Stinkbugs in Charlottesville

in Albemarle Charlottesville on
Stink bugImage courtesy of

Sometimes coincidences matter, and are fortuitous.

Yesterday I was at a final walkthrough with some buyer clients from out West and the conversation turned to stink bugs. What are they? Where are they from? What do they do? I knew they stink, and they seem to have replaced the bad lady bugs, aka Multicolored Asian Lady Beetles.

Stink bugs were bad last year. This year they’re worse. And they’re not from here.

The Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (BMSB), is found throughout Virginia although some isolated pockets of the Commonwealth have not seen this insect yet. The BMSB is an invasive insect not native to Virginia or North America. It was accidentally introduced near Allentown, PA in 1998 and has spread since that time. It feeds on a wide range of fruits and seed pods and has the potential to be a pest on peaches and soybeans. For homeowners, it is mainly a nuisance pest, as it invades houses in the winter looking for a place to over-winter.

Driving to my next meeting, I turned on Coy Barefoot’s show on WINA and heard last year’s conversation with Peter Warren, an entomologist at the Extension Office. The conversation was informative, useful and answered all of my stinkbug questions.

I recommend listening to the whole thing.

Update 24 September 2012: It turns out there’s a whole federal coalition tasked with going after the stinkbugs …

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Riding a Bike in Charlottesville – Mountain Biking and More

in Albemarle Charlottesville Transportation on

If you’re curious about mountain biking in the Charlottesville area, road racing, and/or connecting with fellow bikers in the Charlottesville area, you will probably find this interview useful and interesting.

…When survey participants were asked to identify the three most important areas the cycling community should champion in the next few years, the largest percentage of votes, 82 percent, went to pushing for more bike lanes.

…I would ask about what the members are like, are they crazy riders or trail riders, where are the good trails, what types of events do they have, is there a weekly ride?

… Lastly: Bike Polo & Segway Polo Resources : Charlottesville Albemarle Mountain Biking Club (CAMBC) & their Facebook page Charlottesville Racing Club Bike Charlottesville Charlottesville Bike Club What is Single Track (mountain biking) Observatory Hill trails Mountain Biking Trails – Trails.com Rivervew Park in Charlottesville Rivanna Trails in Charlottesville Mint Springs Park in Crozet & Trails.com Preddy Creek (29 North area) Mountain Biking in George Washington and Jefferson National Forests Planners propose commuter bike trail from Rivanna Station military base to downtown Charlottesville

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Interest Rates and Home Prices – What’s the Correlation?

in General Real Estate on

But if rates are low, a rational buyer will expect mortgages rates to rise when they sell the property, and under the theory that mortgage rates impact price, the price will then fall in the future. That makes the property less attractive, and the buyer in the low interest rate environment will not want to overpay for the house.

So the buyer needs to consider both current interest rates and future interest rates, and by the time they are done doing all the calculations, you get the graph that Leonhardt shows. And that is exactly what I’d expect – there is little relationship between house prices and mortgage rates.

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Buying a Home in Charlottesville – Looking in the Winter

in Friday on

Be patient, be smart, be informed … but if you find a house you love and you plan to stay for a while, why not consider buying? … And the doldrums are right around the corner: So where do we go from here? Schools in the Charlottesville area start around the third week of August … and we have about three months left before the annual doldrums set in. … Let me know and I’ll likely help in any way I can .

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UVA is Getting Bigger – And We All Get a Clue

in Albemarle Charlottesville Politics Transportation UVa on

The University of Virginia Foundation has been given the greenlight to expand its research park on Fontaine Avenue.

…To get a feel for where UVA’s growth is going, spend some time perusing their 2008 Grounds Plan . The best sentence in the Charlottesville Tomorrow story succinctly pinpoints why the Charlottesville-Albemarle region chooses not to build roads .

…The most recent rezoning does not answer conclusively the future of the proposed Sunset-Fontaine Connector but does offer clues to how parts of it might be funded.

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Moving to Charlottesville for NGIC or DIA?

in General Real Estate on

I’ve written before about finding rentals in the Charlottesville area … to give you a taste of what the rental market is like, keeping in mind that the Charlottesville MLS tends not to have the majority of rentals as it does homes for sale … … Of these 116 rentals that meet the above criteria, 31 are vacant – meaning, most likely, less than a third of the available rental inventory is available for immediate occupancy. So, if you’re staying in a hotel looking for a place to live, you are going to face a challenge. Further, of those 31, one indicates they will do either a short-term or month-to-month lease . 12 of the 116 indicate they will accept such terms.

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