Should municipalities provide wireless? As we become a higher-density society, this may become more and more of an attractive option.Tall buildings coming to the City of Charlottesville! Tall, at least, by our standards – 9 stories.Six great blog articlesIs Albemarle County growing too fast? A full post on this as soon as the study is released.The FTC’s release today:FTC Charges Real Estate Groups with Anticompetitive Conduct in Limiting Consumers’ Choice in Real Estate Services300 million.Three hundred million is also a discomfiting reminder of a nation that, on its east and west coasts, at least, is running noticeably low on elbow room. More humanity is stirring up more traffic, more sprawl, more rules against growth, more protests against anti-growth rules, and more of the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming.We are young. Nearly 250 years old. We have a lot of growing to do – in many, many ways. Are we sustainable?What will these new condos do to the property values of the Belmont Lofts?
Date Archives October 2006
Hard or soft?
How does one define “soft landing” or “hard landing” when describing the housing market? No more than x percentage of foreclosures? How long after the market is going back up can we reassess and determine what type of “landing” we had?
Reasons why this market is better
1) Less pressure on buyers.2) Buyers have time to consider spending a quarter of a million dollars. (and more and less)3) Less greed.4) Patience can be rewarded.5) The madness has subsided.
RSS comes to the unwashed masses
Get ready! RSS is coming to the rest of the world via Internet Explorer 7. (those of us with Firefox, Macs, et.al. have been enjoying the glories of RSS for some time now) I can’t wait for the virii that make their way to PCs via RSS.Now, I just have to find some sucker willing participant to let me borrow their Windows box to test it out. :)Seriously, this will be a landmark moment for RSS, as RSS moves from an emerging technology to one that will hopefully become seamless, invisible to most and an option for information/content delivery.
The Autumn Newsletter is up
Publishing these newsletters is time-consuming, frustrating and ultimately worthwhile. This month marks a big step. I am no longer going to be mailing out the newsletter; it will be entirely online, save for those who email me and choose to receive a hard copy. Please email if you would like a copy.
K Hovnavian slashing development
I moved this to its own story, from today’s “Links” post, because they represent the second builder (Ryan was first) to announce major changes. Interestingly, while local builders have seemingly made some significant changes to their pricing and development strategies, it is the national builders who seem most affected. Perhaps the smaller builders are more nimble and able to alter their course?… Hovnavian’s only development (of which I am aware) in the Central Virginia region. Ryan is everywhere in Central Virginia.Read the memo here.These new market conditions have affected us in many ways and will continue to affect us in the months ahead. In the area of land acquisition we have been re-evaluating our current land positions and the contracts for new land in the light of these new conditions. Many of those contracts no longer make good financial sense when you factor in lower prices and a slower sales pace. Time will tell …Inman has the story as well.
The Carnival is Up
And Greg is trying to bring order and quality to the real estate carnival world.