Rob Alley

Not too long ago, we took a listing for a woman, for confidentiality we will call her "A". She had a home in the city of Charlottesville and was falling behind on her payments. We took her listing and proceeded with a short sale. Come to find out, her loan was for $90,000 more than the market value of the home. There is no way this house every got an appraisal for that much over what the home was worth, especially since it didn't have a HEAT SOURCE!!! By the way, homes without a heat source should never approve for a mortgage, especially a mortgage with a value greater than the market value. Anyway, we were able to sell her house, prevent foreclosure, save her credit AND get a great deal to an investor.

What's the point you ask? Well, there are a couple. One - there are options out there for people looking to prevent foreclosure. Two - in my opinion, any time you help people you are doing a service for the community. In this case, we helped one lady save her ability to follow the American Dream and borrow money when needed. We also got an investor, whose plans for the house will be great for the neighborhood as a whole, the right price to move in.

A Lender's Views on the Short Sale, Foreclosure, and Mortgage Crisis September 9th, 2008 3:46 PM

I was speaking with a mortgage loan officer today about the short sale, foreclosure, and mortgage "crisis" and his point of view was so interesting, I got him to put it in writing so I could share it. Here it goes:

FANNIE MAE AND FREDIE MAC TAKE OVER:

"The government is spending our dollars again"

"The mortgage companies have caused this debacle"

"The loan officer is a cheat and thief"

"My Realtor made me do it"

"It wasn't explained to me"

"ITS NOT MY FAULT"-----------BALONEY

Lets put the blame where it truly belongs. It was and is the general public who is at fault. More specifically all those poor little folks who are having their homes taken from them because they can't make their payments because they bought more than they should have, never paid their bills on time and want to have everything handed to them on a silver platter. SORRY you have been screwed blued and tattooed. In other words you deserve what you got or are getting. Grow up. Learn to pay your bills on time; learn to be honest about how much income you make, disclose the proper income on your tax returns... In my 20 years I have never seen more people think they deserve to have a home and therefore it should be handed to them. How any times have you wondered how your friend who has all the expensive toys yet works with so you know what they make, yet they can buy the 500,000 home. Guess what they don't have that home now do they. And guess again who is paying for it one way or the other. That's right, YOU ARE. Whose fault is it? Not mine. It comes down to Greed. Greed of the homeowner for wanting the mansion, GREED of the Realtor for wanting the commission, GREED of the loan officer for making the sub prime loan for the commission, Greed of the investors you wanted more income and GREED of the bond traders that gave the loan officers the guidelines.

I may sound harsh and unfeeling, it some ways I am, but in others I want to show the compassion to the hard working folks that have worked for what they have and take pride in that. Those hardworking folks that are having there homes taken because of the dishonesty of others should be helped, those people that are having there homes taken due to a loss of job or medical reasons should be helped, but the greedy home owners, they have gotten what they deserve.

Leonard Winslow, Mortgage Loan Officer

Gateway Bank Mortgage, INC.

Wow, those are some powerful words.

Currently Active Properties: 2,372
Median Price of Active Properties: $324,995
Average Days on Market for Active Properties: 148

Sold in February: 141
Median Price of Solds: $260,000
Average Days on Market for Solds: 138
Total Volume of Sold Property: $54,527,788

What can we derive from these numbers? Well, there was over 54 million dollars of sold property in the month of February in the Charlottesville Area (which includes Charlottesville, Albemarle, Green, Louisa, Fluvanna, and Orange). We can obtain the months of inventory by taking the number of sold properties in February and dividing that into the number of active properties. So 2372/141 = 16.8 months of inventory in the Charlottesville Area. The good news is that this number is down from 20.1 months of inventory that we had at the end of January. This show the market is slowly inproving on a monthly basis.

There could be a number of reasons for this. First, its an election year, and history shows that during election years, intrest rates drop, and there is generally a boost in the economy. This year is no different. Interest rates did drop and after they hit rock bottom and started to slightly rise again, real estate picked up.

We'll see if this trend remains.

Browse Charlottesville Real Estate
The statistics used came directly from CAAR (The Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors).

Charlottesville Real Estate Market Update for April 2008

New Listings in April
Number of New Listings: 526
Median Price: $299,000
Average List Price: $458,705

Contingent Listings in April
Number of Contingent Properties: 252
Median Price: $275,000
Average List Price: $389,872
Average Days on Market:123

Pending Listings in April
Number of Pending Listings: 89
Median Price: $289,500
Average List Price: $403,414
Average Days on Market: 135

Sold Listings In April
Number of Sold Listings: 190
Total Sold Volume: $58,567,425
Median Price: $266,250
Average List Price: $322,273
Average Sold Price: $308,250
Percentage of Sold Price to List Price: 95.65%
Average Days on Market: 125

Currently Active Properties in our MLS: 2,513
Median Price: $324,000
Average List Price: $611,124
Average Days on Market: 143
Months of Inventory: 17.33

**All numbers reflect data from the CAAR MLS in the areas of Charlottesville, Albemarle, Greene, Fluvanna, Louisa and Orange

Our months of inventory dropped again. It's down to 17.33 from 18.90 in March. This means that Real Estate is picking up, which isn't a surprise since this area has always seen an increase in activity in the Spring. Just like in March, most people are selling their home about 5% less than their asking price. Keep that in mind while you are negotiating your offers.

Charlottesville Real Estate

Here is a quote from the First Quarter Market Report written by Dave Phillips CEO of the Charlottesville Association of Realtors.

"Simply put, there are too many homes on the market right now. This surplus of inventory should keep prices low as sellers are forced to offer "good deals" in a very competitive marketplace. There is a direct, inverse relationship between inventory and prices. The more homes we have on the market, the more pressure there is on sellers to keep prices down. For this reason, we do not expect home prices in the area to increase in the near future.

Currently, we have 3,673 homes on the market, compared to 3,100 at this time last year. The median price of these homes for sale is $319,000. The average DOM (days on market) of these homes is 147 days. It is a great time for first-time buyers, because there are 663 homes for sale under $200,000 with an average DOM of 130. There are 576 homes currently on the market priced at a million dollars or more, with an average DOM of 200."

This is a very accurate statement about the status of our market. It's almost as if buyers and sellers are in an old fashioned Mexican Standoff. Buyers continue to wait for prices to come down, while sellers are resisting the trend. I do have to take this opportunity to say THIS IS A GOOD TIME TO BUY REAL ESTATE.

Play the game, there are a number of people out there trying to move their money out of Real Estate and just want anything they can get. Make an offer, if they reject, move to the next one. In the words of NIKE, Just Do It. You can find really good deals in a market such as this.

Read the entire 1st Quarter Market Report

Charlottesville Real Estate