The Charlottesville Bubble Blog is on a Roll

Posted on October 8, 2009 by Jim Duncan

The Charlottesville Bubble Blog reviews a whole slew (is five a “slew”?) of houses.

1712 Mattox Court (with Days on Market here)

1627 Greenleaf Lane – (with Days on Market)

825 Belvedere Blvd – (with Days on Market)

1320 Kenwood Lane – (with Days on Market)

1503 Oxford Road – (with Days on Market)

Coincidentally, I’m showing one of these tomorrow morning.

Days on Market matter, but accurately discerning them market-wide is both an effort in futility, aggravation, questioning of ethics and generally a waste of time. (more on this later)

Stay tuned for my market report early next week and the Nest Report tomorrow.

Even More about Days on Market

Do Days on Market Matter?

In my opinion, Days on Market absolutely matter – it’s why Realtors market low Days on Market and why it’s one of the first questions buyers ask.

Realtors Gaming the MLS – this led to a great discussion.

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About Jim Duncan

A Charlottesville Realtor who tries to stay on the bleeding/cutting/functional edge of technology and real estate trends. I have been selling real estate for the past 10 years, lived in C'Ville for twenty+ and am married to one of few Charlottesville natives left.
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  • http://belvederearts.com Kate White

    Belvedere is not a “stalled development.” That is what is listed with your Belvedere listing . That is totally false and I hate that kind of reporting. Totally false.

  • http://www.realcentralva.com Jim Duncan

    Kate -

    Agreed. There are a few homes under contract there now and the MLS shows that 11 have sold this year – and I think it’s more than that.

    I was showing homes there the other day – there was a great vibe to the place – people on porches, kids playing all over the place, a dad walking with his kid (and they both waved! – a true sign of neighborhoodiness in my experience).

    Not stalled, and moving forward …

  • http://realcville.blogspot.com Real C’ville

    Belvedere is years away from the originally conceived buildout, the commercial areas have been put up for sale (or–not), there’s no organic garden, Goldschmidt, Spence, and Church Hill faced mass foreclosures (and continue to, on other properties), the County has been forced to take over the infrastructure of the road leading from Rio to the development…ETC.

    You can call this whatever you want. Stalled, or not. It’s great you’re happy with where you live. It would be sad if you paid a half million dollars (+/-) for a house in a development that isn’t what you hoped it would be.

    You don’t think that’s happened. You’re a great advertisement for Belvedere, and honestly–shouldn’t you be compensated for your role as spokesperson? You’re doing more for that development than anybody else, aren’t you?

    On the upside, prices in that development, as everywhere else in the area, are falling….

  • http://www.realcentralva.com Jim Duncan

    Real C’ville -

    You’re absolutely right and thanks for calling me out …

    More to come when I’m finished with clients. :)

  • http://realcville.blogspot.com Real C’ville

    Jim, we were primarily addressing Kate White, who lives there and commented on the BB this a.m.

    We don’t think that we’re misconstruing publicly available info/articles/blogs on the “stall” factor–which FWIW, wasn’t even mentioned in our most recent post (linked above).

    But we remain interested in what you have to say. And Belvedere is actually fortunate to have Kate White as an advocate.

  • http://belvederearts.com Kate White

    In the beginning, people were excited about this “green development.” Then, Charlottesville press was anxious to call us an exclusive community and call us on the carpet, labeling Belvedere in many different ways. It felt like Charlottesville just wanted Belvedere to fail, especially those reporters looking for the juicy story. Look now, we have homes, really nice earthcraft homes for sale for less than $300,000! A new home at that! And we now have a third builder in Belvedere building award winning homes for less that $300,000. We do have expensive homes,too. And we have townhomes, and carriage units (which are full by the way, of people renting one and two bedroom apartments). We have a possible new apartment complex going in with 288 units. And the town center is still planned. That story in the Daily Progress was not true about Belvedere Land Trust not having enough to finish Belvedere roads and if those who still believe that would question further, they might see the truth in that. Belvedere is the development that has sold the most detached single family homes over the last year, a difficult year as any for new homes in the last what, 6 decades? There may be those who want to still point fingers and somehow find fault with Belvedere. I love where I live. Can you blame me for wanting to speak the truth about my place? I am not speaking out for the developer. I am speaking out for myself. We have homes, yes, but most importantly, we have community spirit. And we are NOT stalled.

  • Bret Harris

    I think when people picture a partially completed development they think winding roads, cul-de-sacs, and a lonely house here and there, maybe a “clubhouse”, maybe not. Anyone why takes the time to drive through Belvedere can see the difference. Part of it is the actual design of the place, where one entire block is fully complete and no completed home is very far away from another. And that likely contributes to, as Jim says, the “vibe” that is here. As I wrote elsewhere, Belvedere is a growing, thriving vibrant neighborhood.

    Yes, if we were forced to sell our house today we would likely not make a profit. Are there many others who bought homes in the summer of ’08 who would? I don’t know.

    And no, Jim, I do not feel you have anything to apologize for. If you feel you are misrepresenting Belvedere in some way because you want sales here then by all means say so. But in my opinion you base your impressions on tangible evidence. There is a different “feel” to this place than I think one might expect for a development that is at its stage of completion. I also believe that your primary focus is not on a buyer making sure they are getting a house that will make them money but one that they WANT to live in.

    Anyway, as Kate says, we’re happy in our home, we’re happy with our neighborhood and neighbors and we shouldn’t let other opinions get us bothered.