After a multiyear real-estate boom that has raised concerns about a housing bubble in a number of markets, economists and homeowners are closely watching this year’s spring selling season for any signs of a slowdown…. Spring tends to be the hottest selling season, with families looking to move well before the start of the next school year…. In a revised forecast, the National Association of Realtors now says it expects sales of existing single-family homes to fall 2.4% to 6.62 million for the full year, which still would be the second-highest level on record…. Weak economic news has helped push rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages below 6%, from a recent high of 6.17%, according to HSH Associates, providing a nudge to buyers fearful that rates will shoot up again.
Date Archives April 2005
Surprise, surprise
From Inman news Surprise, surprise NY Times headline: Real Estate …: 
Surprise, surprise
 NY Times headline: Real Estate Sales Drive Up Consumer Prices in Region. It is scary when the costs of two necessities of American life, housing and gas, are out of control. Are they out of control or are they rising at a precipitously faster rate than ever before?
Some days, it feels good to do my job
Building a home from a long distance can be a trying, stressful uneasy experience. I took some pictures yesterday of a house that some clients are having built in Fluvanna, posted them on a website and emailed my clients a link to this password-protected page. In response, they emailed – Thanks so much for sending the pictures of the site. It made our day.
Google’s reach becoming a bit terrifying.
Not real estate related, other than the fact that most buyers start looking for homes by searching the web – From lost to found: How many times have you used Google to find an obscure funny website or fun facts about “The Wizard of Oz,†but then got distracted by other web pages and tasks?… Wouldn’t it be great to find them again, and for that matter review all your Google searches over time?… An additional bit of fun: try the handy calendar to check the level of your Google activity on a given day, or see related searches you’ve done over time. Look for the link in the upper right corner of your Google web search home page and results pages.
Gentrification a good thing?
It’s the lament of community organizers, the theme of the 2004 film Barbershop 2 and the guilty assumption of the yuppies moving in. Carole Singleton lives in Harlem in New York City where she is a tenants rights activist in her community…. In an article last month in Urban Affairs Review, Freeman reports the results of his national study of gentrification — the movement of upscale (mostly white) settlers into rundown (mostly minority) neighborhoods…. Charlottesville has been experiencing its own gentrification, save for the Vinegar Hill experience, in Belmont, Fifeville and now the 10th and Page area of the City. As folks from other areas move in, young couples from the City as well as those from Boston, New York, etc. where do the long-term residents go?
Quick response
It is absolutely imperative to respond to potential customers/clients as soon as possible. That not all of my competition understands that makes my job just a little bit easier…. If I don’t get a response to something, I either lose interest or look elsewhere. The internet buyers do the same – over 80% of them start their search online.
UVa. tearing down the Cavalier Inn
I was remarking to a prospective buyer, who happens to be staying at the Cavalier Inn, how it was going to be torn down in the near future to make way for UVa’s Arts Center. Lo and behold, Cvillenews has a discussion on that very subject. From the Cavalier Daily – While actual plans for the new arts center have yet to be designed, the University is anticipating that the center will be approximately 120,000 square feet with a performance space capable of accommodating an audience of 1,600, Wornock said. The new arts center will be located on the current site of the University-owned Cavalier Inn on the corner of Emmett Street and University Avenue.