Crozet
Just Released: The CAAR First Quarter Market Report!
April 12, 2010 by Sasha C. Farmer, REALTOR ® · Leave a Comment
This was just released, so I wanted to give people the opportunity to check it out. I will be reading it over and making some comments soon!
2010 1st Qtr CAAR Market Report – members.pdf
Trying to Utilize FHA Financing? Check this List of Condo Communities to See if They're Approved!
February 10, 2010 by Sasha C. Farmer, REALTOR ® · Leave a Comment
If you’re planning to utilize FHA financing to purchase your next home, you have to use a little bit of caution when considering condos in Charlottesville, as not all of them are approved for FHA financing.
Check out the link below to see whether or not the condo you’re considering is approved for FHA;
HUD.GOV Condos with FHA Financing
If the condo community you’re considering is not on this list, you may need to check with your mortgage lender to see if you will be able to come up with an alternative type of financing. Additionally, if you live in one of the condos that is not able to provide FHA financing, you should be aware that it may limit the potential number of Purchasers who will have the ability to buy your home on the resale market!
Please give me a call if I can help connect you with a lender who may be able to help you find alternative financing, or get you pre-qualified!
[Photo Credit: http://www.radrounds.com]
Check Out The United Way- Thomas Jefferson Area "All Around Town" Auction in Charlottesville February 3-10
February 1, 2010 by Sasha C. Farmer, REALTOR ® · Leave a Comment
The United Way- Thomas Jefferson Area is holding their All Around Town Auction from February 3-10, and there are definitely some great items up for auction, all for a great cause!
The All Around Town Auction features tons of participating companies around town, all of whom have different auction items present at their stores and shops, that shoppers may bid on while they peek around.
All proceeds benefit the United Way-Thomas Jefferson Area toward furthering their mission to serve those at the greatest risk and with the greatest need.
Areas all over Charlottesville are participating, and are broken down into the following segments of town;
- 250 West
- 29 North
- Barracks Road
- Crozet
- Downtown Charlottesville
- Pantops/East
There are definitely plenty of stores participating, so if you’re out and about taking care of your shopping, or looking for the perfect Valentine’s Day gift, consider stopping in some of these stores to bid on their featured items.
Click here for a PDF Auction Brochure of all of the stores represented, along with their auction items! PDF Auction Brochure
Additionally, here is a brochure listing all auction items, and where they can be found! AuctionList2010.pdf
This is a great program, for a great cause- keep it in mind over the next two weeks!
Happy Shopping!
Just Released! The Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors' Year-End Market Report
January 14, 2010 by Sasha C. Farmer, REALTOR ® · Leave a Comment
The Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors has just released it’s Year End Market Report this morning, and it includes some very valuable information that home buyers and sellers should really be aware of.
Click here to download and read the full report. 2009 CAAR Year-End Market Report
I will be doing a more thorough analysis this weekend, but until then, some of the salient points…
Some people have suggested that the first time home buyer credit hasn’t been effective, but I have completely disagreed with that, and while this data isn’t a clear indicator that the credit is working, it would suggest that more first time buyers (in the below $300,000 price range) have been in our market in Q4 2009, than we are typically used to.
As reported for the past two quarterly reports, significantly lower home prices (down 20% or more) are driving the pick-up in sales. In addition, the $8,000 tax credit for first time buyers supercharged the sale of starter homes (below $300,000) in 2009. 67.5% of home sales for the year were in this starter home category, which is approximately a 10% increase in this category.
- CAAR Year End Market Report.
One thing to be aware of is the average price per square foot we’re seeing across the different counties. This is one of the more profound ways to see that our pricing has returned to that of 2005 levels (at least), if not gone lower. My personal belief is that our prices are actually closer to what they were in 2004. Take a look at the $/SF analysis below to see how your county has fared.
Price Per Square Foot (Finished)
Another indicator that allows us to see the decline in home prices is a major drop in the price per square foot numbers. The average price per square foot of finished space in homes is not a scientific number, but a downward trend over the years clearly indicates a decrease in prices (and vice versa). According to the chart below, prices peaked in 2006 and have declined for the past three years. There has been a $28 per square foot drop since the peak in 2006. The current $143 per square foot is the lowest number since 2004.
- CAAR Year End Market Report.
According to the CAAR Year End market Report, our inventory of homes is slowly declining. Of course this was the main aim of the First TIme Home Buyer tax credit, and we are all anxious to see what will happen to inventory once it expires.
