Back in 2011 I said the 0-5 buyer — anyone who sells inside five years — was finished, strangled by a student-debt bubble. Fifteen years later, that buyer really is gone: median seller tenure just hit 11 years, an all-time high. I was right about the buyer and wrong about why — tuition flattened, housing exploded, and a rate shock did the work I’d pinned on student loans.
Date Archives July 2026
July 2026 Monthly Note: Say Hi More Often, Cleaning Karma, and the Cash “Discount”
The weather is hot, and getting hotter. Welcome to the coolest summer for the rest of your life. This month: Cleaning houses and karma, riding bikes to show houses, charting the market, intentionality in moving…
Recapping July’s Charlottesville Real Estate Reddit AMA
Doing these quarterly Reddit AMAs forces me to research and vet the Charlottesville market every time, and this mid-year check-in was no exception. The short answer everyone asks for: no, the market isn’t crashing and prices haven’t collapsed — but homes are taking longer to sell, and more sellers aren’t getting what they wanted, expected, or hoped for. Here’s the recap — the numbers, the bifurcation, the cash pullback, and the questions you brought.
A Charlottesville e-bike Success Story
“A used cargo e-bike was supposed to be an occasional fair-weather toy — instead it put 100 miles on the odometer in two weeks and became my primary way to get anywhere within five miles of home. With two kids along for the ride, it’s turned grocery runs and camp drop-offs into small adventures, and it’s reshaped how I see my own community. It’s also shown me, trip by trip, exactly where our local cycling infrastructure helps and where it still falls short.”