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How high?
The median sales price of a Charlottesville area house in 2006 was $274,000. That's $18,900 more than last year's
median according to the Charlottesville Area Association of
Realtors. Think the high end isn't also white hot? Think
again. In 2006, 108 residential transactions in the county
and city topped $1 million.
Hey, big spender
Albemarle
County
may not be Beverly Hills, but that doesn't mean some serious coin
hasn't
been dropped for prominent properties in the area. In 2004, John Carr
and Raymond Hunniston III ponied up $24 million for the
Castle Hill estate in Cismont, a favorite breakfast spot of would-be
gubernatorial kidnappers. As steep as those figures are, they're
nothing compared to two monster transactions in 2005. Fred Scott sold
Bundoran farm in North Garden to Qroe Farm Preservation Development for
a reported $33 million, and Hunter Craig laid down a whopping $46
million for the land surrounding artists' enclave Biscuit Run. No
recent transaction have come even close to that kind of price tag, with
2006's biggest sale coming when Clover Hill Farm went on the block and
sold to Robert Micley and Carolyn Henderson for $13 million.
A cool down?
However, there are also signs the market
may be cooling off. The average number of days of a house on the
market went from 60 in 2005 to 76 in 2006. Also, in 2006
4,332 residential parcels changed hands in Charlottesville,
Albemarle and the surrounding counties, compared to 4,665 a year
earlier. Additionally, total sales came to over $1.49 billion, down
from $1.6 billion. But there's no doubting the market has come a long
way, baby. In 1989, the value of such sales was just $104.2 million. No
wonder there are so many real estate agents around here! --data source:
CAAR
On the level
Dave
Phillips, CEO of the Charlottesville Albemarle Association of Realtors
says the apparent slow down is only the sign of a healthy market
leveling itself out. "2005 was a statistical anomoly. It was the
perfect storm of condo sales, a hot real estate market, and investors
pouring speculative money into the market. That kind of spike is just
not sustainable," he says. "At the end of 2006 and into this year, we
have seen prices going down and the market going slightly down, and
then stabilizing into a gradual increase of sales and price."
Who's moving here?
Retirees and others fleeing high taxes and
living costs are stampeding to Central Virginia-- thanks to such pubs
as Money
magazine and
then on March 30, 2004, a new book called Cities Ranked
& Rated,
from Frommer's, ranked Charlottesville #1 among American cities. But
perhaps Frommer's, too, has felt the slight real estate chill, too. We
dropped to #17 in this year's edition.
Total assess
By state law, the municipality is
required to assess at market prices, so quit yer yappin'. Or
call the Equalization Board, but beware that this
three-person, court-appointed body has the power not only to
decrease but quite possibly increase your
assessment. If recent years are any indicator, that's a likely possibility.
CHARLOTTESVILLE-- Values contiune to rise, though it's gotten steadier. A 23 percent jump in 2003; 17
percent in 2005; 14.3 percent in 2007. Assessor:
Roosevelt Barbour 970-3136
ALBEMARLE- Albemarle County continues to grow rapidly and so too do real estate values! 18.7 percent jump in 2003; 27 percent in
2005!; 29.8 percent in 2007! (Albemarle reasseses every two years) Assessor:
Bruce Woodzell 296-5856
Renting
Apartment search-
One local search engine is run by the local apartment group,
Blue
Ridge Apartment Council.
Another option is OffGrounds.com,
started by students for students and faculty (817-0721). If
you want to rent a house, try the Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors, CAAR at (817-2227). However, only members of the BRAC are listed, so
don't forget the old-fashioned methods of asking around,
walking around, or... drumroll... checking out the
Hook's
classified ads.
Rights and
responsibilities- If you're a student, you can get free
advice from Student
Legal Services
(924-7524). UVA's housing office (924-6873) offers a
pamphlet called "The
Off-Grounds Living Guide"
that explains city ordinances.
If you're not a student,
you might want to take a peek at the Virginia
Landlord-Tenant Act,
online or at the library-- it governs rental real estate
dealings.
-->>For more info on
renting, check out our Consumer
section.
Buying
and selling
Real
Estate Weekly--
Among local real estate publications, this one has the
greatest array of ads and even a few little how-to tips.
817-9330
Property
search- The
best local search engine is run by the local realtor group,
the Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors (817-2227),
and is available on the CAAR website at the bottom of their
homepage.
