopefully the County will ensure that this is a functional road, with bike paths, etc.
This seems to be the type of development that we want - anything to help alleviate the congestion on the 29 North Corridor. More information on this and other transportation projects can be found at cvilletomorrow’s excellent Transportation Matrix.
Note that this story is from the C-Ville’s new website. Quite nifty. Now they appear to have permalinks, which will make linking to their stories that much better; it’s a shame that their links are so complex. Maybe one of the more technologically-inclined will help me understand why theirs are so different.
See the difference between theirs
http://c-ville.com/index.php?cat=141404064435450&ShowArticle_ID=1332404062435079
and mine?
http://www.realcentralva.com/2006/04/24/gas-prices-and-real-estate/
Technorati Tags: charlalbemarle, growth, transportation
Where are these negative ads?
I have heard a great deal about the purported negative ads being broadcast by WINA. I caught the tail-end of reports on WVIR and and watched the report on WCAV (who has some of the ad text, thankfully)
There are new radio ads that go after incumbent Republican Rob Schilling, and they are attracting fresh attention to next week’s City Council elections.
I have yet to actually hear the ads; are they online anywhere?
It would be a shame if the Democrats went negative. I like to think (idealistic, I know) that reasonable people can disagree - even in a campaign - and disagree with healthy camaraderie and class.
*WINA - please podcast your shows!
Update 04-24-06: Cvillepodcast has WINA’s show with Rob Shilling. Thanks!
Update 04-25-06: The ads are below. After listening to them, I have to agree that they are negative in content and tone. There is no need to have the sound of disgust conveyed in such a manner in a purportedly positive campaign. It appears that the Democrats running are indeed your average politicians, at least as far as the campaign goes. Matter of fact, all candidates pledged not to participate in negative campaigning. Better to spend the campaign money for what you are for. What a shame.
To bring this back to real estate: the decisions of City Councilors regarding tax rates, infrastructure and affordable housing issues directly impact the real estate business and the lives of homeowners, tenants, etc.
Ad #1
Ad #2
Thanks, Rob for the files!
Technorati Tags: charlottesville, politics
Gas prices and real estate
Finally - something to distract from all the talk about a possible real estate bubble - gas prices that may reach four, even five dollars a gallon. These current and projected increases raise at least a couple of questions -
Have you changed your daily habits due to the increases? Are companies and their employees going to (have to?) embrace more rapidly telecommuting?
What impact will rising prices have on development patterns? Brian Wheeler has an excellent summary of the (almost incomprehensibly large) Biscuit Run development, focusing on the potential location of the elementary school.
Several members of the Planning Commission and County planning staff have encouraged a site in a more central location to both preserve the rural areas and to create a school that can easily be walked and bicycled to from nearby homes …
Biscuit Run is the type of development we say we want - located close to town and a fairly dense project that will help minimize sprawl. The more people that are able to bike to work or walk to the store, the better the development will be, at least theoretically.
Finally, and this probably deserves its own post - if you were designing a city today, what would it look like?
CAAR’s 1st Quarter market report
CAAR has released their first quarter market report and David Hendrick with the DP analyzes this morning the changes in the market. The seemingly dramatic increase in inventory can be attributed partially to the large number of condo conversions in the market - one response to the need for affordable housing. As always, David has a cogent analysis of the effects of this increase.
One danger not mentioned in the article is that of buyers and sellers buying into doom and gloom headlines locally and nationally. Knee-jerk reactions tend to be (in my experience) the wrong reactions. Balance and market sustainability are good for the long-term health of the real estate market. We are seeing a shift in the market - that of properties returning to being considered homes and investments rather than strictly unending bank accounts. That’s a good thing.
A sign of the out-of-balance perspective is a ditech commercial where the borrower says, “I just refinanced and got rid of all of my credit-card debt. If feels great to be out of debt!” If this isn’t a sign of a market screaming for normalcy, I don’t know what is.
Update 04-23-06: With today’s DP story on the housing market and The HooK’s coverage, I decided to bump this story to the top.
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