Charlottesville Virginia Real Estate

I found it interesting that Charlottesville, Williamsburg and Roanoke were the only three parts of VA with real estate value increases in Q2.  I guess they are college towns and all, but it doesn’t feel like prices are increasing here.  Things feel a little less than flat from 2 years ago but I don’t have a very large sample size.

Re DP: The board cut two police officer positions from the proposed budget and took out money to hire fire personnel for a yet-to-be-built Pantops fire station. That means city and other volunteer fire stations will continue to respond to calls on Pantops, an area with an increasing population that has seen delays in emergency rescue services, officials have said.

I can’t understand how the county can fund arts projects but can’t fund fire protection.  That seems to me to be a fundamental promise of government.

I think this is probably a good compromise bill, but it seems pretty heavy handed:

Senate Bill 268 to the Local Government Committee, which voted 14-0 to approve the scaled-back compromise measure allowing the city to collect money from a developer in lieu of affordable housing units on or off the site of a high-density project.

Under the bill, the city could approve a rezoning or a special-use application for a high-density residential or residential and mixed-use project and collect money from the developer as a contribution to the city’s affordable housing fund.

The phrase “collect money from the developer” is code for “put an enormous tax on development to further drive up housing prices”.  It seems self-defeating to tax housing to get more money for affordable housing.  As I understand it, this bill applies to larger developments, so the tax – or mandatory payment from the developer for the privilege of doing business if you prefer — wouldn’t necessarily effect smaller, custom home builders.

Charlottesville is such a difficult place to develop property in.  The DP has an article about Biscuit Run almost being ready.  The thing that gets me is that they had approval MONTHS ago but there are still zillions of hurdles.  I try to see both sides of these debates but I have a philosophical problem with people telling me what I can’t do with my own stuff.  The higher the hurdles are to development, the more expensive housing gets (I was already priced out of the market).  Only the very rich or powerful can afford to fight all the old coots raising a fuss, making the unequal income distribution in this community worse.  I don’t really know a solution.  I can appreciate people who look at NoVa and don’t want C’ville to turn into that, but there must be a better way.  Anyone?

The DailyProgress has a story today about how Eco-friendly homes are the hot new thing.  The idea is to use less pollutant and more sustainable (easily replacable by the earth) materials when building a home.  There are three major development projects in Central Virginia underway that the article mentions that will use these principles:

The Belvedere project off East Rio Road in Albemarle County will eventually be a community of 700 homes that are certified as energy efficient. The developer, Stonehaus, broke ground on the project May 10.

South of Charlottesville, in North Garden, a 2,300-acre property called Bundoran Farm is being developed into an environmentally friendly community, in which 90 percent of the land will be conserved.

And in Zion Crossroads in Louisa County, a Utah developer is planning a 650,000-square-foot outlet mall, with office, retail and restaurant space. The project will include green building aspects, including solar power, recycled building materials and preservation of the 119-acre site’s existing wetlands.

This is such a Charlottesville thing to do.  I wonder to what extent this is happening nationally?  When sustainablility gets cost neutral, that’s when these efforts will really start to make a difference.

At Yahoo News a local builder got a shout out this morning.  Building Homes For A Lifetime: Interest In Accessibility Is Rising mentions custom-home building Charlottesvillian Randy Rinehart and his practice of building accessible custom homes for the elderly.

That 10,500 Americans turn 55 every day is a fact not lost on Randy Rinehart, 60, a custom builder in Charlottesville, Va. “About half of the eight homes we build each year are for active adults,” he said. “It’s not unusual for these people to walk in and pay cash for a $2 million house.”

I wonder how some smalltown person building 8 houses a year get’s an expert mention in an out of town publication?  Kinda fun.

The News Virginian has a nice article about assessment appeals.  In Waynesboro, land owners have seen value rollbacks as small as $100 and as high as $3 million.

I’ve been reassessed serveral times but each time, though I was unhappy, I thought the new value was fair, or maybe a little low. If you think the assessment is too high, contest it.  You don’t need a lawyer and there are no fees associated with doing so.  You have nothing to lose.  Richard Spurzem gained tens of thousands of dollars.

A real-estate developer from Charlottesville, Spurzem made headlines during the 2005 reassessment for convincing the appeals board to make a major slash to his shopping center’s valuation, arguing in part that the west-end site held little attraction for big-name commercial endeavors.

