I am (much to the chagrin of my family) available almost 24 hours a day to answer my clients’ questions and those of potential buyers and sellers. …Seller wanted to go with X realty because they had the biggest local market share…. Most of the buyers in our market are not coming from our market! The local presence is not nearly as important when considering…
March Newsletter is out
I am mailing out my March Newsletter today! Email me and I will send you a PDF copy. Please make "Newsletter" the subject line. Thanks!
National statistics
“Ofheo (Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight) says that average home prices rose 11.17 percent from the fourth quarter of 2003 to the fourth quarter of 2004…. But what happened to home prices just in those last three months of 2004?… Average home prices rose 1.69 percent in the fourth quarter, for an annualize rate of 6.77 percent.” …We continue to have a simple supply…
Opposition to Habitat?
C-Ville (who doesn't have an easy way to link to their articles) has an interesting story this week on the plans to build a couple of Habit for Humanity houses in the Holmes Avenue area.This is the part that concerns me - the residents were not given an opportunity to purchase the lots. '...but the City wants to donate them to affordable-housing advocates and builders...
Interesting perspective from Michael Kinsley
“Perusing the real estate ads like pornography and imagining what our houses are worth is the great American pastime…. The 19th-century American Henry George explained how rising real estate values harm the economy by operating as a tax on both labor and capital…. Money for capital makes people save more…. Money for land just makes the owner richer. There are all sorts of complications and…
Government’s impact on housing
“In markets for, say, carrots or cars, rising demand raises prices in the short run…. But houses are no ordinary good: when demand for them rises, increasing the supply can be difficult. Not only do they take time to build: building them at all can be hard, owing to planning laws (known as ?zoning? laws in America) governing the use of land, the density of…
Schools are closed again today
I noticed that I was getting an inordinate amount of hits today for the query "which schools are closed today?" So I figured I might as well answer the question.Most schools are closed, despite the fact that all main roads are clear and mildly wet. I predict that Albemarle, Fluvanna, Greene and Charlottesville schools will be open on a delay tomorrow and Nelson will be...