Last week, at the suggestion of a client, and with permission of the moderators, I did a Charlottesville Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA), similar to the Richmond real estate AMA.

It was fun, exhausting, hopefully informative, and I learned a lot. I also know that I couldn’t have done it had I not had this blog to depend on to cite my answers and work.

Hopefully they’ll let me do another one next quarter.

A few of the highlights

• How quickly are houses going off the market right now? Will we need to make a quick offer over asking?
• (I) have the impression that the last couple of weeks felt different somehow. Higher prices, bigger properties, some of them recent flips being rushed to market, some old Charlottesville properties owned forever. Is this a real effect? Or am I just imagining? Is something happening?
• In your experience with this market, are you seeing clients in the public service industry (teacher, fire fighter, police, nurse, ect) buying homes right now? My wife and I are both educators and looking to relocate to the area to be closer to her family. We have two children and prefer a house with 4 bedrooms. Everything we look at seems to be out of our budget. Also, I know you cannot disclose personal information, but are you seeing any trends in the types of work that your clients do? It would seem that we want our public service people to live close to the community they serve, however, prices don’t seem to accommodate that in many respects.

• What’s your opinion on the FLUM in Cville?
• Thoughts about have a second inspector to “double-check” the work of the first/primary inspector?
• Looking to move to the city and inventory seems so crazy low. Do you think it will improve early summer? Or just going to be this way while rates are high for the foreseeable future?

• Where do you see Waynesboro real estate in 10-15 years? What will the town be like? Do you think it will change a lot due to people moving there from c-ville/albemarle?
  • I knew I liked this question, for one reason – it gave me the chance to say “I don’t know,” which I did. I know what I know, and I’m aware of the things I do not know. I know the Charlottesville – Albemarle real estate market. I know that I don’t know the Waynesboro-Staunton-August market.
• How great would that Biscuit Run development be right now? The county worked so hard to restrict housing supply over the last fifteen years and then Charlottesville turned into a tech hub with the Willowtree expansion and sale. An extra 3000+ houses would’ve been a great way to absorb this latest population boom.

• What areas of town will see the biggest change in terms of home prices? Will it just be a continued sprawl/increase in prices for areas closest to the downtown mall?
• The two main questions I get that I have no real answer for is how bad is it going to get for renters in the area for whom price is an object? And when will working people with a down payment but not all cash have a chance to buy a home again?

I’m now on Mastodon, too.