And today, Tuesday, there’s this : ‘Yale economist Robert Shiller, who developed one of the widely followed gauges of home prices, said in a speech Tuesday that home prices, which have already fallen about 15 percent from their peak in 2006, may fall further than the 30 percent drop experienced during the Great Depression of the 1930s, so far the biggest decline in home prices in the country. “Basically we are in uncharted territory,†Shiller said, noting that the 85 percent rise in home prices from 1997 to 2006 after adjusting for inflation had represented the biggest housing boom in U.S. history, so the fall in prices could be just as historic.’
Posts tagged Albemarle
Putting statistics into context that matters
C-Ville has a brief update on the Virginia real estate market today : Still, that doesn’t mean those $1 million homes are being snapped up hours after listing. … For a more broad, but sufficiently localized snapshot of the million dollar market** look at this snapshot and download this pdf . 
*Albemarle, Charlottesville, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa, Nelson **Albemarle, Augusta, Buckingham, Charlottesville, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa, Nelson, Waynesboro
Earth Day links
How to go Green in the kitchen Beat the credit squeeze by going green Get a home energy audit This is my carbon footprint: 
What’s yours? … To avoid misconceptions that I advocate going green in an attempt to abolish capitalism , know this – going green can save you money in the long term (short term thinking generally causes problems) – If you don’t want to ride your bike to save energy, do it because gas is so flipping expensive!
And possibly the other shoe in the condo (conversion) market
From the Chicago Tribune website : Because of underwriting changes by giant investors Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac , plus new restrictions by private-mortgage insurers, getting a loan on a condo or refinancing one you own could prove tougher than you imagined. … Even in the healthiest real estate markets, United Guaranty will require buyers to put at least a 10 percent down and will reject applications in buildings where more than 30 percent of the owners are investors.
Charlottesville Earthcraft Homes tour – and a brief riff on “is blogging advertising?”
EarthCraft standards and options are factored into every aspect of home building – site planning, building orientation, low-impact construction techniques and materials, energy efficiency – for a constant effort to lower the environmental impact of building an EarthCraft home and lower the energy costs and water usage for its future occupants. … … After a long conversation yesterday with an attorney, about real estate blogs and the perception by the Vir ginia Real Estate Board that any writing that could “induce business” is considered “advertising” … here is my disclosure .
Question from a reader regarding Charlottesville area foreclosures
Our agent didn’t show much interest in this kind of properties and I didn’t ask him if it is because there are not many on the market currently or he is just not strong in that area.” … And, foreclosures are quite the hot topic. 
If you’re looking for the most accurate, up-to-date information on foreclosures in the Charlottesville area, I personally use the HooK’s site ; I’ll bet they would get good traffic if they devoted a page to foreclosures and the link stayed the same every week – thehook.com/foreclosures … just an (selfish) idea.
“Official” Real estate Market report for Charlottesville area
This is my market report for the City of Waynesboro and Augusta County and this is the market report I wrote last Monday focused on the Central Virginia real estate market ; my market report is more focused on the Charlottesville market area – Charlottesville/Albemarle, Fluvanna, Greene and Nelson Counties – while the CAAR report encompasses the entire super-region. … For a graphical representation, check this out – for the first quarter 2008, sales of condos are down – way down – relative to the past few years. 
I’ll update this post on Monday when the Daily Progress releases their interpretation/report.