He had me at the warm, thick cut bacon that topped my chicken sandwich.

Note that that is chicken breast, bacon and a hard boiled egg.

Lots of whisky, and the desserts sounded tremendous … but those will have to wait for a dinner visit.

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With that preface, there are negatives about Charlottesville and while they’re all relative (traffic) I’d like to think there are solutions.

I’ve been having this conversation on Google+ and on Facebook in advance of posting here.

My answer to the question: Perhaps the single greatest negative with living in CharlAlbemarle is the collective inability of the City and County to implement plans – specifically for infrastructure. Their constant bickering, planning, fighting, planning, discussing, planning and then planning some more is remarkably irresponsible.

My other response was – when I have the free time, choosing what to do from the plethora of options – sporting events, theater, music, arts, etc. Seriously. There is so much to do that choosing how to fill my limited free time is challenging.

The responses have varied from lack of Implementation of infrastructure plans to bickering of the localities.

I said last year: When explaining the City/County relationship to relocating buyers, I often describe the governments as being akin to estranged husbands and wives who are sharing custody of the kids. Or as brothers and sisters who occasionally poke each other in the eye, just to see what will happen.

It’s true, and it’s pathetic. And ultimately detrimental to the quality of life.

Or, as the UVA Law Blog’s title says: On Consideration, Charlottesville is Awful Actually OK

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In today’s market, much more so than the previous one(s), buyers are much more cognizant of the costs to operate a home.

Everyone can calculate the PITI payment – Principal + Interest + Taxes + Insurance

What’s not easily calculable by buyers is -

- How drafty is the house?

- What’s the natural gas bill?

- What’s the electric bill?

- What’s the water bill?

- Trash/recycling is a fairly fixed cost.

- Do the parents scrap over the thermostat?

- How much is my commute going to cost? (this is huge; many of my buyer clients are looking forward to the time when gas goes to $6/gallon … )

If the mortgage is going to be $2500 per month, but the utilities are $900/month, I’m thinking that my clients may be disinclined to move forward with an offer … or they might knock $30k (or some other number) off the offer price.

I said late last year that I suspect 2012 will be the year when buyers start doing energy audits as part of the home inspection process … sellers need to be prepared for this component to the home selling process.

If you’re interested in learning more about your home’s energy efficiency, Charlottesville’s Local Energy Alliance Program (LEAP) is a great place to start.

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If you’re looking for new ways to get around for fun or to work, or might be trying to live a greener lifestyle in 2012, why not try biking? In March 2010 we introduced biking directions and since then Google Maps has been sharing biking directions with cyclists across the U.S and Canada.

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In light of the Cavalier Inn’s reprieve, (from 2009) …

When the Board of Visitors first approved the Arts Gateway to the University of Virginia in 2007, the project—an estimated $118 million plan that would include, among other buildings, a new art museum at the current site of the Cavalier Inn—was slated to begin construction during the spring of 2009. Now, with renovations underway for the UVA Art Museum on Rugby Road, Vice Provost for the Arts Elizabeth Hutton Turner says that plans for the Arts Gateway are on “indefinite hold.”

… it seems there are going to be quite a supply of hotel rooms in Charlottesville.

As an aside, it’s a damn shame that the only working outbound links in the story I wrote in 2005 about the Cavalier Inn’s plans are to my own site and to cvillenews, not to the Cavalier Daily and not, in cvillenews’ case, to the Richmond Times Dispatch. Links are historical references.

As I said on Twitter:

“Media that break links are damaging history; links are historical references. @DailyProgress @cavalierdaily @RTDnews”

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The contrasts between that town and ours are remarkable – ours is green, vibrant, thriving, with contrasts between city, country, mountains and flat land. Theirs is none of those. It’s interesting here, the topography, the culture, the things to do …

On the days where I read about a story about the stunning ineptitude of our politicians systems bureaucracy, the perspective of going to a place that is desolate, boring, depressed and uninteresting is immensely valuable.

For all of Charlottesville’s* faults and shortcomings (I’ll identify a few in a forthcoming story), we live in a pretty nice place and I count myself as damn lucky to live here.

Spend a few minutes browsing James Marshall’s photo stream on Flickr and tell me that Charlottesville’s not an awesome place to live. Seriously.

* Charlottesville = Charlottesville, Albemarle, Fluvanna, Greene, Nelson and sometimes Louisa

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Is anyone surprised that the advice VDOT is offering is this?

“Rich suggested that acceptance might be the best response to distant construction dates.”

