Charlottesville's Real Estate Blog. Buyer &/or Seller Representation, Real Estate News
Maybe, says Forbes. I’ll be publishing local perspective this week.
Or, we could be a long way from bottom.
Either way, I’ll let you know with authority and confidence in 18 months where we are today. The only way to know is with sufficient hindsight.
I highly encourage everyone to read this article, watch the video and question everything.
Put simply – buyers want to buy. And a lot of them are tired of waiting.
Categorizing the Charlottesville real estate market:
– 20% distressed
– 20-30% is overpriced
– 20-25% is stuff that no one wants to buy
– 20% is in great condition, priced really well and is selling in under 60 days. *
Right now* there are 2122 homes on the market. 410 are currently under contract; 177 (43%!) have continuous days on market of under 30 days and 219 (53%) have CDOM of under 60 days.
Coming soon to the former Escafé space on the Downtown Mall … The Whiskey Jar.
Soul food, fried chicken, collards, jazz bands and more I”m sure … targeting 1 February as the opening date.
I’m hungry already.
A friend said today, “if you don’t walk the Downtown Mall for two weeks, you’re toast!”
And it’s true.
We tried Song Song’s Zhou & Bing today (the HooK had a nice story yesterday) – and I’ll say this – it’s inexpensive – my meal was $4.50 for the 10 Grain Sweet Zhou (sorta like porridge) and a Vegi Bing (sorta like a stuffed fried pancake).
Try it. It’s good.
… I don’t see “become a landlord†anywhere the the federal government’s enumerated powers.
Until the Federal Government stops trying to “fix†the housing market, recovery is going to be delayed. EVERYTHING they do injects uncertainty, fear, concern and uncertainty into the economy and housing market.
This stuff matters to the Charlottesville real estate economy, not so much because we have a vast backlog of foreclosures (I don’t think it’s vast) but because the housing economy, driven my national policies and lending and processes – real estate titling, real estate financing, robosigning, consumer sentiment is national. The national “# of home sales” are mostly irrelevant, but the systems are national.
But what do I know?
Naked Capitalism has an excellent analysis with this telling summation:
Despite its efforts to muster data, this Fed is badly blinkered by the fact that it operates inside a club. Anyone who has done research in areas where the data stinks (and it does in the housing arena) will tell you you have to do primary research, but economists are allergic to that (Nobel prize winner Wassily Leontief found that less than 0.5% of the articles published in top economics journals were based on data developed by the authors). The Fed is unduly influenced by the view of people who are part of the problem, and it shows in this paper.