About Portsmouth City County, VA

This is of interest to all of Hampton Roads. Recently the Jewish Chapel at the Norfolk Naval Station was rededicated. This Jewish Chapel is the oldest land based chapel in the Navy and was rededicated to Commodore Uriah P. Levy almost 50 years after it was named for him. The Commodore had quite a career: he chased pirates, wrote books, spent 16 months in a British prison during the War of 1812 helped to end the harsh punishment of flogging. Just for that he should have had something named after him.

I read an article recently by John F. Farber that brought up an interesting subject. Transfer fees in Virginia. Have you seen them on a settlement statement and should we be worried about them.

Transfer fees are imposed by a developer on a piece of property for up to 99 years and are usually 1% of the gross sales price every time a property transfers ownership. The developers say they can sell the properties cheaper but I don't see it. What the developer does is sell the rights to the transfer fees at a substantial discount and walks away with extra cash in the pocket.

Apparently they are legal in Virginia but used sparingly. Let me know if any of you have seen these type fees and how do you explain them at closing.

http://www.hamptonroadsrealestate.ws Come and see ALL the Homes for Sale in Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Norfolk, as well as the rest of Hampton Roads. This site is updated daily with new real estate listings, pictures and other information vital to your home search

Want to spend just a buck on Xmas this year and do it online while sitting at home in Portsmouth? You can. Dollar Tree has gone online to sell but you have to buy in bulk. Want a Santa hat, have to buy 48. A candy filled Xmas mug, only by the case of 24 but hey each item is a buck or less. Check out Dollar Tree now.

http://www.geneallen.com Come and see ALL the Homes for Sale in Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Norfolk, as well as the rest of Hampton Roads. This site is updated daily with new real estate listings, pictures and other information vital to your home search.

The Class of 2009 in Portsmouth received recognition that school officials would probably prefer to not see; they had the 2nd highest dropout rate in the State of Virginia.

The City had a 20.1% drop out rate. That is almost 3 times the State average of 7.9%.

In more promising news, the Portsmouth City Public Schools are all now fully accredited by the State. Also, the on-time graduation rate has continued to increase.

All of the Hampton Roads area school districts have at least one high school that has dropout rates higher than the State average. Virginia Beach City still has the lowest in the area at 6%, followed by Chesapeake. Suffolk and Norfolk both have dropout rates higher than the state average.

Portsmouth School officials say that reducing the number of required electives will help curb the dropout rate. Really? Seems to me that with over a fifth of the system's students dropping out, more serious measures need to be put into place. High dropout rates correlate with higher crime rates and lower community incomes. Students who dropout will cost the City more in services over the long term.

The Homebuyer Tax Credit has extended and expanded for Portsmouth residents. It has been extended to include current homeowners. The following are features of the new bill:

•·Deadline for current credit is November 30, 2009.

•·Deadline for new and improved credit is April 30, 2010, as long as the home is under contract by that date; deal must close within 60 days.

•·Eligibility and amount of new credit:

•-$8,000 for first-time homebuyers (those who have not owned a home in the last three years).

•-Up to $6,500 credit for homeowners who have lived in the home they are selling, or have sold, as a

principal residence for five consecutive years in the past eight.

•·Buyers with income exceeding $125,000 for single and $225,000 for married couples are not eligible.

•·Homes valued at more than $800,000 are also ineligible.

The pool of eligible buyers will increase and the program will be in place through the first half of 2010. This is a very positive event for home buying and the Real Estate industry!

http://www.geneallen.com Come and see ALL the Homes for Sale in Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Norfolk, as well as the rest of Hampton Roads. This site is updated daily with new real estate listings, pictures and other information vital to your home search.