Charlottesville Podcasting Network has a new podcast today that is particularly relevant to our local regional real estate market. The podcast features the Charlottesville Young Professionals, a local networking group that was founded to bring young professionals together and to help companies retain their talent.This demographic is important, as it is part of the future of Charlottesville and its real estate market…. I am sponsoring this podcast in the hopes of building local business, grass-roots style, but also hoping to get more of these professionals before they move to the area…. He represents a larger and larger part of our market and one into which I am diligently trying to tap.
Browsing Category Charlottesville
Brief market update
Our market is shifting, not bursting, not hissing, but shifting slightly. Many properties seem to be staying on the market for a couple, if not several, days instead of hours. For a good doomsday analysis, read this RealEstateJournal article. How to prepare for a downturn (hint: buy a house primarily as a place to live in and not as a stock!)
This should prove interesting
in the wake of the larger trend of the vanishing-downtown, that portions of mall parking lots and/or sidewalks (infrastructure often paid-for thru proffers and government-aided gimmes) remain public spaces, free to those that choose to speak out within agreed-on modes of behavior…. Redistribution of this power remains wrong, even if the “victim” is “the little guy being able to have a place to meet the public.â€The VACLU says“Shopping centers, particularly in suburban areas, have for all intents and purposes replaced the traditional town centers where people shop, mingle and exchange views,†said ACLU of Virginia executive director Kent Willis. “The framers of the Virginia Constitution clearly intended to protect free speech in such places.â€â€œIf the free speech clause of the Virginia Constitution protects my right to hand out campaign literature outside a store in Charlottesville’s downtown mall or Old Town Alexandria, then I should also be able to stand outside a store in a large shopping center and do the same. One space may be publicly owned and the other privately owned, but they are both used in exactly the same way by the public.â€I don’t know; I remain open minded and look forward to reading the merits of both sides.
Condos in Charlottesville
Good article in the DP this morning about the vast number of condos in the area (if you want more information on these, please email me, rather than the Sellers’ agents!)Read the whole article, but take note of what Ted Koebel, director of the Virginia Tech Center for Housing Research says – it is something I say to all of my clients – “If it makes sense as a residence, that’s fine,†Koebel said. “But if you’re relying on speculative value, be careful.” This is the best advice I can give to my buyers. Perhaps when the public’s mindset moves back to seeing real estate as homes rather than stocks, the market will adequately correct itself.
Afternoon links
The economy is a fickle thing, driven largely by the Fed’s policies, etc. but psychology plays and equal, if not larger part.Given all of this doom-and-gloom reporting, maybe the surprise is that Americans are nonetheless behaving with their typical optimism, buying goods and services, bidding up the stock market, and creating new businesses. They may repeat to pollsters what they hear on TV, but they are acting on what they see with their own eyes.The parallels between this article and Charlottesville’s condo market are direct and important.But now, families that can easily afford to buy a home are choosing to live in condos, and that says a lot about Americans’ changing lifestyles. Between 1970 and 2000, the percentage of nuclear families among U.S. households declined to 24% from 40%, according to the Census Bureau. Some studies show that the number of households without children will increase in the next 10 years, while those with children will fall slightly.Home builders say the rise of the condo also reflects a desire among buyers to live downtown, with easy access to restaurants and entertainment, and no tough daily commute or time-consuming domestic upkeep.
C’Ville’s bubble
My short answer is “maybe.”There has been an awful lot of discussion here and elsewhere about the possibility of a real estate bubble locally and nationwide…. What happens in California (they have 17 of the top 20 “extremely overvalued” markets) does not have a direct, nor a necessarily indirect effect on the Charlottesville/Central VA market. What their data can do is give us guidance of sorts.When California Association of Realtors starts issuing an Amendment titled “Market Conditions Advisory,” which states, “In light of the real estate market’s cyclical nature it is important that buyers understand the potential for little or no appreciation in value, or the actual loss in value, of the property they purchase.”… One would expect our market to be more valuable than many markets, especially in light of the recent news that we are the Number One Best Place to Live (again, ranked by USA Today).