A macro view versus the reality of million dollar homes in Charlottesville

Rarely if ever do I highlight individual properties, but I will make an exception in this case. Somehow I missed this story on CNBC earlier this year:

“In this university town, there are about 30 homes priced at $1 million or more, if you’re in the market to buy. “The price reflects a market that, unlike many others, is not offering any bargains.” Diana Olick reports. “Every window, and there are a lot of them, is a scenic overlook.”

The house we visited is about 20 minutes from downtown Charlottesville and sits on ten acres. It has four bedrooms and four baths. The kitchen may appear small to some and the basement is unfinished. The asking price is $1.19 million and it’s been on the market for two weeks.

Charlottesville’s population is about 45,000. It’s home to the University of Virginia.”

Expanding on and clarifying stories such as this is one of the goals of this blog.

Using data from today (2007)

– There are currently 126 single-family homes in Charlottesville/Albemarle with asking prices over one million dollars.
– 24 of the 126 are marked as being new construction.
– In the City of Charlottesville, there are six homes currently on the market with asking prices of at least a million dollars
– 43 properties have sold for more than $900k and 34 have sold for more than one million dollars in Charlottesville/Albemarle so far this year; eight of the forty three were identified as new construction.

The point of this article is not to find fault with CNBC’s reporting, but to demonstrate the limitations of such a broad overview of any particular real estate market. To get a real understanding of the market, it’s crucial to get the “boots on the ground” perspective.

And for the record, the price of the featured home (temporary link (archived: 2013)) was recently reduced from nearly $1.2 million to $1.05 million.