Than a sign on the side of the road.
Date Archives February 2008
The Subprime Mortgage situation explained
In 45 slides.It actually makes sense. Download it or click through to a full-size version if it’s too small – it’s worth it.
Shifting Charlottesville housing market claims victims
Local appliance dealer closes shop, and others are hurting as well – details at the HooK.
What a difference six months make (in blogging)
I’m at the Virginia Association of Realtors’ conference this week, and that’s why I haven’t been responding to the comments (sorry!). I’ve been talking about blogging quite a bit in the hallways, and the single greatest “thing” I’ve noticed is this – Since the last conference, the conversation has shifted from “What’s a Blog?” to “How do we deal with them?” How-to, liability, branding, advertising versus journalism.I’m going to be speaking at the Charlottesville Association of Realtors meeting about blogging next month, and to a Northern Virginia Board of Directors soon about “how to deal with blogs” – the shift in acceptance is, quite frankly, amazing.
Government = Higher Housing prices
Interesting.Graphic and story found at Seeking Alpha, who found it at Cafe Hayek, who refers to the actual original story. Charlottesville’s Free Enterprise Forum released a comprehensive study last year enumerating some of the local impacts of government regulation on housing costs (PDF). This is a good conversation from last year about growth and housing in Charlottesville/Albemarle and beyond.
Transfer of Development Rights bill moves forward
The Transfer of Development Rights bill, HB 991, is moving forward in the General Assembly…. Rob Bell, R-Albemarle, said his House Bill 991 would help create a pilot project to allow a market for the sale of development rights through a broker. It would allow landowners to sever their rights and sell them for use elsewhere.Creating a market for intangible development rights? Creating a value for these is going to be very challenging.Learn more about TDRs at Charlottesville Tomorrow, and these are a few stories from RealCentralVa – October 2006, January 2007, October 2007It’s worth noting that the Realtors support this bill.
FHA Loan limits’ increase potential impact on the Charlottesville market
Then, Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will have 30 days to provide the official loan limits for lenders to use.Will it help?Using very rough calculations from sources at HUD, CAAR and lenders I work with, the increases could range from the current limit in the Charlottesville MSA of $323,000 up to $387,500 in Charlottesville and Nelson. More likely, it seems, the overall MSA, including the City, Albemarle, Greene, Fluvanna and Nelson will see an increase to something less than $340,000, unless lenders specifically apply for increases above the MSA limit…. Maybe.How could this help?With tighter credit standards from both Freddie and Fannie and the lenders’ own portfolio products, borrowers may need the credit standards that FHA allows…. Over Supply: the situation where there is more inventory than there are available buyers when considering prevailing prices and market conditions.Note that this definition addresses the prices within the market.