We’re co-sponsoring the 2010 Richmond Loft Tour!
The Tour is always a great way to compare and contrast several different types of Lofts in one day…we highly recommend it.
The brochure for this year’s tour can be found here.
How long before we forget?
February 12, 2010 By 1 Comment
Sometime last week, I was driving around with a client through a typical suburban neighborhood and I made the comment about a new home for sale that looked huge and overdone.
“That is a classic example of pre-2008 architecture.” What I think I was saying was that its style and presence were from a different era. It was an era that ended as fast and abruptly as any era had ended before, but it was over.
The home was oversized for the lot it was on and it seemed to have every bell and whistle imaginable. It felt like it was an $800,000 home in the old world. Today, I wondered if the builder (or more accurately, their banker) could get $450,000.
The home was built under a completely different set of circumstances and inputs during a time when nothing having to do with money or real estate really mattered. It was built to appeal to the psyche of a nation who felt financially bullet-proof. It was built when pricing was going up so fast that it was hard to overpay. I guess things have changed.
The financial crisis/recession/whatever you want to call it has affected almost everyone in some way. It shook our confidence and made us look inward. It taught us that being long lasting, even if slightly behind the times, was fine. It taught us that a useful life of a product should be longer than 6 months. It taught us to focus on value and quality. It taught us to eschew excess.
But here is the question: Is this shift a permanent one or a temporary one?
As we have begun to emerge from the meltdown of 2008/9, the public voice has changed. The public says ‘we want higher quality, even if it mess doing with less’ and the magazines and experts are predicting ‘craftsman style’ and ‘green’ and ‘the return of the bungalow.’ That all sounds nice, but what is selling is something eerily similar to what was selling before…just for less.
The new housing stock has definitely shifted from larger and loaded-up to either smaller and loaded-up or larger and stripped down. Builders are all re-tooling their product lines to one side or the other. Right now, it appears as if the stripped down big box is winning.
The public seems to be buying as much square footage as they can but without all of the bells and whistles. Saying size doesn’t matter apparently doesn’t mean that it doesn’t matter. I guess size provides its own luxury.
So time will tell if there really has been a shift in what we desire or rather these next few years will be just a tapping of the brakes on our quest forward.
What do you think?
For more information, see Richmond Virginia Condos.
Manchester Pie Factory Featured on Downtown Loft Tour
February 1, 2010 By Leave a Comment
One of the most striking condos we represent will be featured on the Downtown Loft Tour on March 27, 2010.
The tour features 12 lofts in 9 buildings across 5 of Richmond’s neighborhoods.
The brief blurb on Manchester Pie Factory doesn’t even do the condo justice:
Across the river, The Manchester Pie Factory has Soho‑styled lofts, the latest in Jenn Air appliances and a private plaza featuring an Ed Trask mural.
Talk about an understatement!
The full article is here.
For more information and tons of pictures of this killer condo, click here on the Manchester Pie Factory.
What do you think?
For more information, see Richmond Va Condos.
Report: Walkability Increases Home Values
February 1, 2010 By Leave a Comment
You’ll notice that we’ve included the ‘Walkability Score’ for the condos we’ve highlighted on our site…for good reason! Not only is ‘walkability’ a lifestyle joy, a new report indicates that it translates directly into increases in value.
Indeed, the report indicates:
Homes located in more walkable neighborhoods—those with a mix of common daily shopping and social destinations within a short distance—command a price premium over otherwise similar homes in less walkable areas. Houses with the above-average levels of walkability command a premium of about $4,000 to $34,000 over houses with just average levels of walkability in the typical metropolitan areas studied.
The report is comprehensive, looking at several dimensions of ‘walkability’:
Our analysis of walkability and its connection to urban housing values unfolds in five parts. First, we explore the concept of walkability, what it is and how it is measured. We describe the Walk Score measure developed by Front Seat and how it provides a tool for measuring the relative accessibility of common destinations to housing units. Part two discusses the tool of hedonic analysis developed by economists to decompose the contribution of different attributes to the value consumers place on complex products. Part three outlines the data we use to analyze home values and neighborhood characteristics. Part four lays out the results of our hedonic modeling and the relative contribution of walkability to housing prices. Part five discusses the economic and policy implications of our findings and suggests next steps for further research.
It’s a 30-page report and interesting reading, but the bottom line is this:
After controlling for all of these other factors that are known to influence housing value, our study showed a positive correlation between walkability and housing prices in 13 of the 15 housing markets we studied. In the typical market, an additional one point increase in Walk Score was associated with between a $700 and $3,000 increase in home values.
The full report is located here.
What do you think?
For more information, goto Richmond Virginia Condos.
Details of the Home Buyer Tax Credit
January 30, 2010 By Leave a Comment
We get a lot of questions about the home buyer tax credit for both new home buyers and move-up buyers. Here are the details:
- The Tax Credit will be $8,000 for First Time Homebuyers, and $6,500 for Move-Up Homebuyers.
