Join us on our Lake Monticello Video Tour
February 2nd, 2010 categories: Communities, First Time Buyers, For Buyers, For Sellers, Info, Lake Monticello
We work with a lot of people who are interested in buying real estate in Lake Monticello. Many of those people have never been to Lake Monticello when they first contact us. That means that one of the first question they ask is, “What is Lake Monticello like?”
That is a tough question for us to answer because, until you’ve been here, it is tough to describe to someone. We love living here, and we love telling people all about it; but it is really tough to give people what an idea of what it is really like to live here. Sure, you can see pictures on the internet, but they really don’t give you a feel for how it all comes together into such a unique and wonderful community.
If you’re interested in Lake Monticello, our video tour can help!
We decided that an effective, convenient way for folks to become more familiar with the community would be to take them on a tour that they could watch right from the comfort of their own homes. That’s why we created our Lake Monticello Video Tour.
The video tour was shot, narrated, and created by us, and it will give you a more complete look at everything Lake Monticello has to offer. During the tour, we take you to all five of Lake Monticello’s beaches, the clubhouse, pool, marina, tennis courts, fishing lake, and the golf course. We’ll take you around Jefferson Drive and share some of the history of Lake Monticello and valuable information that will make you more familiar with Lake Monticello and all that it has to offer.
The tour lasts about 30 minutes, but if you are interested in real estate in Lake Monticello, then we think taking the tour is well worth your time. . .
Please share the video tour with your friends and family!
One of the things that we know very well, being that we all live at Lake Monticello, is that friends and family are always asking us what the community is like. If you live at Lake Monticello now, or are interested in moving here, you’ll probably get the same questions from your friends and family.
That’s one reason that we created the video– so that people who know how great Lake Monticello is can share it with folks who want to know what it is like. We would love it if you would bookmark and share the video with other people when they ask you about Lake Monticello. All you have to do click here.
That page is the permanent home of our Lake Monticello Video Tour. We encourage you to bookmark it and share it any time someone asks you about Lake Monticello. We know how hard it is to explain to people, so why don’t you let the video tour do the talking?
As always, if you have any questions about anything in the video, or anything at all about Lake Monticello, just let us know. We’re happy to help however we can!
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Charlottesville Named one of America’s Best (and Healthiest) Neighborhoods by Men’s Journal
January 21st, 2010 categories: Albemarle County, Charlottesville, Communities, Fluvanna County, Fun Stuff, Lake Monticello, News, STR Market Info Blitz, Uncategorized
This post is part of the Strong Team REALTORS Market Info Blitz. We’re heating up the Winter market by giving you three-months worth of the information you need, November through January. Check out the latest posts in the blitz, here.
Life is good in the Charlottesville Area.
Buying real estate is always about more than just the square footage of a house, or whether or not is has a garage. We move into a house not only for the house itself, but for the area where that house is found. It is often the area around a house that helps turn it into a home.
Residents of the Charlottesville area know how valuable the area is to their quality of life. Sure, there are great houses in Charlottesville, Albemarle, Fluvanna, and Lake Monticello, but it is often the quality of life in the Charlottesville area itself that attracts people to these properties.
Charlottesville is consistently recognized by national publications for its high quality of life. One of the latest publications to recognize Charlottesville is Men’s Jornal. Charlottesville was recognized in the June 2009 edition of Men’s Jornal as being one of the best neighborhoods in America. Charlottesville was once again recognized by Men’s Journal in the January edition as being one of America’s 5 Healthiest Towns, using statistics from BestPlaces.net
It is always good to see the Charlottesville area receive recognition for the things that really set it apart and make it a wonderful place to call home.
Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/maong/ / CC BY 2.0
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10 Things to Know About the Charlottesville Area Real Estate Market in 2010
January 4th, 2010 categories: Albemarle County, Charlottesville, Communities, Financing, First Time Buyers, Fluvanna County, For Buyers, For Sellers, Helpful Tips, Info, Lake Monticello, News, STR Market Info Blitz, Uncategorized
This post is part of the Strong Team REALTORS Market Info Blitz. We’re heating up the Winter market by giving you three-months worth of the information you need, November through January. Check out the latest posts in the blitz, here.
