Government: “We Forgive You?”
For a brief time last week, there was some buzz on Capital Hill about Fannie Mae (and maybe Freddie Mac) essentially forgiving the negative equity in the real estate mortgage market. The idea has apparently perished for now, but they were basically saying something to the effect of if you owe $500,000 on a $400,000 home (that obviously was worth more a few years ago when you bought it), then you now owe $400,000. I think it is an interesting concept... [Read More...]
Richmond Grid Article Focuses on Downtown Richmond Condo Opportunities
As a follow up on the recent Loft Tour and as a part of a larger article on the attractive housing opportunities available in downtown Richmond, VA, the Richmond Grid invited me to highlight some of our listings in the Jackson Ward area. The article gave me a chance to highlight The Reserve, The Marshall Street Bakery, 212 Condos, and the Emrick Flats. The entire article is here. What do you think? For more information, see Richmond VA Condos. Read More →
Richmond VA Seen On the Mend
Industry magazine Builder includes a study this month by a research firm called Market Intelligence that suggests that the Richmond area is likely to be one of the early beneficiaries of an improving economy. Housing economists have long held that the housing rebound, when it comes, will be uneven. The markets that benefit first will be the ones with the strongest core dynamics; places where house prices never got out of hand, cities where a diverse... [Read More...]
How long before we forget?
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... [Read More...]
Real Estate Predictions for 2010 from the Front Line
As we enter the first true ‘new’ market any of us have seen in the past 20 years, we can be sure of one thing….2009 ended on December 31, 2009. Ok, not funny. But seriously folks, here is what we do know: Fact 1 Where are the new houses? No one is adding ‘for sale’ inventory. This is pretty much universal and cuts across all property types and all regions of the country. Historically, the USA absorbs about 1 to 1.5M new houses each and... [Read More...]
The Year We Absorbed
January 1, 2009 – 400+ condos for sale in Zone 10 December 20, 2009 – 180 condos for sale in Zone 10 Didn’t see that one coming, did you? I am not sure anyone did. What happened? Who bought all these condos? What does this mean for the future? We will talk about each of these one by one. 1. What Happened? Sometime in late April, after the market had literally been dormant for about 9 months, the first wave of people began to stick... [Read More...]
$1B in Downtown Richmond Development
Venture Richmond announced this week that over $1B in new development projects were either completed or got started in 2009 in downtown Richmond. Not too shabby! The announcement highlights the positive impact that VCU and the VCU Medical Center continue to have on downtown Richmond: $110 million worth of new facilities at Virginia Commonwealth University’s MCV campus, including the eight-story, $71.2 million Molecular Medicine Research building... [Read More...]
Miller and Rhoads Condos Experiencing an Uptick in Sales
Proper financing has always been the single biggest challenge for the condos at the former Miller & Rhoads building on Broad Street. Since the condos aren’t yet ‘warrantable’, buyers were having a difficult time getting lenders to approve their mortgage applications. …conventional financing had dried up, notably for condominiums that didn’t meet guidelines set by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, government-sponsored... [Read More...]
Jobs Losses Decline In Richmond
In an important sign that things have stopped getting worse: The number of Richmond-area residents making a first claim for unemployment insurance after losing their jobs declined to 4,504 in October from 5,057 in September, the Virginia Employment Commission reported yesterday. “For the last 60 to 90 days, claims have definitely lightened up,” said William F. Mezger, the commission’s chief economist. The RTD article also references... [Read More...]
Fed Reserve Report Shows Mixed Signs
We’ve actually seen an uptick in calls about real estate lately, but the new Fed Reserve report is decidely mixed: Regional economic activity is looking more mixed than it had earlier in the fall, economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond said yesterday. Retail sales, housing and banking saw marginal increases, they said in their latest contribution to the so-called “Beige Book” national economic analysis. It would seem... [Read More...]
