Posts tagged Albemarle

Sustainability Matters

I was humbled to participate in the panel with real business leaders John Lawrence of Mudhouse Coffee and Crystal Mario of Rivanna Natural Designs yesterday. John and Crystal are setting standards for what and how profitable green/sustainability can be done successfully.

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Showing Houses in Charlottesville – On a Bike

Well that was fun. Saturday, I showed a few houses to buyer clients. And we each rode our bicycles; and I’m looking forward to doing it again. April was my first time showing a house on a bike and I’d been looking forward to doing it again. As this was my first time showing multiple houses with clients, I learned a few things.

If being closer to bike paths equates to higher property values, what better way to experience bike paths and on a bike?

Notes/lessons learned:

– Riding a bicycle is an infinitely better way to learn a neighborhood than riding in a car – taking in the smells (think Belmont BBQ), the sounds (trains in Charlottesville), topography (if you’re planning on commuting via bike).

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Charlottesville MSA Median Prices 2000 through 2011

Bear with me … I’m trying to make sense of the market.

Continuing my theme of looking at the Charlottesville real estate market data from a longer point of view, lest we track the housing market too closely

It seems that we’re back (broadly) at 2004 – 2005 housing prices in Charlottesville.

Single family home median prices for Charlottesville MSA:

Median Sales Prices - Single Famliy Homes - 1st 5 Months - Charlottesville MSA

Attached home median prices for Charlottesville MSA:

Attached - Median Sales Price

I left off Greene and Louisa as they have negligible attached home inventories.

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Seeking a Stable, Consistent Volume of Real Estate Transactions in Charlottesville

I look at too much data. I admit it. In this post, I’m posing just a question – when looking at the past ten years of real estate data** in the Charlottesville, Virginia area, what is a “normal” level of real estate transactions and is there a correlation between transactions and population growth? And how can my buyer and seller clients (and readers) apply this knowledge?

My hypothesis is that once we achieve a stable, consistent volume of real estate transactions – equilibrium if you will – we’ll be able to definitively say that we reached “bottom” or “stagnation” and start to consider such things as “appreciation of real estate values.”

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Batesville Store is Closing

And it’s a damn shame. I find it inexplicable and infuriating that, if everything that is reported is true – that Friday was the owners’ first notice that they were in violation – then the State’s choice to enforce their rules and shut down the store is inexcusable and unacceptable. The Batesville Store is part of what makes Albemarle Albemarle.

The Batesville Store is was an integral part of the community. Personally, I’d like to see the community of Batesville, if they were so inclined, refuse to let the state shut the store down.

At RealCrozetVA – read the letters from the owners.

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