Market Insights Blog

The 2010 Virginia General Assembly session convened on January 13, and is scheduled to run for two months. This will be a budget session, which happens in even-numbered years, which means that the legislature will spend a lot of time dealing with the state’s financial problems. Here you can learn about and track the fate of the thousands of bills that are proposed, voted on, and ultimately become law. Although not as many as normal, several of these bills will deal with housing which could impact the costs of buying or selling a home.  One of these is how State Transfer taxes are calculated.  The simple explanation of this law allows the state to tax a seller the higher of the home's tax assessment or the sales price.  For years the sales price has almost always been higher than the assessment.  Now that sales prices are going down, many homes are selling under tax assessment. The law as it is written allows the state to now charge more by using the assessment vs the sales price which means the seller is taxed on something that is more than the present value of their home. Keep up to date on this bill and all the others by going to www.richmondsunlight.com

UVa had a pretty special year in 2009.  Click on the following link http://tinyurl.com/ya75ljv for the Alumni Newsletter that features its Top Ten.  Items listed include the effects of a failing economy to the firing of the football and basketball coaches.  It also includes the retiring of its president as well as the retiring of what ironically are called the new dorms. Needless to say the announcement of President Casteen's replacement, Ms. Terry Sullivan, will certainly be on the list for 2010.  It you are a UVa alumni or just interested, you will enjoy the Top 10 picks for what happened at the University of Virginia in 2009.

  In the February issue of Men's Journal magazine, Charlottesville is listed as one of the healthiest cities to live in the country.

 The new accounting used information compiled by Sperling's Ranked and Rated in their Best Places to Live survey to give editors a snapshot of long term health conditions.

The national magazine looked at quality-of-life issues that contribute to a healthier lifestyle, including availability of local farms and products, shorter commute times, sidewalk access, low pollution levels, available green spaces and mild climate and sunny days.

 The other healthiest cities are Iowa City, Iowa; Boulder, Colo.; Logan, Utah; and Northampton, Mass.

If you have followed this blog at all, where to live rankings in almost every national survey has Charlottesville and the Central Virginia area listed near the top.  There are obviously many places in the US that one should consider when considering a move but there is no doubt Charlottesville should be on your list.  There is every type of property to look at when buying a home with the median price being around $225,000.  The market here is still struggling and therefore, prices continue to come down.  The most recent reports show some signs of recovery which says we are now much closer to the bottom than we are to what would have been the top (back in 2005).  The significant inventory, low interest rates, and the tax credit make these next few months a good time to consider purchasing a home. 

www.tinyurl.com/yanavlu Great article on FHA and the current state of our economy from WSJ Online. New FHA Commission, David Stevens, does a fabulous job and is one of the few people who can talk the talk with lenders and walk the walk with Realtors. It is well worth the read!  Just a couple of years ago, FHA and VA financing made up a small percentage of what purchasers used when purchasing a home.  Because this percentage is increasing rapidly (some say it is up to 30-35% of all mortgages), the change in how one qualifies for a loan could have a significant impact on the housing market nationally and here locally.

Uva was once again recognized this year as one of the top Public Universities in the country and if you look at www.bestplaces.net, you will find Charlottesville listed as the #1 place to live in the country and the 13th most secure place for mid-sized cities.  Charlottesville and the surrounding Central Virginia area isn't perfect but it does offer something for everyone which is shown by its placing in the Top 20 of many other surveys of this nature.  The challenge moving forward is keeping a balance as the area grows to ensure the area will continue to be recognized as such a special place.

http://www.caarblog.com/

The end of the year numbers pretty much substantiated everything Roy Wheeler Realty Company has been saying all year.  If you have followed the market over this past year, you know that it looked very bleak due to the miserable last quarter of 2008 but slowly but surely improved throughout the year.  Given that improvement, 2009 finished equal to the home sale numbers of 2008.  The last quarter of 2009 far outpaced the same time period in 2008 with Albemarle and Greene Counties leading the way.   Because of that, look for the 1st quarter market report of 2010 to show a vast improvement over the 1st quarter of last year. Should that happen, one would think and we would hope it would provide momentum which would mean the beginning of a rebound in the local real estate market.  Continued low interest rates, Uncle Sam's tax credit and realistically priced homes should draw buyers into the market place meaning the 2nd quarter sold data will also show improvement.  The wild card in all this is Charlottesville and the surrounding Central Virginia counties still have too much inventory (described as homes for sale) and that doesn't seem to be changing much.  Until the number of homes (both new and resale) decrease by almost 50%, we can't expect for our real estate market to rebound from what has now been a 4 year downturn.

Dr. Teresa A. Sullivan Named 8th President of UVa http://bit.ly/6KxyGl

There is no doubt that the Charlottesville/Albemarle real estate market is fragile and will travel a long road to recovery.  There is some signs of life though which can be seen by reading this article www.tinyurl.com/ylk8y43

Excess inventory of homes is still the #1 problem in the Central Virginia area.  We still have twice as many resale homes on the market as necessary but the new home inventory has shrunk considerably.  Sellers are much more realistic with their pirce than they were even a year ago and banks while still needing to improve, are finally making the short sale process a little less frustrating.  Couple these facts with low interest rates (which everyone says have to go up) and the Home Buyer tax credit of $8,000 for new buyers or $6,500 for move up buyers, and you have legitimate reasons to consider  buying sometime soon.  One tip for those of you who are considering buying a home.  Make sure your mortgage payment is equal to what payment you could expect if you rented the property.  That way if you had to move or wanted to keep the property as a long term investment, you would not be negatively effected financially.

This letter was published in Charlottesville's Daily Progress this morning. http://www2.dailyprogress.com/cdp/news/opinion/letters_to_the_editor/article/community_really_came_together/49937/