In Charlottesville, to appeal an assessment, you have 30 days from the date of the assessment mailing to appeal, by either calling or visiting the Real Estate Assessor’s Office in City Hall. You can then review the data used in computing the assessment and, if necessary, schedule an inspection of the property. “After this, should a dispute still exist, you may appeal to the Board of Equalization. The three-person board, appointed by the Circuit Court, is composed of City property owners. The board may affirm, reduce or raise the assessment, if in their opinion such adjustments are necessary to equalize the tax burden upon all citizens in the City. If you are dissatisfied with the Board’s decision, you may appeal to the Circuit Court. If you have assessment questions please call the City Assessor’s Office at 434-970-3136.”

According to Move.com Charlottesville is the #2 place to retire in the US.

Specific criteria used in making up the list of best places follow:

    * Population growth: We wanted positive growth since 1990.
    * Near major metropolitan area: within 100 miles.
    * Housing cost: below $350,000, with a few exceptions. We’re showing current median housing prices (asking prices) for single-family houses.
    * Cost of living: No more than 20 percent above the national average.
    * Economic health: current unemployment rate below 4 percent and job growth greater than 10 percent for the past five years.
    * College presence: one or more major and/or highly competitive college in the vicinity.
    * Recreation and arts and culture score in the top third for nearby major metropolitan areas.

 

I think Charlottesville is prohibitivly expensive for blue colar folks, but I guess it’s all relative.

UPDATE: The Real Charlottesville Blog had this on 4/12.  Sorry for the old news.

I enjoyed the overview of Cville Republicans and the real estate tax issue before the city council at the Charlottesville Tomorrow Weblog today.  They have a great picture of Albemarle County Republicans Chairman Keith Drake’s over-the-top SUV / traveling billboard.  I like Drake’s approach:  only increase your budget if you need to rather than start the budget process with pockets burning from a real-estate tax windfall.

The DailyProgress.com has an exhaustive article today on the places29 plan.  It gives a good overview of transportation and development in the Charlottesville area (though the article is long and unfocused so you need to be pretty interested to make it all the way through).  The Places29 website is detailed with lots of maps.  Judy Wiegand, a county employee in community development oversees the site and the plan (I think) and has really done a great job getting info out there and keeping it fresh.

The images of what the U.S. 29 corridor in northern Albemarle County could look like in the next 20 years show a different world.

Electric lines vanish. New roads appear, giving drivers a way to avoid 29. Some commuters simply avoid the hassle by riding the bus. Walking is encouraged, because residents work, shop and play in coordinated communities.

Places29 lays out that vision, one very different from how many picture Albemarle’s U.S. 29 corridor today, as an 11-mile stretch of construction and congestion connecting the U.S. 250 Bypass to the Greene County line. Planners, however, envision an emerging community where residents can walk up, down and across U.S. 29 to take advantage of coffee shops, stores and restaurants, and where home is somewhere nearby.

Laid out in a series of colorful maps, Places29 suggests how land could be used during the next 20 years and proposes a road network to cope with the growth that county officials say is inevitable. The plan, now in draft form, is to be considered by the Board of Supervisors late this year. Places29 proposes a specific vision, one the board will ultimately mold and then decide whether to embrace or discard.

Some say it’s a vision that provides for development residents do not want, a blueprint for employment and housing that will only attract unwanted newcomers. Other residents and business owners say that Places29 looks great, but ask: Who will pay for it?

The plan has supporters and detractors. What most agree on is that the vision of Albemarle’s future is something the county must get right.

A pipe dream?

In some cases, tomorrow is already here.

Places29 envisions the development and redevelopment that planners say is bound to occur during the next several decades. Much new development is already under way in northern Albemarle.

Dotting the sides of the U.S. 29 corridor, construction can be seen popping up everywhere, and more is on the way. The National Ground Intelligence Center is set to expand by adding jobs and facilities; North Pointe, a 900-unit housing development that also includes plans for significant commercial space, has been approved; and Hollymead Town Center, a huge, multi-parcel retail, housing and mixed-use development, continues to expand.

Bill West fears his neighborhood will be consumed by cement.

“We don’t want to be designated a development area,” said West, who lives near Shopper’s World, echoing the sentiments of many residents. “We want to be a residential area.”

Lee Catlin, county spokeswoman, says that Places29 seeks to provide the best of both. Residents should think of Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall, she said, not just “high rises and concrete.” While Places29 envisions a retail corridor, the area would still be livable and offer a high quality of life, she said.

It’s a dream that won’t be realized with the Places29 plan, says Wendell Wood, a developer and large landowner in the area.

Wood says the county’s emphasis on “neighborhood centers,” as well as other land-use designations that include plans for smaller retail stores, is “instant bankruptcy.”