Charlottesville’s Real Estate Blog since 2005.

Clear, Honest Market Analysis. For People, Not Realtors.

Locally, I do not see a “bubble” per se, but I would really like the National Association of Realtors to either give more credible support or just stop giving it.

Question: “Should we be concerned that home prices are rising faster than family income?”
Answer: “No. There are three components to housing affordability: home prices, income, and financing costs – the latter are historically low.”

I am not an economist, nor do I play one on TV, but this argument seems … precarious. What happens in three (or two) years when those who have unwisely chosen 3 year interest only loans see those 4.5% mortgages jump to 6.5%, or 8.5%? Will they have planned judiciously for that event … or not?

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Jim Duncan has been helping buyers and sellers in Charlottesville’s neighborhoods for 25 years. Get local insight born of experience.

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Houses 10 Miles from City Center?

Houses 10 Miles from City Center?

So what's out there? These links will die soon, so here's a dropbox link with results of the search. Looking for homes in Charlottesville and Albemarle With at least 2 bedrooms At least 2 bathrooms 10-ish miles from my office near Charlottesville's Downtown Mall Under…

Housing has Challengers Everywhere

Housing has Challengers Everywhere

A few thoughts as I'm in Portland this week for a quasi-real estate conference. I said on Twitter Had an interesting conversation with my Lyft driver this morning. Topics he raised: - unsustainable housing market - gentrification - rental properties - unsat infrastructure - rising…

Who (What Age) is Moving to the Charlottesville – Albemarle Area

Sometimes, asking a simple question yields a tremendous response. A few weeks ago I was in a meeting in which a speaker noted that builders were building new homes primarily for the 55+ community (not explicitly 55+ communities; that's a different thing). Builders are building…

Wegmans Finally Coming to Charlottesville

Wegmans will be pushing dirt in March. The plan will go the to Albemarle County Architectural Review Board (never a non-daunting task) on Monday, Chris Stover at the Newsplex reports. I've had clients tell me that they wanted to move to the south side of…

Interested in Learning More?

Jim Duncan has been helping buyers and sellers in Charlottesville’s neighborhoods for 25 years. Get local insight born of experience.