"FSBO"- The
crowd-pleasing, if realtor-angering, way to sell a house
typically involves putting up a sign and then hoping. While
the method is often attacked as a tool of sellers with
unrealistically high opinions of their property's worth, it
has worked in hot neighborhoods as a way to avoid paying
that nettlesome six percent commission. In the last three
years, three discount brokerages have opened.
Assist-2-Sell
says it'll sell your house for as low as $2,995, HomeSell
offers to do the job for $1,500, C-Ville By Owner will list it on their website and in print for $200, and Help-U-Sell
has a sliding scale.
Checking
properties
CHARLOTTESVILLE
Assessment data can be found online
or by phoning or visiting the City Assessor's Office on the
top floor of City Hall. 970-3136.
The deeds are
located a few blocks away in the clerk's office in the
basement of the Circuit
Court at 315
E. High St. 970-3766
Circuit Court Clerk: Paul Garrett
ALBEMARLE
Assessment data
can be found online
or by visiting or phoning the County Assessor's Office at
the County Office Building.
296-5856
The actual deeds are
located on the second floor of the Courthouse
Annex by Jackson Park in Court Square.
972-4083
Circuit Court Clerk: Shelby Marshall (retiring at the end of 2007)
-->>For
more info on neighborhoods, check out our
Newcomer
section.
First-time
buyers
Free home-buyer
classes-- The
Piedmont Housing
Alliance
offers free three-hour seminars to first-time
home-buyers twice a month. 817-2436
Information on
low-interest loans can be found from various local
sources, but a good starting point is the Piedmont
Housing Alliance
(817-2436). This private non-profit shares information on
various assistance programs including the Albemarle
Housing Program
(296-5839) and Jimmy Carter's favorite house-building
charity, Habitat
for Humanity.
293-9066.
Building
and renovating
So you wanna build?
ALBEMARLE-- The rules can be obtained from the
Community
Development Office
located in the County Office Building. 296-5832
CHARLOTTESVILLE-- Taking a cue from Albemarle, the
City also consolidated its zoning, building, and
neighborhood offices into the Neighborhood
Development Services
in City Hall. 970-3182
So you wanna dig?
Call "Miss
Utility" at
800-552-7001 at least 48 hours before you want to dig, so
you don't hit an underground pipe or wire and kill yourself
and/or others.
"I saw the sign"
When Albemarle
County developers request a zoning change, officials put up
a beige sign with a code number to alert neighbors about an
upcoming public hearing. Besides checking
the number online,
interested citizens can call the zoning office (296-5832)
for sign numbers 1-25, which would typically indicate a
variance issue or an appeal to the Board of Zoning Appeals.
The Community Development Office (296-5832) handles sign numbers 26-99,
which would generally concern special use permits or
rezonings.
ACE
Program
ALBEMARLE- In its quest to keep a little bit of land
undeveloped, the County began in 2002 buying development
rights through its Acquisition
of Conservation Easements
(ACE) project. With the County budgeting $1 million per year
for the program, perhaps you'll want to sell yours?
296-5832
Proffers!
What's a proffer? There's no secretive or dirty trick
involved; it's basically an above-the-table bribe from a
developer to the County to get a zoning amendment. You can
see all the proffers dating back to 1979 on Albemarle's
website.
Relief for
elderly/disabled
ALBEMARLE-- If you're over 65 and/or permanently
disabled, make less than $25K, and have a net worth under
$80K (excluding your house), you may be eligible for rent
relief. 296-5851 x3117
CHARLOTTESVILLE-- Similar situation. The City offers
a "wealth" of relief measures for disabled and elderly
homeowners and renters including a package adminstered by
the Commissioner
of Revenue
that offers tax relief (20-100 percent of property taxes),
free trash stickers, and several hundred dollars off one's
annual utility bills. 970-3160
Welfare for the rich?
Farmette owners are notorious for taking
advantage of something called "Land Use Taxation," which means that a
mogul with an 8,900-square-foot palace can pay just $976 in taxes on
his 50 acres-- about as much as the owner of a one-acre lot in Forest
Lakes pays. Defenders of the program point out that the discount
fosters agriculture-- or at least open spaces.
The man
Blue
Ridge Home Builders
Association--
This trade association represents builders and suppliers,
and every spring it hosts the three-day "Home Show." Every fall it sponsors the "Parade of Homes."
973-8652
Watchdogs
PEC--
The Piedmont Environmental Council, although based in
Warrenton, has a strong presence here as a voice for
moderating growth. 977-2033
ASAP--
Advocates for a Sustainable Population goes farther than
PEC; ASAP actually wants to stop growth. 974-6390
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