10 Things to Know About the Charlottesville Area Real Estate Market in 2010
We recently came across a very interesting article published a few weeks ago by U.S. News & World Report that was all about the national real estate market. The article was called, “10 Things to Know About Real Estate in 2010.” The article is well done, and definitely worth reading.
We thought that the predictions in the article were spot-on. All 10 of them, in fact. We realized, however, that the article focused on the national real estate market. Since you aren’t buying or selling all over the country, but rather buying or selling real estate right here in the Charlottesville area, we though it might be a good idea to adapt the 10 things from the article to the Charlottesville areal real estate market.
In fact, the article itself mentioned the need for local real estate analysis:
“. . .anyone interested in buying real estate next year can’t just read the national headlines. Instead, find a good blog that covers the local housing market and consider speaking with a real estate agent with experience in the area. “
We’d like to think that we fit squarely into that category. 
So, let’s get started. . .
10 Things to Know About the Charlottesville area Real Estate Market in 2010
1. Prices to bottom: We think this will be true in the Charlottesville area. In a few days, we will be releasing our 2009 Real Estate Year-in-Review Market Report. The data in that report should give us a good idea as to how prices will react in 2010. Given the trends that we saw in the 4th quarter of the year, it appears that prices have stabilized. It is important to note that reaching a bottom is very different from climbing. While we expect prices to stabilize, we certainly don’t expect to see a tremendous appreciation of prices. As we’ve been saying for a long time now, the days of 10% appreciation per year are over for the foreseeable future.
2. Mortgage delinquencies up: This is unfortunate, by probably true. We expect to see more foreclosures and short sales in the market this year than we saw in 2009. The state of the economy is a major factor in the rise in delinquencies, as is the fact that many homeowners owe more than what the home is worth. Those two factors inevitably lead to a rise in delinquencies. That being said, the Charlottesville area has fared much better than many parts of the country. While their may be increased foreclosures and short sales here in 2010, it will be much less than other areas, even in our own region.
3. Foreclosures move upstream: This is a rather interesting prediction that is made in the article. Basically, economists are predicting that foreclosures will increase among “prime” borrowers, and homes in higher price ranges. Remember how everyone was saying that the chief cause behind the mortgage meltdown was the “subprime” borrowers? Well, many of those borrowers are already in foreclosure, or have been through foreclosure. There are a lot of “prime” borrowers out there who might now be in danger. Most economists think this is due in large part to the number of Adjustable Rate Mortgages that are set to have interest rate resets in 2010. It is difficult to predict whether or not this will be true in the Charlottesville area. It stands to reason, however, that if there a high number of ARMs in the area, we might see increased foreclosure numbers in higher price ranges.
4. Mortgage rates to rise: Since mortgage rates are not geographically dependent, any national prediction about mortgage rates will be just as true here in the Charlottesville area. Mortgage rates have remained at historic lows, thanks primarily to programs put in place by the Federal Reserve. As those programs expire throughout the course of the year. Expect rates to rise. Their is a very good chance that rates could be at or near 6% for 30-year mortgages by the end of 2010.
5. Buyer’s market remains: With prices at the bottom, and mortgage rates at historic lows, this is obviously a buyer’s market. That most certainly will continue throughout 2010. As previously mentioned, however, mortgage rates are sure to rise, and prices probably won’t continue to fall in the Charlottesville area. This means that the leverage buyers currently have will probably decrease as the year goes on. One factor that will play a big part in the market shift will be inventory. If inventory numbers remain high, buyers will have continued leverage just because they will have a greater selection, and more competition among sellers. If inventory numbers start to fall, that will erode that leverage more quickly. By the end of 2010, the market should still favor buyers, but things will be much more even than they are now.
6. Modification plan could be modified: The Federal loan modification program is a mess. It simply hasn’t done what it was intended to do– keep borrowers in their homes. The program doesn’t address two of the key factors that lead to loan delinquencies– negative equity, and job loss. While job loss hasn’t been as big a problem in the Charlottesville area as it has in other regions, negative equity is certainly a concern. Only a relative handful of people have been helped by the program. If the government really wants to do something, the program is going to have to be modified. If that does happen, it could stem the tide of foreclosures and delinquencies predicted by numbers 2 & 3.
7. FHA lending standards may increase: This one is pretty much guaranteed. Loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration have been very popular. Unfortunately, that popularity has meant that FHA loans have also been hit hard by foreclosures. This has lead the FHA to push for increased standards. Increase the standards might have the effect of eliminating potential buyers from the marketplace. While such an increase should help stabilize the market in the long-term, it could have a short-term chilling effect.
