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Crozet Real Estate Conversation – January 2016

Median sales price, where are new homes selling, what neighborhoods are coming online in Crozet? We love questions!

Our experiment continues. David and I love to talk about real estate. We thought the Crozet Real Estate Conversation series would be a good place to talk about real estate and share some of our thoughts and insights about life in Crozet & the Crozet real estate market.

  • “Crozet” for these purposes is defined as “Crozet Elementary + Brownsville Elementary” 
  • 2015 Median price for Attached & Detached homes in Albemarle County: $340K  (1,471 homes).  (1,374 homes)*
  • 2015 Median price home in Crozet: $400K (285 homes sold) Median price home in Crozet in 2014: $373K (253 homes sold).
  • New construction in Crozet is up 50%(!) in 2015 over 2014.
  • Small builders are holding their own, holding 20% of the new construction market.
  • 50% of new construction in Crozet is in Old Trail.
  • 26 of sales in Crozet last year were in Old Trail (also, Old Trail is seeking a downzoning)
  • 28% of new homes sold in Crozet last year were under $400K.

Read/comment more at the facebook post.

David and/or I are at the Crozet Mudhouse on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of every month. Please stop by to chat; we pulled (and know) a lot more real estate data and information than we shared in the video.

Ask us questions anytime!

Continue reading “Crozet Real Estate Conversation – January 2016”

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Crozet Real Estate Conversation – 3rd Quarter 2015

The experiment continues. David Ferrall and I have launched a new effort to educate folks, and satiate our own desires to talk about real estate. We had our first conversation in July; this time we’ve been a bit more brief.

We’re going to be at a Crozet coffee shop – for the next couple months, the Crozet Mudhouse – the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of the month from 9 to 11 if you’re curious about the market and want us to buy you a cup of coffee.

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Putting Your House on the Market in Crozet Soon?

* this is a real estate post. I’m actually a real estate agent in real life.

Thinking about moving over the next several months? Call me for your complimentary professional photos NOW while everything is green.

No obligation to list with me, but if you do, we’ll have great photos to use!

Taking pictures now is critical for the winter and spring market.

This picture of Grayrock remains one of my favorite examples of why taking pictures in the fall is critical:


This is why I advise my clients to take pictures of their houses in the fall.

A photo posted by Jim Duncan (@jimduncan) on

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Crozet Real Estate Conversation – Take 1

It’s easy to recite cold numbers when talking about the Crozet (or any) real estate market. One of the things that I really like to do is talk about real estate.

There is more to real estate insight that talking in 20 or 90 second sound bites, and I hope that’s evident in the video below.

David and I love talking about real estate – whether it’s last quarter’s median sales price numbers, prices per square foot, or where in Crozet houses are selling – real estate is something we love. Seriously.

I’ve written occasionally about real estate here (53 such tagged posts in nearly 10 year years). I’ve found that many Crozetians are interested in real estate. If you’re curious about what happened in the first half of 2015 in Crozet’s real estate market, hopefully you’ll find this interesting.

I titled this post “Take 1” because this was our first time out; we’ll be doing these every quarter. Have something you’d like us to address? Ask or leave a comment.

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2015 Assessed Values in Crozet

This is a real estate post. I’m a real estate agent by the way) Questions? ask me … 434-242-7140. 

Pulling assessed values in Crozet is tough. Across Albemarle County, assessed values are up 2.64%; White Hall is up 2.94%.

Last year, Parkside Village had the highest percentage increase; this year, Old Trail and Western Ridge are leading the way.

One note: with respect to fair market value, my opinion is that an assessment has about as much validity as does a zestimate.

In my opinion, county assessed values are good for one thing – top-level trending information. As I wrote a few years ago:

Assessments are not a reflection of market value. They are a backward-looking assessment of what the market value may have been at the time the assessor looked at the house (most likely online, and not in person). The assessor may or may not know the condition of the property, the condition of the property’s neighbors, may not consider the traffic noise, crime stats, proximity of sexual offenders, level of inventory, smell of the neighborhood, etc. etc. etc. Assessments are why you pay taxes on.

The Daily Progress notes this year:

The current rate is 79.9 cents per $100 of assessed value. At that rate and including an assessment increase of 2.64 percent, the annual tax bill would edge up $63 to $2,460 on a home previously assessed at $300,000. The new assessments will be reflected in tax bills to be mailed in late April.

It costs nearly $12k to educate a student in Albemarle County schools; think about that for a minute when thinking about the new homes – and residents in the County.