- Move-Up buyers will be eligible as long as the home they are leaving has been their principal residence for five or more years.
- The Tax Credit will end on April 30, 2010. However, there is a binding contract rule that permits those with contracts as of April 30, 2010, to qualify for the Tax Credit as long as they close on the home before June 30, 2010.
- The income limits for both First Time Homebuyers and Move-Up Homebuyers are $125,000 for an individual tax return, and $225,000 for a joint tax return.
- The cost of the home cannot exceed $800,000 to be eligible.
- For home purchases made in 2010, taxpayers will be able to claim the Tax Credit on their 2009 income tax return.
- Homebuyers will not have to repay the Tax Credit provided the home remains their principal residence for thirty-six (36) months after the purchase.
- The amendment includes a military waiver provision stating that the recapture provision will not apply in the case of a member of the Armed Forces, Military Intelligence, or Foreign Service who is on qualified official extended duty. In addition, members of the military who have been deployed overseas for ninety (90) days or more in 2008 or 2009 have until April 30, 2011 to claim the Homebuyer Tax Credit.
- The amendment also includes anti-fraud language that provides math authority to the IRS for greater oversight during the processing of the return rather than waiting for an audit situation. The amendment requires that the taxpayer claiming the Tax Credit to be 18 or older and also requires a HUD-1 Settlement Statement to be attached when claiming the credit.
We’ve posted a video here from the IRS that explains the dates that need to be met in order to qualify.
For more information, see Richmond VA Condos.
Call me at 804.477.8114 or send me an email to discuss further.
Home Buying Tax Credit Explained
January 30, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Something helpful from the IRS?? As strange as that may seem, here’s a quick video that briefly describes the Home Buying Tax Credit and the deadlines for application and closing.
So remember, to qualify you have to be UNDER CONTRACT by April 30, 2010 and CLOSE by June 30, 2010.
For more information, see Richmond VA Condos.
Call me at 804.477.8114 or send me an email to discuss further.
Emrick Flats Videos
January 18, 2010 By Leave a Comment
We found a few videos created by VentureRichmond featuring owners at Emrick Flats.
What do you think?
For more information, see Richmond VA Condos.
VCU Condo Video
January 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment
We put together a short video highlighting several condo listings within walking distance of the VCU campus.
What do you think?
For more information, see Richmond VA Condos.
RichmondVaCondos Intro — 12/09
January 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment
We put together a short video of several of our condo and townhouse listings in Richmond, VA.
What do you think?
For more information, see Richmond VA Condos.
Sitting in Traffic With Fanny and Freddy
January 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment
As development and housing reel from the lack of credit available right now, the fallout is all around us. We know about foreclosure. We know about short sales. We know about property values re-adjusting severely and people being trapped in their homes. This is a problem, for sure, but it can and will be solved by a balancing of supply and demand. It is already getting better….marginally….but better.
Where we go from here is the issue that is more important. The new world of lending is pretty much DIRECTLY AT ODDS with the things that will set us free from the larger mess we are in.
Do tell…..
IF we are trying to be greener AND we are trying to reduce out dependence on foreign oil AND we are trying to reduce our carbon footprints AND we are trying to retool our transportation systems THEN WHY ARE WE PUNISHING URBAN DEVELOPMENT?
There is no way to build with any density other than to build vertically. Period.
Take, for example, any multi-family building of 3-5 stories (or any height, for that matter) built in any urban area. The building can be an apartment building with no problem. But if there is to be ownership, we got a problem.
The only way that any vertical structure can have individual ownership is condominium ownership. There is no other way (and do not say co-op, it is even more convoluted.)
Right now, the condominium lending environment is ridiculous. The requirements put onto condo lending call for unrealistic “pre-sold” requirements, interest rate add-ons, lower loan-to-values, a maximum number of investor owned units AND condominium dues are counted against qualifying ratios. The bottom line is that you need to make more money, have more cash to put down and only purchase in condo projects that have a large portion of units already sold.
I could MAYBE stomach these requirements if the same set of rules were applied to single family housing, but they are not. There is not a pre-sold requirement in any single family neighborhood. There is not a check of investor owned homes in any single family neighborhood. There is not an “add-on” to the interest rate and the maximum loan to value is 5% greater than condominiums.
This is the kicker…condo dues typically contain some utility costs and a repair reserve in the budget. This is not accounted for in single family loan underwriting.
It is akin to saying that single family homes do not require repairs and the owners have the option of using or not using water and sewer.
It is not fair. And it is just plain wrong.
If someone chooses to live in their downtown OR wishes to have a space that does not have a yard to maintain, then they should be able to choose to live in that environment without penalty. The current rules say otherwise.
Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac have spoken and they would prefer you live in the suburbs.
See you in traffic.
