Fun Friday – The Marriott on West Main is Open
West Main Street is looking mighty different. I went by this morning, noticed that the café was open ... and the tables (from the street) looked full! Now open on West Main. Charlottesville is growing hotels. #charlottesville A photo posted by Jim Duncan (@jimduncan)…
Has the Charlottesville Real Estate Market Ever Been Bad?
Has the Real Estate Market Ever Been Bad? A young person asked me that question a few months ago, and I was a bit taken aback. Now having lived through the okay, the bad, the really bad, and the better real estate markets in Charlottesville, I…
Building Walls in Charlottesville
I never thought I'd see these in this part of Charlottesville. Short story: they're redoing Emmet Street/29 from Forest Lakes to Best Buy. Start here for quick background. For those of you from Charlottesville but who haven't been back in a while, this is the other side…
March Monthly Note – This Market, Take 2. Blue Apron. Privacy. Pooping babies.
This is a sample of this month's note. If you're interested in the whole thing, please sign up here for the Monthly Note. This month, that holds true. We're in the thick of it. This market is, in many segments, crazy. Feels-like-2005-and-2006-crazy. Crazy as in, I…
Density in Downtown Charlottesville – If Not Here, Where?
Charlottesville Tomorrow's Sean Tubbs wrote last week about a developer seeking 104 units near the old Martha Jefferson - now the CFA/Hemoshear/etc building. The owners of a medical building at the corner of East Jefferson and 10th Street Northeast in Charlottesville are seeking the City Council’s…
Robots and Real Estate
I just got back from a great two-day conference at the Virginia Military Institute, Ethical Dilemmas in the Digital Age, and my mind is reeling a bit, so I'm sharing initial thoughts/notes so I can reference them later. Hopefully, you'll find value in them as…
Reaffirming WordPress’ Value (in Real Estate)
https://www.instagram.com/p/BCfZK4OsdKZ/?taken-by=jimduncan Social media worlds colliding today ... I saw the tweet below linking to a story on that actual Internet (not Facebook's walled-garden-version of the "internet") detailing how Instagram will not longer let you promote your other social media accounts. Instagram has been…
What’s On Your Book Shelves?
Years ago, clients and I walked out of a house (that they didn't buy) and shared our collective "weird" feeling as we'd gone through the house. It took us a few minutes, but we soon concluded that the weird feeling was created because the house felt…
Albemarle County Seeking to Raise Property Taxes. Again.
Real estate assessments rose again in Albemarle County in 2016 nearly 2% in 2015 after about 2.5% in 2014; now Albemarle County wants to increase the tax rate by 2.5 cents. Sean Tubbs at Charlottesville Tomorrow writes (be sure to read the whole thing): Rising population and sluggish growth in…
VDOT Marketing Homes Through Zillow & not the MLS
This is not a post about Zillow vs the MLS. This is a post asking one question: Why is VDOT not marketing the homes they have for sale through the MLS? They are listed "for sale by owner" on Zillow. That's it. That's the question.…