Comments on: Charlottesville Builders – Local is Good (and Bad) http://www.realcentralva.com/2008/12/08/charlottesville-builders-local-is-good-and-bad/ Tracking Charlottesville's Real Estate Market since 2005 Sun, 12 Feb 2012 23:56:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= By: Church Hill, Weather Hill - Who’s Next? | Real Central VA http://www.realcentralva.com/2008/12/08/charlottesville-builders-local-is-good-and-bad/#comment-20351 Church Hill, Weather Hill - Who’s Next? | Real Central VA Wed, 31 Dec 2008 21:13:36 +0000 http://www.realcentralva.com/2008/12/09/charlottesville-builders-local-is-good-and-bad/#comment-20351 [...] It’s not necessarily the construction, or the lack thereof … it’s the land. [...] [...] It’s not necessarily the construction, or the lack thereof … it’s the land. [...]

]]> By: Mark http://www.realcentralva.com/2008/12/08/charlottesville-builders-local-is-good-and-bad/#comment-20154 Mark Tue, 09 Dec 2008 21:16:03 +0000 http://www.realcentralva.com/2008/12/09/charlottesville-builders-local-is-good-and-bad/#comment-20154 As someone bothered by the "off with their heads!" comments under the Hook's story, this is a refreshing perspective. Too much logic and facts for most of the aforementioned commenters, I suspect, but I enjoyed the explanation, particularly of land optioning. It is a shame that the one national builder will gain from this, because the houses they build are crap, objectively as well as compared to those of any of the major local guys. I would think that quality would become more important in a downturn, but the "sold out" signs in front of their development off Cherry Ave. say otherwise. The major advantage any builder has over most private sellers is flexibility in price: often a builder can negotiate away some profit but still makes money. Upside-own home "owners" don't have that luxury. Advantage, builder. Jim, I disagree that one should strongly consider buying right now. There is no way houses will be more expensive going forward. If that 4.5% deal comes through then it might be worth buying the right house (and definitely worth a refi), but there is way too much uncertainty to advocate buying. House prices sure as hell are not going to go up in the next year. One may as well stay on the sidelines, unless (as the Bubble Bloggers advocate) you really like the house and think you and yours will enjoy it and it will increse your happiness. This is a completely (and refreshing) non-financial basis on which to make a decision. As someone bothered by the “off with their heads!” comments under the Hook’s story, this is a refreshing perspective. Too much logic and facts for most of the aforementioned commenters, I suspect, but I enjoyed the explanation, particularly of land optioning.

It is a shame that the one national builder will gain from this, because the houses they build are crap, objectively as well as compared to those of any of the major local guys. I would think that quality would become more important in a downturn, but the “sold out” signs in front of their development off Cherry Ave. say otherwise.

The major advantage any builder has over most private sellers is flexibility in price: often a builder can negotiate away some profit but still makes money. Upside-own home “owners” don’t have that luxury. Advantage, builder.

Jim, I disagree that one should strongly consider buying right now. There is no way houses will be more expensive going forward. If that 4.5% deal comes through then it might be worth buying the right house (and definitely worth a refi), but there is way too much uncertainty to advocate buying. House prices sure as hell are not going to go up in the next year.

One may as well stay on the sidelines, unless (as the Bubble Bloggers advocate) you really like the house and think you and yours will enjoy it and it will increse your happiness. This is a completely (and refreshing) non-financial basis on which to make a decision.

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