Downtown on the Farm
CHARLOTTESVILLE, ALBEMARLE COUNTY, VIRGINIA

A FINE BLEND OF COUNTRY AND CITY

Driving through Albemarle county into Charlottesville, you can pass farms, peach orchards, and antique shops—and 15 minutes later sip a Starbucks latte.

The city is home to the University of Virginia, Jefferson’s Monticello, and a lot of transplanted Washingtonians. The region mixes small-city amenities with country living and Southern hospitality. Residents can spend the morning shopping and by afternoon hike the Blue Ridge Mountains.

The town loves its school. Cavalier stickers are everywhere. Residents go to evening classes in art, foreign policy, and the “History of Jefferson & Monticello.”

“People aren’t as preoccupied with work as they are in Northern Virginia,” says Matt Wright, who moved from Alexandria in 1999 with his wife and three children. “If you go to the grocery store, you talk to the owner.”

Meet the neighbors: The area draws empty-nesters, retirees, and “UVa leftovers”—what some call alumni. About 10 percent of the 125,000 people in the area work at the university or its top-flight medical center.

There’s a growing number of entrepreneurs and consultants. Suzanne Jackson moved from Arlington in 1999, soon after starting Four Leaf Public Relations. “This business community is incredibly cooperative,” she says.

Where to live: Some of the growing number of retirees settle in Glenmore, a 1,200-acre country-club community six miles east of UVa with a golf course, equestrian center, tennis courts, pool, and fitness facilities. You can see Monticello from the clubhouse, where neighbors get together for poker and a book club.

Families like Forest Lakes, a 1,200-home kid-friendly subdivision seven miles north of UVa. It has six lakes for canoeing and fishing, two pools (one with a 92-foot slide), a daycare center, bike paths, walking trails, and athletic fields.

In the two-stoplight town of Crozet, about 15 miles west of Charlottesville, large family farms are intertwined with smaller lots and modern subdivisions. “You move out here for more land and more views,” says Matt Wright, who has three acres and a view of the mountains from his front-porch swing.

Famous faces: Around the area are actress Sissy Spacek, sports broadcaster Howie Long, author John Grisham, and socialite/investor Patricia Kluge, who recently opened a winery. Members of the Dave Matthews Band own land in southern Albemarle.

Hot spots and big events: Nightlife centers on the Downtown Mall, an eight-block pedestrian plaza where drummer groups, magicians, and musicians perform. Cuisine ranges from Asian tapas to pizza, and locals and students frequent the art galleries, bookstores, coffee shops, and $3 movie theatre. Miller’s is a popular jazz spot.

Suzanne Jackson says “the whole town comes out” for Fridays After 5, a free outdoor concert series at the Downtown Mall’s Amphitheater: “They roll the beer trucks out. Then everyone migrates up to the mall and goes out for dinner.”

It’s a tradition to tailgate at Foxfield, a biannual horse race near Charlottesville.

The commute: Charlottesville is a 2 1/2-hour drive from DC. The Charlottesville- Albemarle Airport has six daily 40-minute flights to Dulles and nonstops to New York and other East Coast cities. Amtrak makes daily trips to Union Station in less than three hours.

School report: The county’s schools are popular with parents, who say teachers are accessible and the hallways safe. About 80 percent of high-school graduates attend college. Schools in western Albemarle—in towns such as Crozet, Ivy, Free Union, and Yancey Mills—post top scores on most state tests. Charlottesville’s pupil-to-teacher ratio is one of the state’s lowest. The schools are known for good music and art instruction.

Why you might confuse it with France: The region is home to seven wineries; there are tastings daily and festivals on warm weekends.

You won’t have to give up: Good bagels. Two Bodo’s Bagels shops in the city bake nine flavors of fresh ones every 15 minutes.

What you’d pay for a house: Glenmore: $300,000 to $2 million. Forest Lakes: $125,000 to $600,000. Crozet: $180,000 to $800,000. Realtor Carol Clarke says it’s hard to find a house to grow into for less than $180,000: “When something comes on the market, there are three young couples waiting to buy it.”

Glenmore cottages are one-level brick ranches with three bedrooms and a two-car garage. A $550,000 cottage has three levels with four or five bedrooms, 4 1/2 baths, and a terrace.

In Forest Lakes, the starter home is a two-bedroom townhouse. “Village Virginia homes”—most have two stories with three bedrooms and a two-car garage—go for about $240,000.

Single-family detached homes in Gray Rock, a new Crozet subdivision with parks and walking trails, run from $200,000 to $400,000. A house in the $250,000 price range has four bedrooms and 2 1/2 baths. Historic Virginia farms could sell for more than a million.

WHERE TO FIND IT

Charlottesville/Albemarle County is in central Virginia. Charlottesville is at the intersection of Route29 and I-64. Glenmoreis east of the city off Route 250. ForestLakes is north, offRoute 29. Crozet iswest, off Route 250.

Cindy Rich; The Washingtonian, March 2003

RICHARDSON, Texas, Feb. 12 -- Navini Networks, a leading Non- Line-of-Sight wireless broadband provider today announced its newest contract with NTELOS Inc., an integrated telecommunications and Internet service provider in Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina. NTELOS has commercially deployed Navini's 2.6 GHz MMDS technology for its "Portable Broadband" high speed Internet access to go offering.