I pulled data from the Albemarle County GIS site for the following neighborhoods:

  • Grayrock Orchard
  • Grayrock North
  • Bargamin Park – attached and detached
  • Waylands Grant – attached and detached
  • Western Ridge
  • Highlands (which includes Rockbridge)  – attached and detached
  • Old Trail – see note #3
  • Wickham Pond – attached and detached
  • Laurel Hills
  • Parkside Village – attached and detached

A few notes:

  1. Please. Please review the source data. And correct me.
  2. Source Data is here.
  3. Old Trail is inclusive of all homes – newer attached, older attached, big homes on half acre lots, smaller homes on tiny lots, villas near the golf course … it’s a massive neighborhood.
  4. The data is free; I did spend a bit of money having someone pull it all down and run the spreadsheets
  5. I removed outliers – the Lodge in Old Trail, for example, is valued at about $18 million – that would have messed stuff up. I also pulled new construction this year that was valued for say, $500k this year, when it was valued for $0 last year.
  6. New construction matters; the neighborhoods with the greatest increases had significant amounts of newer homes (even the few newer ones in Western Ridge – the part that feels like Foothills – impacted the numbers).
  7. Thinking about challenging your assessment? The form must be received by the County by 28 February.

Albemarle County real estate assessments are out … did yours go up? Go down? Questions about your assessment? Ask me …(434-242-7140. I’m a real estate agent by the way).

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Where are the Walkable Homes in Crozet?

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What does “walkable” mean to you? Or bikeable? Walkscore is great, but it’s not great enough yet in Crozet.

Last week I posted a link on the RealCrozetVA Facebook page to this story.

Less driving and more physical activity and social interactions result when people live in pedestrian-oriented, activity-friendly developments known as “walkable communities,” according to a study led by Texas A&M University Professor of Architecture Xuemei Zhu.

…

The researchers found that in addition to improved physical and social activity, (the transit-oriented development), Mueller residents perceived more neighborhood cohesion than they did in their previous neighborhood.

So I asked Crozetians – where do you live? Is your home/neighborhood in a walkable location? As usual, the community came through, describing Waylands Grant, Old Trail, Foothill Crossing, Highlands, Foxchase, Westhall, Park Road, Grayrock, Orchard Acres, Parkside Village, Laurel Hills, Liberty Hall.

To see all the descriptions, spend a few minutes at the Facebook post (Storify wouldn’t pull in all the comments). If you’re looking for a walkable home, this is a good place to start your search for walkable homes in Crozet. But don’t place that much faith in the Walkscore; as with most data-driven technologies, it’s efficacy lags in less densely-populated areas. The best way to know how walkable a neighborhood is? Ask.

Walking to Downtown Crozet

Required disclosure: I’m a real estate agent. I represent buyers and sellers in Crozet (and Charlottesville, Albemarle, Nelson, Central Virginia).

Continue reading “Where are the Walkable Homes in Crozet?”

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When Do Homes Come on the Market in Crozet?

New listings, contracts, closings in 2016 in Brownsville + Crozet, excluding new construction listings, which accounted for about 1/3 of listings in Crozet in 2016.

Update 11/21/2017 – I updated the chart above.

I’ve written this story before, and the trends are pretty consistent year over year, but thought I’d update the chart for 2014 as this is good information for those thinking about buying in Crozet and those prepping for the home marketing/selling process.

I’m working on a couple additional posts that recap the 2014 Crozet real estate market … any particular questions or curiosities you’d like me to address?

Thinking about selling? Here are a few tips to get ready. Questions about buying a home in Crozet or ready to have the conversation about whether to put your home on the market? Call me anytime – 434-242-7140 – or email works, too.

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Looking Back at 2014 in Crozet

2014 – as seen through the RealCrozetVA lens:

A year of the Streetscape, the CCAC wielding its influence, (parts of) the Crozet real estate market stabilized/picked up, the Crozet Library solidified itself as a hub of the community, Old Trail continued to grow, the RealCrozetVA facebook and twitter thrived, and the Crozet community time and again demonstrated how Crozet is a great place to live.

– I’ve gone through the 180 posts on RealCrozetVA in 2014, and (painstakingly) some of the most-engaged RealCrozetVA facebook posts and picked what I thought were the most interesting/relevant posts.

– You can subscribe to RealCrozetVA by email, follow RealCrozetVA on Twitter, or like RealCrozetVA on Facebook. A note on Facebook – we tend to have very good conversations and interaction there, but I don’t post everything there that gets published here.

– I’m a Realtor who lives in and loves Crozet. In my ideal world, I’d never get off my bicycle to show houses or meet seller clients. (and I know this will likely never happen). I rarely explicitly say this, but if you’re moving to Crozet or thinking about selling your home, I’d appreciate the opportunity to talk with you.

What did I miss?

Thank you. Thank you everyone for being part of the Crozet community. I’d like to think this summary captures in a small way what a great place Crozet is to live.

January 2014

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Continue reading “Looking Back at 2014 in Crozet”

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The Next Phase of Old Trail Begins

If you haven’t driven through Old Trail recently, you might be surprised.

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Update from Dave Brockman at Old Trail:

Thanks for reaching out to me. The activity has certainly created a lot of excitement.  What I can share is that the work being conducted to the west is primarily to support our new residential lot sales, which required a significant amount of earthwork. However, we continue to have very meaningful dialog with several interested commercial development partners and felt confident enough to use this opportunity to start making preparation for further expansion along Old Trail Drive. Old Trail’s success of the last few years has given us the ability to be more efficient in our work towards the future.

If you’re curious, these are the homes that are for sale right now in Old Trail.