One Billion Dollars
That’s how much UVA contributes to the area’s economy. Now that is sustainability.
UVa is tax exempt, but if it had to pay, Charlottesville would have received $4.6 million and Albemarle County would have received $6.9 million in taxes. The university’s foundation, on the other hand, paid $189,694 in property taxes to Charlottesville and $1.1 million to Albemarle County for holdings like the Boar’s Head Inn. In 2005, the total value of taxable real estate owned or rented by faculty, staff and students at UVa was $3.3 billion — and UVa paid $23.3 million in property taxes divided almost equally between the city and county.
The full study by the Weldon Cooper Center is here.
Update: 7/1/2007: My favorite line from Bob Gibson’s article in the Daily Progress:
UVa’s dollar clout is massive, as are its less measurable contributions to, and impacts on, the area. Only Jefferson’s ghost and God are larger shapers of the area’s collective mind and spirit.
Technorati Tags: albemarle, charlalbemarle, charlottesville, uva
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Home Sales down in Charlottesville - expanded
I was going to wait until mid-June to run the numbers for the numbers for the Charlottesville-area real estate market, but it’s like someone put out a press release or something, as the same story is now seen across the local Charlottesville media. From the Daily Progress:
There were 394 area homes sold during May, down from the 428 homes sold during May 2006. And sales so far this year are down more than 7 percent when compared with the first five months of 2006.
That drop is better than the statewide trend. Across Virginia, May sales were down by 16 percent and year-to-date sales were down more than 10 percent.
Two notes -
1) Looking solely at Year over Year numbers conveys a sense of liquidity about the real estate market - something that was never intended to be. Housing has always had intrinsic value as well - much more so than stocks or bonds.
2) I broke condos out of the below numbers because the condo segment of the market has always been argued as providing an affordable sustainability to the market.
In Albemarle, Charlottesville, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa and Nelson,
May 2007 - 339 homes sold, 40 of which were condos.
May 2006 - 414 homes sold, 67 of which were condos.
May 2005 - 409 homes sold, 41 of which were condos.
May 2004 - 355 homes sold, 25 of which were condos.
May 2003 - 296 homes sold, 21 of which were condos.
The Charlottesville market continues to adjust. I’d say we were moving toward a “normal” market, but I’m having a hard time defining “normal.” For many of the contracts I am negotiating for my buyer clients, we have been getting between 5%-10% below asking price.
Mid-July I will be running and posting much more comprehensive numbers. This story was precipitated by my perception that more context was needed.
Technorati Tags: albemarle, charlalbemarle, charlottesville, fluvanna, green, nelson
Gated communities
My daughter loves the Veggie Tales, so I have seen quite a few of their movies and listened to even more of their CDs. However, I hadn’t seen this social commentary on gated communities.
Hat tip: Business Week’s Hot Property.
A case for transparent government in Albemarle
You need look no farther than the NGIC-Wendell Wood- BoS/Ken Boyd situation? fiasco? controversy? discussion? Taxpayers deserve to hear from Mr. Boyd exactly what happened.
Cvillenews has a nice roundup while Charlottesville Tomorrow has incomparable coverage.
From CvilleTomorrow:
In addition, the Supervisors had discussions behind closed doors that, while legal, meant the public didn’t have the benefit of knowing the details of their past discussions leading up to the vote on the resolution.
Few dispute the enormous positive impact that NGIC has on our region. Citizens deserve transparency.
Technorati Tags: albemarle, politics
How a heat pump works
One of the most commons questions I get from those relocating from colder climates is - what’s the difference between a heat pump and a gas/oil furnace? The short answer is that a gas furnace feels warm when you put your hand over the vent. A longer, more passive aggressive answer is here.
Technorati Tags: heat pump
“Family Friendly” Fair housing questions Realtors cannot answer
I wrote a story in March that discusses the same issues as the NYTimes story yesterday.
The strict interpretation of fair-housing laws prohibits brokers from providing information about people that could be construed as discriminatory in any of 14 protected categories. The categories include familiar ones like race, religion, sex and disabilities and less well-known ones like familial status, marital status, citizenship and occupation. (ed. note: I honestly had no idea “occupation” was a protected class)
So a broker who says something like, “There are tons of little kids in this building — it’s really family friendly” could be accused of specifically steering families to the building and driving people without children away from it.
Personally, when my family was looking for a new home, we wanted to know whether there were any kids in the neighborhood (this was a good thing for us), so I understand clients’ needs and wants, but unfortunately cannot offer guidance in this area. (hint: look for balls, bikes, swings and other “kid-friendly” stuff) People looking for a house/a neighborhood have to do what we did: drive around the neighborhood, talk to home owners who live there. That said, I’ve heard the argument that when working as a Buyer-Broker, I should have the freedom and leeway to guide my clients as they direct. One side of me leans towards the latter interpretation, but the more paranoid part of me acknowledges that the possibility of being sued or losing my license is not worth the risk.
It pays to be consistent, because -
“It doesn’t matter how innocuous the question is. The trap is once you’ve asked it, you set yourself up for the charge that a rejection is based on that information.”
The prevalence of the perception that “family friendly” is acceptable (if most people think it’s ok, why is it not?) is even shown at Google’s Local Business Center, where I was updating my listing.
Side note: I received an email lead the Saturday from some people who are thinking about relocating to the Charlottesville area. When I told them that I was out of town for the week but would be happy to refer them to another competent Realtor in my office, they balked. Not because they had built a specific passive relationship with me because of my blog, but because they didn’t want to work with a female. Upon further conversation, they said that they would prefer to choose with whom they work, which is fine. Personally, I’d rather choose the right professional based on experience, competence, knowledge of the market, recommendations from past clients - but choosing my Realtor based on gender? I don’t get it.
Update 6/25/2007: It seems that much of the talk about this article is naturally centered in New York. Matrix, True Gotham and Property Grunt.
Update 7/1/2007: Jay has a related article - “Where are the Good Schools?”
Technorati Tags: hud, real estate, realtor
June’s last Carnival of Real Estate
Is up at Altos Research. Some I’d seen before, others are new. All in all, it’s good stuff.
Technorati Tags: carnival
Thoughts on vacation so far
Being as used to connectivity as I (and my clients) have become accustomed, not having reliable internet access is potentially damaging, both from a business and psychological perspective. The next five days should prove interesting. Neither the real estate market nor client representation take breaks.
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