The NTELOS deployment, which is the first of its kind in Virginia and one of the first in the mid-Atlantic US, currently covers approximately 50,000 households in Charlottesville, Stuarts Draft and Waynesboro, Virginia and will soon expand to other markets including Lynchburg, VA.

With download speeds up to 1.5 Mbps, and upload speeds up to 550 Kbps, NTELOS can offer their customers high speed Internet access that is comparable to T-1, DSL or cable modem service. The technology is plug-and-play, requiring no external antenna, and is portable throughout the coverage area.

From PR Newswire

For the fifth year in a row, home sales in the Charlottesville market area have set a new record. According to figures from the CAAR Multiple Listing Service, 3,450 homes were sold in the Charlottesville market area (including the counties of Albemarle, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa, and Nelson, and the City of Charlottesville) for the year 2003. Sales in 2003 were up 2.8% from last year’s record pace.

Each month, CAAR publishes market statistics on the number of transactions closed, the number of listings that went under contract, the median sales price, the average days on market, and the number of new listings. These figures (see page ??) are tallied on a monthly and year-to-date basis, and are compared to the same information from the previous year.

Transactions Closed

As stated above, 2003 was the fifth year in a row that we set a new record for transactions closed in the Charlottesville area. It is somewhat amazing that sales were so strong while facing extraordinary world events and an economy that was in a funk for much of the year. Albemarle and the City of Charlottesville, showed the strongest increases for the year. Albemarle was the top sales area with 1,463 sales for the year, which was an increase of 3.4% (49 total sales) from last year. The city of Charlottesville saw the sharpest increase in sales with 422 (up 12.8% or 46 sales). Also showing a minor increase in sales were Louisa 153 (up 8.5% or 12 sales) and Nelson 355 (up 2.6% or 9 sales). Fluvanna and Greene both saw slight decreases in sales during 2003 with Fluvanna showing 553 sales (down 5.4% or 31 sales) and Greene 248 (down 4.7% or 12 sales). Fluvanna remains the second largest market within the area followed by Charlottesville and Nelson.

Under Contract

Properties that are “under contract” are ones that have a ratified sales contract that has not yet closed. This is, of course, an important indicator of how the closed transaction market will be doing in the coming months. The “under contract” figures for the fourth quarter were just behind last year, so no significant downturn in home sales is predicted. For the year, 142 more listings went “under contract” in 2003 than the previous year, which is both a reflection on the record sales pace in 2003 and a sign of a strong market in 2004.

Median Sales Price

The median sales price is a better indicator of what the “average” home in our area sells for than is the average sales price. Our area is blessed with many estates and homes that often sell for more than a million dollars. In 2003, for instance, 60 transactions were sold for over one million dollars. Such properties distort the average sales price figures dramatically. The median sales price, on the other hand, is the number that represents the middle of the market. 50% of the homes in our area sold for more than this price and 50% sold for less than this price. The median sales price for the entire market area in 2003 was $195,000 which is $21,000 more than the previous year’s figure. In comparison, the average price in the entire market area was $264,673. Albemarle County is the highest price market with a medium price of $254,500 and an average price of $335,191.

Days on Market (DOM)

The best indicator of a hot market is found in this category. The average DOM for the area has plummeted over the past few years, but it appears we may have hit the statistical bottom for this figure. In 2003, the average DOM for all sales reported in the Multiple Listing Service was 78 days, which is just above 2002 (76). The city of Charlottesville continues to lead the way with an average DOM of just 38 days. The average DOM for other areas is as follows: Albemarle (62), Fluvanna (65), Greene (64), Louisa (93), and Nelson (88). Nelson County, fueled by strong resort sales, showed the most improvement in this category by dropping from 108 DOM in 2002.

New Listings

One factor that affects the DOM statistic is inventory. If inventory is low, then there are fewer properties for buyers to consider and properties sell more quickly. CAAR tracks the number of new listings that come on the market each month to help us monitor the inventory of available homes. The inventory shortage eased slightly in 2003 with 3,682 new listings hitting the market (142 more new listing than in the previous year). As of mid-January, 2003, our database has just under 1,200 homes actively listed for sale which is up around 15% from last year. Historically, we expect around 200 homes to be purchased in January. That means that there are roughly 5.86 homes available for every buyer in the entire market area.

Conclusions and Forecasts

It is easy to conclude that 2003 was an outstanding year for real estate in the Charlottesville area. The shortage of homes for sale continues to be critically low and demand, fueled by low interest rates and a much improved economy, is expected to continue to be strong. This combination of high demand and low supply will continue to pressure home prices to rise quickly. All the pieces are in place for another great year for real estate in 2004. Consumers planning to buy a new home in 2004, can expect a great return on their investment as prices will likely continue to go up rapidly. It should also be a great year for sellers as well since inventory will remain low and demand high. In fact, my prediction is that 2004 will be another record year for home sales in our area.

By Dave Phillips, CAE
Re-printed with permission from the Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors

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