8. Tax credit available through June: We’ve talked about what extending and expanding the tax credit might mean for the Charlottesville area before. November certainly saw an increase in closings due to the originally proposed expiration date for the tax credit. It is difficult to determine if the extension and expansion will have the same effect of bringing more buyers into the marketplace. Overall, we feel that the impact made by extending and expanding the tax credit program will have only a slight positive effect on the Charlottesville area real estate market.
9. Markets will vary a great deal by region: This is true every time, all the time. It is true on a macro level, and also on a micro level right here in the Charlottesville area. The different localities have been effected differently by the market changes. Albemarle has been effective differently than real estate in Lake Monticello or Fluvanna. Even different neighborhoods have been effected differently. As the article suggests, it is extremely important to find an agent who is knowledgeable about the market conditions in the area and/or neighborhoods in which you are interested.
10. Mobile maps can help: This one was a bit of a stretch by the author of the article, but it is still applicable in the Charlottesville area. Both Trulia and Zillow have iPhone apps that will allow you to search for homes by your current location. It is a neat feature, to be sure. We have found that our clients appreciate the visual feedback that map-based searching can provide, which is why our Charlottesville area real estate search engine has a map-based element to it. Since all three of us are dedicated iPhone users, never hesitate to ask when you have questions about mobile real estate applications. Between the thee of us, we’ve tried just about all of them.
Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/23727257@N00/ / CC BY 2.0
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National mortgage applications rise 8.5%
December 10th, 2009 categories: Financing, First Time Buyers, For Buyers, For Sellers, News, STR Market Info Blitz
This post is part of the Strong Team REALTORS Market Info Blitz. We’re heating up the Winter market by giving you three-months worth of the information you need, November through January. Check out the latest posts in the blitz, here.
Mortage applications jump, fueled by refinancing
USA Today recently reported that mortgage applications jumped 8.5% last week.
The large increase in mortgage applications was due mainly to refinancing applications, which rose 11.1%. With interest rates still at historically low levels, many homeowners are taking advantage of the low rates and refinancing their current mortgages. 74% of all the applications were from people looking to refinance.
New mortgage applications were up slightly, also, at 4%. Rates rose slightly last week, but they remain at record-low levels. The average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage last week was 4.88%.
If you are thinking about refinancing, or are thinking of buying a home in the Charlottesville area, just let us know. Our clients have worked with the area’s best mortgage lenders. We’re always happy to share the names of lenders with whom our clients have had success.
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How to find the information you need about the Lake Monticello Owners’ Association
December 10th, 2009 categories: Communities, FAQ, For Buyers, Info, Lake Monticello, STR Market Info Blitz
This post is part of the Strong Team REALTORS Market Info Blitz. We’re heating up the Winter market by giving you three-months worth of the information you need, November through January. Check out the latest posts in the blitz, here.
A dock and cove at Lake Monticello
We work with many people who are interested in Lake Monticello real estate. With everything from smaller ranch homes to larger waterfront homes, Lake Monticello is attractive to many people.
Lake Monticello is governed by a homeowners’ association. In fact, the Lake Monticello Owners’ Association is one of the largest homeowners’ associations in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Many of the people who move here have never lived in a homeowners’, much less one as large as LMOA.
Fortunately, the Lake Monticello Owners’ Association has a website that is full of all the information you need if you want to buy a home in Lake Monticello. Simply visit LMOA.org.
From LMOA.org, you do everything from find out contact information for the Board of Directors and the General Manager’s office, to downloading the minutes from all the recent meetings of the BOD.
Two pieces of information that are critical to anyone who wants to live in Lake Monticello are the Dues and Fees Schedule, and the Policy Manual.
The Dues and Fees Schedule contains all the fees that someone might potentially have to pay while living at Lake Monticello. The schedule is published every January with the updated fees.
The Policy Manual contains all the policies of the LMOA, along with all of the rules and regulations that residents must follow.
Both of these documents contain the answers to most of the questions that you might have about owning a Lake Monticello real estate and being a resident here.
So, if you’re interested in buying a home at Lake Monticello, or you already live here and just want to know where you can find the latest information about what is going on in the community, make sure you check out LMOA.org!
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