Inventory of Homes for Sale
“The inventory of homes for sale in the Charlottesville has continued to decline very slowly. As we have reported for the past several quarters, the excess of inventory is causing many of the problems with our local housing market. The decline in inventory is very encouraging, but we will still have too many homes on the market for the current demand. This could change very quickly going into the busy spring market.”
- CAAR Year End Market Report.
Average Days on Market
One piece of information that I always want future sellers to be acutely aware of is the average days on market. The days on market is a measure of homes SOLD BY AN AGENT THROUGH THE MLS, and how long they’re taken on the market being actively marketed before they have sold. This number does not include some very high days on market numbers for all of the homes that never sell, it only calculated DOM for solds, so it is artificially lower than days on market of ALL HOMES. If you are thinking of selling your home in the near future, you need to be acutely aware of the average days on market for your county and be sure to give your real estate agent a reasonable amount of time to accomplish your goals.
Will be elaborating more on this report later, but would love some questions from all of you!
Charlottesville is extremely lucky to have been the home of Dave Matthews!
December 24, 2009 by Sasha C. Farmer, REALTOR ® · Leave a Comment
$222,000 lucky, in fact! Dave Matthews has again given out another set of grants to Charlottesville non-profits, totaling $222,000 in grants, and benefitting 39 grateful (and deserving!) non-profit organizations here in town. Evidently BAMA Works holds a competitive grant application process and selects the groups most in need of their funds every year (side note- this is very similar to the United Way’s Program Review and Funding Committee, that determines the allocation of the United Way’s grant monies each year.) We are blessed to have such strong supporters of our non-profits here in Charlottesville! Take a look at some of the grants, and what they are going to be used for.
If any of the projects sounds interesting, I’d venture to say that many of these non-profits are likely looking for volunteers to help carry them out!
The following is a complete list (Credit to Newsplex.com):
1. Albemarle County Schools (Monticello High School) – $3,000 for school supplies, books, field trips, glasses, and clothing to financially needy Monticello High School students.
2. Albemarle County Schools (Stony Point Elementary School) – $1,000 stipend to a professional songwriter who will teach music literary to students in Pre-K classes.
3. Albemarle Pipes and Drums Band, Inc. – $1,500 for musical instruments for the volunteer Celtic band at various community functions.
4. Charlottesville Abundant Life Ministries – $5,000 to support a dance instruction curriculum to enhance the 5th-8th grade tutoring program at Walker Upper Elementary and Buford Middle School.
5. Charlottesville Area Dental Access – $10,000 to support the Community Children’s Dental Center that provides full service pediatric dental care for low-income children in Central Virginia.
6. Charlottesville City Public Schools (Adult Education Program) – $2,000 to help fund a one-day Festival of Cultures in Lee Park in the spring of 2010.
7. Charlottesville Jazz Society – $3,000 to fund educational program by which jazz artists teach local students.
8. Charlottesville Police Department Foundation – $10,000 to support police/community activities, including the Cops4Kids program that provides positive engagement with disadvantaged youth.
9. Children, Youth & Family Services – $8,000 to support the STAR Kids program that teaches positive social and decision-making skills to low-income preschoolers.
10. Covesville Child Development Center – $5,000 for scholarships to financially disadvantaged preschoolers from Albemarle and Nelson counties.
11. Fluvanna County Habitat for Humanity – $10,000 to help build one of five Earthcraft-certified homes for deserving Fluvanna County residents as a part of a new rural conservation cluster subdivision design.
12. Fluvanna County Schools (Fluvanna County High School) – $1,500 to help fund the Fluvanna County High School Blue and Gold monthly newspaper.
13. Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville – $10,000 to help complete critical electrical work at Southwood Mobile Park.
14. Hope Foundation, Inc. – $10,000 to support the Hope Community Center’s afterschool program for elementary and middle school children in the Tenth and Page neighborhood.
15. International Rescue Committee – $10,000 to create an emergency fund for medical and dental assistance to Charlottesville refugees whose health insurance programs do not meet their health needs.
16. James River Association – $5,000 to support education efforts of the Upper James Riverkeeper program.
17. Monticello Area Community Action Agency (MACAA) – $10,000 to fund the Hope House transitional housing facility for homeless families.
18. Meals on Wheels of Charlottesville-Albemarle – $9,000 to provide hot meals for seven homebound disabled clients for one year.
19. North Branch School – $5,000 for the Naomi Scherr Memorial Scholarship to provide tuition assistance to needy students attending the North Branch School in Nelson County.
