Tag Archives: Albemarle
Wegmans, Cracker Barrel and a Target on 5th Street?
Wegmans, Cracker Barrel, a Target … and maybe even a new connector road, bike paths and hiking trails on 5th Street?
We had the rumors at the Nest Report a few days ago and Charlottesville Tomorrow reports this morning that the “Fifth and Avon Center is Moving Forward.“
What are the Negatives of Living in Charlottesville?
I don’t “sell” Charlottesville – I educate and inform my clients so that they can make the best decisions possible. Charlottesville is truly a great place to live; while I’ve been here for only 24 years, I wouldn’t choose to live anywhere else.
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. Continue reading
How Much Does this House Cost? (To Run)
How much does this home cost to run? It’s become one of the most important question my buyer clients ask … and an answer that Sellers need to be prepared to answer.
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.
Albemarle County Real Estate Assessments are Live
See the updated Albemarle County real estate assessments yourself. I’ve done a random sampling and although I’ve been told that Albemarle County assessments are down ~3%, I’ve seen drops ranging from 1% to nearly 20%.
This stuff matters, not simply because the assessed values affect homeowners’ taxes, but the County’s entire budget and to a certain degree property values in that buyers look to assessments for an indication as to what market value may be. My opinion that that the assessment rarely is equivalent to true market value.
Aaron Richardson at the Daily Progress reported last week:
Albemarle’s county executive, Tom Foley, has told the Board of Supervisors he was basing his budget request for next fiscal year, which is still in the works, on an equalized tax rate of 76.5 cents per $100 of assessed real estate value.
Schools Superintendent Pam Moran based her budget request for next fiscal year on the same figure.
For now, the tax rate sits at 74.2 cents per $100. The equalized tax rate is the rate that would have property owners paying basically the same amount of taxes as the previous year, the side-effect of falling property values. That equalized rate is also in the county’s five-year financial plan.
County spokeswoman Lee Catlin said that the 76.5 cent rate is a “working” figure that will be finalized in the next couple of weeks as the county finishes this year’s assessments.
Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Ann H. Mallek said she is in favor of the equalized rate. Moving to the new rate, she said, will make possible long-neglected capital improvements such as the Crozet Library and a police firing range.
Assessed values have been declining for years, and they absolutely matter – to local budgets, to schools’ budgets and quality, and to communities’ qualities of life.
I’ve written about real estate assessments many times over the years; if you’re interested in this subject, you may want to spend some time reading some of those stories.
Hotel-a-Palooza in CharlAlbemarle
C-Ville reports on the coming boom of hotels in Charlottesville-Albemarle.
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. Continue reading
Charlottesville Really is a Great Place to Live
No we didn’t make another list (that I’m aware of), but this weekend my family went to a town in another state for my older daughter’s soccer tournament.
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.
Best Buy Ramp Still Delayed
Charlottesville Tomorrow reports that the Best Buy ramp project is still delayed.
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.” Continue reading
There is No “New Normal” in the Real Estate Market
“Normal” is “now”.
- 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.
