Posts tagged Charlottesville

The End of an Era – Arch’s Goes Self-Serve

in Charlottesville on

I’m sure I’m late to the news …

A staple of Charlottesville, Arch’s frozen yogurt has evolved – “Just recently, Arch’s on Ivy Road closed and Arch’son the Corner and  Arch’s on Emmet St. renovated and converted operations to the newest craze in the frozen yogurt industry….”SELF SERVE”..

Arch's Charlottesville

As said on Twitter –

Remember the popularity of TCBY in the ’80s and then all the copycats? Reminds me of how that fad came & went.

Yes.

Berry Berry, Sweet Frogs, Bloop … here’s hoping the evolution continues.

As the HooK noted last month –

… another New Jersey and New York-based eatery called Cups, yet another one of those self-serve yogurt places a la Sweet Frog and Bloop that have been capitalizing on the fro-yo fever over the last few years. Indeed, counting Arch’s, the home-grown frozen yogurt place with locations on Ivy Road, Emmet Street, and on the Corner (which recently went self-serve to keep up with the trend), as well as the soon-to-open Spoon and Berry at The Shops at Stonefield, there will be eight places in town to get the stuff, including Berry Berry on the Corner.

I’m not sad necessarily, but I do lament the loss of something that I perceive to make Charlottesville Charlottesville In high school, I spent way too much time at Arch’s before being local was cool.

As an aside:

1 – The new Google Maps isn’t yet updated with the new imagery showing the business that has replaced Arch’s
2 – The new Google Maps is amazing.

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Location, Location, Efficiency of Home and Transportation?

in Charlottesville General Real Estate Green on

Energy-Efficient Windows: Technologies for the Future

A bill to make energy efficient homes more marketable? Location efficiency when choosing where to live? Think about it – homeowners seem to be choosing to stay in one location for longer. This trend is leading more and more (at least my clients) to consider and choose more energy efficient homes (not just greenwashed). The longer one chooses to stay in a home – particularly a more efficient home – the more potential energy (read: dollars) savings, right?

A bill to improve the accuracy of mortgage underwriting used by Federal mortgage agencies by ensuring that energy costs are included in the underwriting process, to reduce the amount of energy consumed by homes, to facilitate the creation of energy efficiency retrofit and construction jobs, and for other purposes.

When I first looked at Senate Bill 1106 on Govtrack, the bill was purported to have a 2% chance of making it out of committee. That chance is now 1%. It’s premise is useful, and I encourage everyone to read it in its entirety, for no reason other than to see the valid points the authors make.

A few of the bill’s highlights (bolding mine):

â—¦ (4) the current test for loan affordability used by most covered agencies, commonly known as the `debt-to-income’ test, is inadequate because it does not take into account the expected energy cost savings for the homeowner of an energy efficient home; and

…
â—¦ (3) require a covered agency to include the value home buyers place on the energy efficiency of a house in tests used to compare the mortgage amount to home value, taking precautions to avoid double-counting and to support safe and sound lending.

…
• To the extent that a covered agency uses a test such as a debt-to-income test that includes certain regular expenses, such as hazard insurance and property taxes, the expected energy cost savings shall be included as an offset to these expenses. Energy costs to be assessed include the cost of electricity, natural gas, oil, and any other fuel regularly used to supply energy to the subject property.
…

• (c) Determination of Estimated Energy Savings-

â—¦ (1) AMOUNT OF ENERGY SAVINGS- The amount of estimated energy savings shall be determined by calculating the difference between the estimated energy costs for the average comparable houses, as determined in guidelines to be issued under subsection (a), and the estimated energy costs for the subject property based upon the energy efficiency report.

â—¦ (2) DURATION OF ENERGY SAVINGS- The duration of the estimated energy savings shall be based upon the estimated life of the applicable equipment, consistent with the rating system used to produce the energy efficiency report.

â—¦ (3) PRESENT VALUE OF ENERGY SAVINGS- The present value of the future savings shall be discounted using the average interest rate on conventional 30-year mortgages, in the manner directed by guidelines issued under subsection (a).

To my eye, the bill is useful, reasonable and rational. Thus, it’s probably not likely to get out of committee. That cynicism aside, what can buyers do when they want to be more locationally efficient?

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June’s Note – Coming This Week

in Charlottesville General Real Estate Shameless Self Promotion on

This month’s note is going to be a fun one. I’m going to be talking about an ethical challenge I’ve been teasing for a few months (keyword: “hoodie”) , a brief update on what’s been happening in the Charlottesville real estate market, a “wish list” for GIS applications for real estate research, and a bit more insight into the results from last week’s post about what buyers look for in neighborhoods.

If you’re interested, I’m inviting you to subscribe to one email a month.

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Could Charlottesville Copy CitiBike?

in Charlottesville Transportation on

Anyone remember the yellow bike program in Charlottesville? Maybe the City of Charlottesville was just really ahead of its time.

I’m watching the CitiBike experiment in New York City and wondering if that could work in Charlottesville. I know this – it’s usually faster to ride my bike from my office in Downtown Charlottesville to various locations – attorneys offices in Court Square (a 4 minute bike ride versus a 10-12 minute drive, not including parking), to Para Coffee on the UVA Corner, coffee at Milli Joe’s on Preston …

Citibikes

Check out more citibike photos at flickr.

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