Interesting story via Boing Boing about the privatization of Silver Spring, Maryland’s downtown area. Note the parallels to some of the conversations we have had in Charlottesville along similar veins.But Elrich says Peterson insists on treating downtown Silver Spring as if it were an indoor mall. They set and enforce rules that would never pass legal muster on a public street…. And photographers such as Py are regularly stopped and told to move along.Privatizing the Downtown MallCharges against Rich Collins droppedWho will pay the property taxes?
Browsing Category sideblog
One Billion Dollars
Now that is sustainability.UVa is tax exempt, but if it had to pay, Charlottesville would have received $4.6 million and Albemarle County would have received $6.9 million in taxes. The university’s foundation, on the other hand, paid $189,694 in property taxes to Charlottesville and $1.1 million to Albemarle County for holdings like the Boar’s Head Inn. In 2005, the total value of taxable real estate owned or rented by faculty, staff and students at UVa was $3.3 billion — and UVa paid $23.3 million in property taxes divided almost equally between the city and county.The full study by the Weldon Cooper Center is here.Update: 7/1/2007: My favorite line from Bob Gibson’s article in the Daily Progress:UVa’s dollar clout is massive, as are its less measurable contributions to, and impacts on, the area. Only Jefferson’s ghost and God are larger shapers of the area’s collective mind and spirit.
Gated communities
My daughter loves the Veggie Tales, so I have seen quite a few of their movies and listened to even more of their CDs. I hadn’t seen this social commentary on gated communities.Hat tip: Business Week’s Hot Property.
Thoughts on vacation so far
Being as used to connectivity as I (and my clients) have become accustomed, not having reliable internet access is potentially damaging, both from a business and psychological perspective. The next five days should prove interesting. Neither the real estate market nor client representation take breaks.
State of the nation’s housing
Harvard’s paper is here. If you love data, check it out. There is nothing there specific to the Charlottesville area, but insight may be extrapolated to our area – notably immigration’s rise, baby-bust’s influence, waning affordability, – it’s all there.
Interest rates in the Charlottesville area
With the average interest rate for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage jumping to 6.74%, I asked Carl Heimlich with C&F Mortgage to pen a quick note on what is happening in the mortgage market…. The Producer Price Index (wikipedia), the government’s key measure of inflation at the wholesale level, was up 0.9 percent in May, compared to a 0.7 percent rise in April…. There was a sell-off in Mortgage Bonds on the news of Central Bank rate hikes in other countries, as these hikes make other global investments more attractive than our US Bonds for those seeking higher yields…. There are many good deals out there right now, I would recommend that you check with your Realtor and if you find the right deal, lock in your rate as soon as possible.
What is Zillow up to?
First, I read on their blog about how they will be, a la Trulia, offering brokers the ability to upload their listings via feeds. Then I see that Zillow pulled a mini-coup hiring Vanessa Fox from Google. I still think that Google will buy one of these companies soon. Which broker will be the first to upload their listings to Zillow?