This seems par for the course in the Charlottesville – Albemarle area, when one of the three conditions set forth by the City of Charlottesville is to “have more meetings.”I’ve been working on a story on and off for the past weeks, the working title of which is “What sucks about living in Charlottesville?” Transportation politics is an early leader.

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- Human settlement patterns (where people are living and working)

- Gas prices

- Expectation of permanence/transience

- Interest rates

- Property tax rates

- Monetary supply

- The internet’s availability and impact

Those are just a few of the ways that 1999 differs from 2011, and makes application of “normal” challenging.

Here’s something that hasn’t changed – people need homes. Buying a house is a choice, and one that comes with greater responsibility than renting – you’re accepting on the maintenance, the permanence, the mortgage, the community, the risk. If you’re not ready for those, don’t buy a house. If you’re ready to buy a home, do your due diligence and consider it.

“New normal” is a shifting term, applicable to virtually every evolving industry.

Heck, I’ve been seeking “new normal” for years.

But I thought I’d look at the data and briefly compare the 1999 Charlottesville area real estate market with the 2011 one … keeping in mind that so many things are different, thus negating in a lot of ways the comparisons.

And then, looking solely at single family home sales – 1999 versus 2011 in the Charlottesville MSA:

* I’m borrowing this theme from a speaker at a lunch I attended yesterday.

Keep in mind that this moving median home sale chart is for the Charlottesville MLS – not the Charlottesville MSA … meaning that more than anything it’s a trend line for the region.

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A reader asks –

Hi, Jim: I’m amazed and annoyed that most listings do not mention internet service, nor do RE sites include that information as a search parameter. Knowing the availability – and speed – of internet connection is especially necessary when seeking a home outside Charlottesville. Short of investigating through local ISP’s for particular addresses or neighborhoods, do you have any suggestion? I do not trust sellers or, frankly, seller’s agents, to know or tell the truth.

In the Charlottesville area, the City of Charlottesville and the urban ring definitely* have broadband connectivity, as do many (most?) of the more densely-populated areas of Greene, Louisa, Louisa. * Definitely = 99% sure.

My suggestions and insight to ascertain broadband connectivity in the Charlottesville area:

1a – Ask your buyer broker. A good one is going to know with reasonable accuracy whether an area is likely to have internet service.

1b – If you’re really interested, the only way to ensure there is broadband service is to contact the service provider. In the Charlottesville MSA, we have Comcast, Embarq, Blue Ridge Internetworks, Verizon in some of the outlying areas, and a couple smaller fiber providers. *Nelson County just lost some broadband connectivity.

2 – A note to listing agents: when a buyer asks, “does this house have internet?” they aren’t asking about Wildblue or dial-up.

3 – I’ve asked the fine folks who power the “search for homes” feature of my site to add internet availability as a search option, but here’s the problem: GIGO. Just last year, the Charlottesville MLS added “internet availability” to the list of features listing agents can select, joining the ranks of # of bedrooms, # of bathrooms, acreage, etc.
But … As “internet availability” isn’t a required field in the MLS, it’s liable to be left out. And as we all know – if it’s blank, it’s not searchable. Thus, the search and results will be inaccurate, not useful, frustrating and bad for everyone – buyers searching, sellers trying to sell and agents running real estate blogs.

4 – To the trust aspect – get a good buyer broker who you can trust. I’ll address this aspect in more detail with clients. As clients said recently about the photos some realtors take to market their properties – “All pictures tell a story, and some aren’t true.”

5 – I wish that the internet service providers would offer maps and overlays to let people determine where service is, but presumably that information is a competitive thing for them.

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* I went to VMI, where our honor and honor code are intact. A cadet “will neither lie, cheat, steal nor tolerate those who do.” Simple. And it’s enforced. Personally, if I were an alumnus of UVA, I’d send my diploma back and stop any donations. If you’re not going to have an honor code, don’t have one. Don’t purport to be “honorable” for marketing purposes.

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Soul food, fried chicken, collards, jazz bands and more I”m sure … targeting 1 February as the opening date.

I’m hungry already.

Update … now see the Whiskey Jar’s Facebook page.

Update #2 – I think the Whiskey Jar could become my new favorite restaurant in Charlottesville.

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And it’s true.

We tried Song Song’s Zhou & Bing today (the HooK had a nice story yesterday) – and I’ll say this – it’s inexpensive – my meal was $4.50 for the 10 Grain Sweet Zhou (sorta like porridge) and a Vegi Bing (sorta like a stuffed fried pancake).

Try it. It’s good.

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Now: Converted riverside mills, restored Victorian bungalows, and a central location primed this historic district to be the city’s hottest new hood. Más restaurant’s open-air deck and Spanish tapas like creamy croquetas de jamón first lured crowds from nearby downtown in 2001.

