Browsing Category Albemarle

Don’t Mind Me, I’m New in Town – A Look at City and County Lines

in Albemarle Charlottesville Growth on

Or … a big giant “d’oh” … with an “I’m sorry” to the Albemarle County Architectural Review Board.

Remember in July when I mused about the ARB process and Stonefield (formerly Albemarle Place):

So, what exactly is the character? I looked at the existing “entrance corridor”:

Seminole Square mall – Cheeseburger in Paradise, the Express Car Wash, Chili’s, strip with Sprint and the UPS Store on the east side of 29, Burger King, and lots of parking lots. Stonefield is replacing the old Blockbuster and 7-11, and lots of trees and natural landscape. Continue south on 29 and you’re met with KFC and Best Buy.

If the ARB truly wanted to be consistent, the Shops at Stonefield would have to emulate trees.

Turns out …

Cheeseburger in Paradise, the Express Car Wash, Chili’s the strip with Sprint and the UPS Store on the east side of 29, Burger King and lots of parking lots … are in the City of Charlottesville, not the County of Albemarle.

I’ve been living in Charlottesville/Albemarle for only 23 years (I’m 35 now) … so I’m still learning my way around.

So … my apologies to the Albemarle Architectural Review Board.

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Charlottesville Tomorrow Gets a New Grant

in Albemarle Charlottesville on

Awesome. I couldn’t be as well informed on what happening in Charlottesville and Albemarle as I am without Charlottesville Tomorrow.

At the DP:

According to Charlottesville Tomorrow’s founder and executive director, Brian Wheeler, the grant will help the nonprofit news organization expand its presence on the web, improve cvillepedia, its community wiki, and increase its use of Google Earth-based 3D modeling.

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Albemarle County Real Estate Market Update – August 2011

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What’s happening the Albemarle County real estate market? Lots of stuff. Perhaps the two most relevant posts I’ve written in the past few weeks are these:

– Goodbye, 0-5 Buyer -OR- Finance a House or an Education? in which I discuss the elimination of the short-term homeowner and this effect on the Charlottesville area real estate market

and

– Categorizing the Charlottesville Real Estate Market – in which I break the market down into four segments – from distressed to price aggressively.

This is just a reasonably high-level overview of the Albemarle real estate market. But … this matters little to you if you’re looking for a home in Albemarle, start your home search here. If you’re curious about what’s happening in your location in Albemarle, or are currently searching for homes for sale in Albemarle, please feel free to contact me anytime with questions.

Sold listings are down in Albemarle County year over year:

See also:

Charlottesville MSA Real Estate Market Update – 30 August 2011 – How this matters to You

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Charlottesville MSA Real Estate Market Update – August 2011 – How This Matters to You

in Albemarle Charlottesville Fluvanna Greene Market statistics on

Pending Contracts in the Charlottesville MSA are UP, year over year. But if you’re looking to buy a home in the Charlottesville area or if you’re trying to or thinking about selling, this number doesn’t matter to you one bit. What matters is – what is the market doing on my street? In my neighborhood? In my elementary school district? What happens at the top level – national, state, MSA, locality – is darn near irrelevant other than from a psychological point of view.

Here is why the top numbers don’t matter … there are extremes and outliers everywhere; today’s example:

A house just went under contract in the Bentivar neighborhood. A first look says that the house came on the market at $595k and went under contract in 6 days. If that house sells for $595k, the MLS data will show that it sold for 100% of its asking price. Which isn’t accurate.

  • The house first came on the market in February 2010 for $1,100,000.
  • Reduced to $835,000
  • Came back on the market at $833,000
  • Reduced to $735,000
  • Came on the market for $595,000
  • Went under contract quickly.

Look beyond the numbers presented to you. Here and everywhere. Good real estate professionals don’t try to hide the information, but it takes work to discover what’s actually happening.

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