From the category archives:

Economic Trends

To Rent or To Buy

April 29, 2012

The John Burns Real Estate Consulting firm has recently conducted a survey of over 20,000 respondents, trying to determine the nuances of potential intergenerational home buyers.  Their results were quite interesting. Among their findings were some data about the 25-34 year olds possible home buying habits.  Many factors are contributing to making that age group less [...]

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Charlottesville Virginia Real Estate Market Report First Quarter 2012

April 16, 2012

Hot off the press!  Here is the latest Charlottesville Real Estate Market Report for first quarter 2012 as compiled by the Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors.  If you are interested in farms, visit Gayle Harvey Real Estate’s Central Virginia Farm Report and the Central Virginia Land Report.

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HUD’s Economic Report for Charlottesville

March 8, 2012

Read the Comprehensive Market Analysis Report prepared by the Housing & Urban Development for the Charlottesville Metropolitan Area.

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Refinancing Details from Freddie Mac

February 18, 2012

Due to historically low interest rates, many home owners are refinancing their existing homes and loans.  There are many options for loans as we all know, but HERE are new statistics from Freddie Mac that they’ve gathered from the secondary loan market. Among their findings:  in the 4th quarter of 2011,  37 percent of refinancing borrowers maintained approximately their same [...]

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Gap Between New Homes and Resales

January 29, 2012

The chart below has been compiled by an Economics Blog named Calculated Risk ….  to illustrate the home sales in the country for the past 8 years… with lines showing sales of new construction vs. resales of existing homes.  It’s dramatic and it speaks for itself.  Of course like many others, we believe one of the fastest [...]

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Are We Turning the Corner?

January 16, 2012

USA Today ran a very positive article this morning saying that many economists think the real estate market is about to make a positive turn, particularly new construction. Here is the article.

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Virginia Poverty Rates

December 29, 2011

According to the U.S.Census Bureau the Poverty Rate in the United States was 15.3% in 2010. Virginia’s poverty rate came in at 11.1% with the City of Harrisonburg having the highest poverty rate of 30.1% and the City of Falls Church having the least, 3.1%. The chart below will show the rates for Charlottesville and [...]

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Retirement Mecca: Is Central VA Ready For The Boomers?

November 26, 2011

Is central Virginia doing enough to prepare for the inevitable needs of aging Boomers?   As the Charlottesville area continues to frequent national lists of “best places to live” or “best places to retire”, there is bound to be some strain on the public services as retirees choose our area for their retirements. The Jefferson Area [...]

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Higher Limits for FHA Loans

November 19, 2011

Although the loan limits may vary from market to market, this week the U.S. Congress voted to restore the FHA portion of conforming loan limits in the highest-priced real estate markets back up to $729,750 through 2013.   The limits had been raised during the 2008 financial crisis from $625,500,  but that extension had expired in October.  The loan limits [...]

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Ginnie Mae Home Mortgage Financing

November 17, 2011

As the recent housing market has suffered through tightened credit standards, many buyers have found themselves unable to qualify for the typical home loans backed by Fannie and Freddie.   In many cases their credit is good but there is some other attribute (their age/experience, the property itself etc) that makes it unfeasible to secure a [...]

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