The Board of Supervisors fails to see the merit in even investigating creative measures to control growth. Why think out of the box when some politicians can’t even see beyond the box? I hope Mr. Slutzky continues to educate the people – the constituents – of the merits and potential shortcomings of what a successful Transfer of Development Right (TDR) program could look like. More thoughts after I listen to the entire podcast.
Date Archives December 2006
Market alert
Roughly 80,000 subprime borrowers who took out mortgages packaged into securities this year are behind on their payments, the bank says….Predicting losses on these securities is a challenge because there’s little or no historical evidence to show how subprime loans will perform at a time when home prices are falling, says Thomas Lawler, a housing economist in Vienna, Va…. found that losses on recent subprime deals could be “in the 6% to 8% range” if home prices are flat next year and could rise to the “double digits” if home prices fall by 5%. Falling home prices could trigger losses not only for investors who bought riskier classes of mortgage-backed securities, but also for some holders of A-rated bonds, according to the report.If only there were a way to discern how many subprime loans had been written in the Charlottesville/Central Virginia market …… Some people are best suited to rent.Rates Fall and Applications RiseToll Brothers reports record lossLocally, Toll Brothers does not have a presence (yet), so take their news for what it’s worth in relation to our market.
Comcast sucks already?
The HooK has some background on the switch.Update 11-23-2006: The longer this goes on, the more I wonder why some sites are blocked/inaccessible and others are not. For instance, Rain City Guide is accessible at my office, my neighbor’s via Embarq DSL, but not at my house using Comcast/Adelphia.Anybody have opinions on DSL offered by Embarq?And it’s slow.Update 11-26-2006: Mea culpa…. Perhaps one of the new “Draft N” routers?Update 11-29-2006: I don’t know what the problem is, but on Monday everything was fine…. I know I am not the only one having problems, as people keep coming here via searches like this – adelphia comcast blocking website and charlottesville adelphia comcast internet problems.
21st Carnival of real estate
Is up at the Property Monger.
Sexual offenders’ impact on property values (Part 2)
I never intended to do a Part 2 (Here is Part 1).At what point does the Commonwealths’s sexual offender notification website become a means by which to unfairly devalue property?The inaccuracy of the database was noted about a house in Crozet (west of Charlottesville) here and on NBC29…. The disclosure and disclaimer forms shall contain a notice to purchasers that whether the owner proceeds under subdivision A 1 or A 2, purchasers should exercise whatever due diligence they deem necessary with respect to information on any sexual offenders registered under Chapter 23 (§ 19.2-387 et seq.) of Title 19.2, including how to obtain such information.I wrote earlier this year about the impact that a sexual offender has on a home’s value…. How many potential purchasers of the house on the market on that street or the adjoining neighborhood may have been lost?If there is no trust in the value and accuracy of the information, how can one be reasonably expected to exercise thorough due diligence?
Beating a dead horse
One thing that struck me was this – in response to a request to provide a comprehensive market report for the public – investors, purchasers, etc. only one Realtor spoke out in favor of this report. The general consensus of the room was that they need to protect the data and hold it close, as the more information they release, the more marginalized they will become…. This mindset may withstand another few years, but ultimately will not survive. Combatting technology’s integration and influence is a sure-fire way to ensure marginalization.Jonathan Dalton has a great post about some agents’ feelings about technology.
Regarding markets
I read an awful lot every day, but typically if a story does not come through my feed reader, I don’t see it. So, thank you for these two interesting stories.First up is this story on the growing movement advocating for equal rights for gays in the workplace…. Referencing my story earlier this week on this subject,Next is this story from Agora Financial showing that the rosy ad campaign by the NAR may just be somewhat biased:) CAAR’s 3rd Quarter Market Report is here (PDF)…. In short, I do not see that as having a significant impact on our local market.