A point of clarification: Belmont’s not new. And I’m not sure who thinks Belmont is a “secret.”

I’ve written about Belmont a few times over the past few years, most recently when I noted the opening of The Farm; it’s a cool neighborhood close to many of things that draw people to Charlottesville (and keep them here).

This photo series by Kathryn Wagner remains one of my favorite depictions of Belmont; I love riding my bike to show houses in Belmont – it’s the best way to get a feel for the neighborhood, the smells from kitchens and restaurants, to see all the back (and front) yard gardens … to really feel the neighborhood.

Mas has a nice description of Belmont and this is the Belmont – Carlton neighborhood association’s site.

Either way, it’s neat to see one of Charlottesville’s neighborhoods recognized, but as always, take the brief depiction with a grain of salt … there’s more to Belmont.

If you’re interested, these are some of the homes on the market in Belmont – I’ve been in most of them, so feel free to ask me about them.

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I started to write this post in early November, soon after my clients and I ratified the contract on their house and right about when the story was published on the Newsplex. I almost didn’t do the Newsplex story.* (see the end of this post for the rationale)

The single greatest takeaway from this story: If you are thinking about putting your house on the market in the Charlottesville area in the next several weeks, start now.

A few of my rules for real estate:

“Under Contract” ≠ “Sold”:

- “Under Contract” means: “we need to get through the loan application, loan commitment (including appraisal), home inspection and any other contingencies.

Most importantly – What did we do to get a contract on this house in three weeks? Simple:

1: My clients worked hard. For a long time; we met last year and discussed strategies for getting their home ready to put on the market, the value of pricing the home right, what they needed to do and what I needed to do to prepare for the marketing of their home.

2: We priced it right; tracking the real estate market, the sold competition and most importantly, the active and under contract competition.

3: We worked the first offer we got. One of the real estate truisms is that the first offer is usually the best offer; you might not get another offer.

4: We got lucky with the buyer’s agent; she’s one of the best in the area and that was one of the factors we evaluated when evaluating the offer. I’m probably going to touch on this aspect in a later, separate post, but the quality and competence of the opposing real estate agent matters. If I can advise my clients that there is a reasonable expectation that the transaction will go relatively smoothly in part because the other agent agent is competent, that’s a serious component we evaluate. (as a contrast, if I don’t know or trust the other agent, that’s a factor as well)

5: My clients worked really, really hard and were realistic about the market and their expectations. I can’t emphasize this one enough. Selling a house is hard work – for the sellers and their representation. Being willing and able to work, be realistic and reasonable is invaluable.

6: Lastly – price absolutely matters, but it’s not always the most important factor. (as an aside, my feelings from the linked post regarding other agents’ competencies have shifted quite dramatically as I have gained much more experience; when I wrote that I had been in the business just over three years; now I’m entering my 11th year)

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Good job, CharlAlbemarle.

See a full photo tour taken last year:

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Do Real Estate Assessments Matter?

What do real estate assessments mean?

From a visitor:

… tidbit of info. – Nelson Co. assesses real estate every 5 years. I just received the assessment of our second home in Wintergreen. In 2006 it assessed at $599K, now $385K — down 36%

2012 is going to prove very interesting in the Charlottesville region.

The Washington Post reports (hat tip: Calculated Risk)

“We’ll see, over the next few years, the real impact of the recession and housing crisis on local governments,” said Andrew Reschovsky, a professor of public affairs and applied economics at the University of Wisconsin at Madison who has studied the effects of the recession on city finances. “I think the case can be made that we have not yet seen the worst of the impact on local governments. . . . That seems to be accelerating.” … The worst may be yet to come.

“That storm has not yet hit,” Frank Alexander, a professor and housing law expert at Emory University, said of the looming decline in property tax revenues, which he and others agree will last years. “It’s beginning in 2011, but it’s really going to hit in 2012 and 2013.”

For some context, see the story I wrote in January of 2011 – Charlottesville Assessments are Coming! Assessments are Coming! (2011 version).

There is only so much that the localities can raise rates and modify budgets. At some point, services are likely to be cut … dramatically.

One note:

It would be great if the City of Charlottesville offered a GIS solution for the public, as every other locality does. Sadly, they continue to be negligent.

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Extra points if you know you live in a development area.

It’s a pretty vague survey. Hopefully the comments will provide insight. I choose to live here because we like it here.From the Newsplex:

The commission is using a government grant to perform the survey and develop a comprehensive plan – including transportation and livability – to sustain local communities. They hope the survey will “maximize community engagement in the process and to encourage collaboration across municipal boundaries.”

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