20. People and Congregations Engaged in Ministry (PACEM ) – $8,000 to fund the salary of the Guest Advocate position to assist shelter guests by creating a relationship of trust and to provide information about jobs, housing, and identification documents.
21. Piedmont CASA, Inc .- $5,000 to support a part-time teen specialist position to increase the effectiveness of advocacy for teens (13 to18) who are victims of abuse and neglect.
22. Quest Institute, Inc. – $2,500 for the Books Behind Bars program that collects and provides books without charge to incarcerated individuals in Virginia prisons.
23. QuickStart Tennis of Central Virginia – $5,000 to introduce children throughout the CACF service area to the game of tennis.
24. Second Street Gallery – $2,000 to support Family Art Day and the Public Art Project which provide art education for the Charlottesville community.
25. Senior Center, Inc. – $5,000 to support arts and humanities programs to enrich the lives of area seniors.
26. Service Dogs of Virginia – $7,000 to provide a Service Dog Scholarship to support advanced training and placement of one diabetic alert service dog.
27. Spay/Neuter All Pets, Inc. (SNAP) – $2,500 to provide low-cost spay/neuter services to low-income residents of Louisa County.
28. Special Olympics Virginia – $7,500 to support a tennis tournament for individuals with intellectual disabilities in Charlottesville with participants from across the country.
29. Thomas Jefferson Area Coalition for the Homeless – $8,000 for supplies for the community kitchen at “The Haven at First and Market” (formerly known as the First Street Church Project) that provides daily meals and a food service job training program.
30. Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission/Jefferson Area Disability Services Board (DSB) – $3,500 to develop a home modification network for people with disabilities in the planning district.
31. Town of Mineral – $6,000 to modernize and expand Walton Park utilizing a plan by the Virginia Tech Design Group to attract more performing arts activities to Louisa County.
32. University Montessori School – $3,000 to complete construction of an outdoor classroom for environmental education classes.
33. UVA Rector and Visitors (UVA Children’s Hospital) – $3,000 to provide helmets to third grade children in Charlottesville and Albemarle, to be distributed through the Bike Helmet program.
34. Urban Vision – $8,000 to help start an incentive program for Friendship Court families with the goal to make families more self-sufficient.
35. Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and Public Policy – $3,000 for travel, lodging and honoraria for 10 authors/storytellers/illustrators to give presentations fostering the love of reading and literacy skills to local schools, youth and community organizations during the Virginia Festival of the Book March 17-21, 2010.
36. Virginia Organization of Consumers Asserting Leadership (VOCAL) – $5,000 to support Firewalkers: Changing the Story of Mental Health, a book and outreach project to educate the Charlottesville community about mental illness and to improve mental health services.
37. Wildlife Center of Virginia – $8,000 for environmental outreach programs for area elementary schools.
38. Wintergreen Adaptive Sports – $8,000 to support an ongoing sports program for wounded servicemen and women.
39. Writer House, Inc. – $3,000 for scholarship funds for disadvantaged youth to develop creative writing skills.
[Photo Credit: http://wknc.org/blog/post/wp-content/uploads/dmb.gif]
New Tax Credit for Current Home Owner's Making a Home Purchase and the Extended First Time Buyer Credit
November 7, 2009 by Sasha C. Farmer, REALTOR ® · Leave a Comment
Today, President Obama signed off on the Extended Home Buyer Tax Credit, now to include a credit for current Home Owners.
This new initiative will continue the current $8,000 first time home buyer credit to eligible participants until 2010- July 1, 2010 to be exact, which is when all closings must have occurred. In order to be eligible for this credit, you must have the property under contract no later than April 30, 2010.
It has also expanded the credit to current home owners. Anyone who has used their residence as a primary residence consecutively for 5 our of the last 8 years are also eligible for a tax credit when making their next home purchase. This is a $6,500 credit and the same deadlines still apply; April 30, 2010 for homes to be under contract, and July 1, 2010 for the sale to have closed.
Many of the details are explained in the following PDF document- please contact me with any specific questions!
Click here to download the November 7, 2010 Extended and Expanded Tax Credit.
CAAR Releases it's Third Quarter Market Report
October 18, 2009 by Sasha C. Farmer, REALTOR ® · Leave a Comment
The Charlottesville Association of Realtors’ Third Quarter Market Report has just been released and it definitely contains some interesting data. As we all know, we still have much more inventory than we can absorb with the current number of Purchasers in the market.
Check out the market report here;
CAAR Third Quarter Market Report
