Our Sustainability Committee is recommending to City Council that Charlottesville offer a one-time 50% property tax cut for buildings that meet this goal.One thought is that this might encourage builders to “go green” knowing that they can tell potential buyers that their first-year property tax bill will be cut in half. Two questions: (1) would this really be much of an inducement to builders or buyers and (2) more importantly, would this just be giving property tax relief to builders or property owners who were likely going to make these kinds of improvements anyway (and have the financial wherewithal to do so)?”Here’s the relevant Code:Energy-efficient buildings, not including the real estate or land on which they are located, are hereby declared to be a separate class of property and shall constitute a classification for local taxation separate from other classifications of real property…. The rate of tax imposed by any county, city, or town on such buildings shall not exceed that applicable to the general class of real property.For purposes of this section, an energy-efficient building is any building that exceeds the energy efficiency standards prescribed in the Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code by 30 percent…. Market to the mortgage brokers to get them to find and educate themselves and consumers about Energy Efficient Mortgages.- Consider extending the tax break for a three-year period.- Fast-track green developments/improvements- Provide incentives to builders to innovate more rapidly.
Date Archives December 2007
cVillain’s “best of” 2007
Or, as they say, “2007 Raw List of Charlottesville Superlatives.” cVillain burst on the scene earlier this year and has quickly become what I believe to be an informative and fairly influential site in C’Ville. It’s certainly where I vicariously live the night-life that Charlottesville offers. For a candid, uncensored look into C’Ville – check out Some Things I like about Charlottesville and It’s official: Charlottesville is fun [almost] all the time.Part of Charlottesville’s draw – why people want to live here – is that it is a great place to live; we have a relatively high (although clearly there are disparities) quality of life and there is almost always something to do – restaurants, music, art, theater, bars, polo, hiking, it’s all here.
It appears people are trying to assess the Charlottesville real estate market
Search provides such valuable insight into the minds of readers. The following search strings brought people to my site in the past twenty-four hours.housing market in charlottesvillecharlottesville housing priceshow to re-negotiate with buildersunited states housing market by region 2007median house prices Charlottesville VA 2007You can start here to find some of the answers to these questions.charlottesville real estate blog jim duncan – this one always intrigues me, as it’s a fairly frequent search, particularly when the visitor is local and spend 41 minutes on this blog – and they didn’t send me an email or anything!
Private Malls are “public” places
As noted on the Consumerist -“A shopping mall is a public forum in which persons may reasonably exercise their right to free speech,” Justice Carlos R. Moreno wrote in the majority opinion.This case seems very similar to the one that played out in Charlottesville last year. With public areas decreasing, this is likely going to be an issue to be addressed in many, if not most, areas of the country. The balance between property rights and the “greater good” is one that requires constant vigilance.
Three things for Wednesday
The parallels between the Hollywood model and the real estate industry are many – both are based on fear and production rather than art and client representation – and both are changing with extreme rapidity.The only thing I’ll add to the “video” brouhaha (if you’re not a real estate blogger, you most likely don’t care about this) – is this – If you’re not offending somebody, you’re probably doing something wrong.
Real estate blogs are international
It’s easy to focus on writing for the real estate market within the United States, but real estate (and real estate blogs) is international. (Translated version) Thanks for the link! This reinforces my wife’s gift to me this Christmas.Besides, the US Dollar isn’t doing so well right now.Also – Don’t forget about For Sale by Locals – that writes in multiple languages.
Learn about the FairTax
The WSJ has a great editorial today (temp free link).The distributional effects of the FairTax have been extensively studied, and although the proposal has distinct advantages for investors and wealth creation across the income spectrum, the greatest benefit of the FairTax is to low- and moderate-income Americans. The effect of eliminating regressive payroll taxes is commonly overlooked when analyzing the FairTax, but it would have a very significant impact, as these taxes represent the single largest tax burden on these income earners.Significantly, the FairTax eliminates all loopholes, gimmicks, exemptions and deductions from the federal tax system…. The FairTax would also eliminate the lucrative tax lobbying practices that represent more than 50% of all lobby dollars spent annually in Washington.Clearly there would be short-term impacts, positive and negative. We need to, in all things, be able to look beyond the next three to five years and see the real effects.