Month: April 2009

For more than a year now, the housing market has been on a nonstop rollercoaster ride. On Monday, April 13, the Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors (CAAR) released its first quarter market report, and although the local real estate market improved compared to the fourth quarter of 2008, the outlook is grim.

First, the good news.

“Even if the market activity is somewhat seasonal and relative to a dismal fourth quarter in 2008, it feels great to see market activity again,” writes CAAR CEO Dave Phillips. According to the report, interested buyers are touring open houses regularly, and if the traffic numbers transform into actual contracts, the market could take a much-needed positive turn.

“The other good news is that we have the ability to look at properties that have recently gone under contract, which will ultimately settle in April or May, and the difference between 2008 and 2009 is only about 5 percent,” says Michael Guthrie, President of CAAR and CEO of Roy Wheeler Realty Co.

Of these recent contracts, a large percentage stem from properties that are priced under $300,000. “It’s significant in the fact that … I think that the $8,000 tax credit the government has issued and the low interest rates are bringing first-time buyers back into the market,” says Guthrie. Compared to the first quarter of 2008, the number of homes that have sold under $300,000 this year so far has doubled, according to Guthrie.

Other realtors are seeing the same trend. “Absolutely,” says Jim Duncan of realcentralva.com. “I have several sets of [first-time home buyers], and it’s good news, because the market depends on first-time homebuyers.”
 
Now, the bad news.

According to the report, in the city of Charlottesville, home sales were down 40 percent compared to 2008— 66 homes sold compared to 110. In Albemarle, sales were down only 19 percent—139 compared to 171; in Fluvanna 32 percent; in Greene 50 percent and in Louisa almost 60 percent. Median prices also declined an average of almost 8 percent, or $21,500, compared to the first quarter of last year. In Charlottesville, the median price decreased to $262,810 from $281,250 in 2008, but increased from $249,500 in 2007. In Albemarle, median prices decreased 13 percent, from $335,000 to $290,000. Fluvanna was hit the hardest with a drop of 17.2 percent to $200,450, lower than 2005 data. On a positive note, two markets that saw a slight increase in median price were Greene with 10.7 percent and Nelson with almost 9 percent.

In terms of foreclosures, the local market is faring well compared to national stats. According to data released by RealtyTrac, foreclosure filings in the nation are up 24 percent in the first quarter, and 46 percent in March alone compared to last year.

According to Guthrie, the number of foreclosures in the area fluctuates. “It’s really hard to track them, because not all of them are in the MLS and some other foreclosures haven’t come back on the market yet,” he says. But, with 3,600 properties currently on the market, Guthrie estimates the percentage of foreclosures to be between 5 and 10 percent. “I will say that they have increased and because the market picked up, I think we are understanding that there are more short sales out there,” says Guthrie.

In fact, Jason Crigler, Certified Residential Mortgage Specialist for Crown Mortgage Services, has seen an increase in the demand of real estate-owned financing (REO), that is, when a bank owns the property. He’s seen an increase in refinancings, too. “Ever since the Federal Reserve has been pumping money into the system and artificially brings rates really low, below 5 percent, people have been continually trying to finance,” says Crigler. Refinancing in the first quarter of 2008 accounted for approximately 40-50 percent of Crigler’s business. “The percentage of our business that’s refinance right now is probably 70 percent. We do more refinancing than we do purchases,” he says.

Home inventory is another contributing factor in a healthy market. According to the CAAR report, the local inventory remains too high. “With that many homes in the market there are not enough buyers to buy them, so you have an inventory of homes, which creates a downward pressure on pricing and increases the number of days properties are on the market,” says Guthrie. “It’s going to take a while for that to adjust itself.”

According to the people behind local real estate blog, the Bubble Blog, it has been a buyer’s market since 2007, “meaning more than five months of supply,” they write in an e-mail. “It’s currently up to 20 months in the region.” For these bloggers, “this area has at least 12 more months of rising foreclosures and falling prices before it might start to achieve a normalized level of inventory.”

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Every city needs a house large enough to hold its biggest hero. For Dave Matthews Band’s first of two gigs this weekend (and first in Charlottesville since September 2006), the John Paul Jones Arena nearly proved too small.

Not right away, of course: There were still gaping holes in the audience as I made my way to the floor for an opening set from Old Crow Medicine Show, who veered towards “Honky Tonk Women”-era Rolling Stones at its best moments and struggled to justify two nearly inaudible banjo players at its most difficult ones. Hell, I could’ve two-stepped without kicking a dancing Nancy while the Crows pecked away at a few well-wailed tunes like “Hard to Tell” and “Humdinger” (“We got wine, whiskey, women and guns” is the sort of distanced bluegrass humor I can dig), and struggled with a gutless cover of Bob Dylan’s “Wagon Wheel.”

But space became an issue as a long, black veil encircled the stage and swarms of fans—not “listeners,” because no one comes to a DMB show to be won over—crawled out from under their seats, down from the rafters, materialized in groups of four and five around the arena. Red lights hit the black curtain and lit our heroes as sprawling giants, before the curtain pulled apart.

And there they were, fronted by a Matthews that looked more slim and shaved than in his recent press photos, already going knobby-kneed as he steered the band into the great one-two punch that opens Before These Crowded Streets—from the acoustic breeze of  “Pantala Naga Pampa” into the American funk and African rhythms of “Rapunzel.” Flanked on his right by the enormous shoulders of Boyd Tinsley and guitarist Tim Reynolds, on his left by lively bobble-bassist Stefan Lessard and a two-piece horn section, with drummer Carter Beauford riding his back, Matthews went for fan favorites early, following his opening combo with the sonic ascension of “Satellite,” while a baritone sax sat, untouched, in its stand.

Not for long, however; the band peaked early in a set of more than a dozen tunes. “I hope that this evening finds everybody groovy,” croaked Matthews, eyebrows waggling in mischief, before kicking off the night’s best group of songs— the goose-honk sax fills of “You Might Die Trying,” new single “Funny The Way It Is,” and a simple, celebratory cover of Talking Heads’ “Burning Down the House.”

For this writer’s first time in years, new DMB material seemed exciting, a bit edgy—as if the band spent more time finding new ways to engage its strengths: the offbeat punches on horns and drums, a few harrowing howls from Matthews. The key change in “Funny” felt a bit heavy-handed, but it was a welcome slap. And another new track, “Why I Am,” threw Matthews and his band headlong into accelerating choruses that doubled, stopped on a dime and took off again while gigantic trumpeter Rashawn Ross double-fisted his horns.

The band seemed to go a bit light on the first few songs of its encore, picking up only slightly for the double-timed choruses at the end of “So Damn Lucky.” They’d already hit a few ecstatic peaks, after all—a searing sax and drums duel in a quarter-hour version of “#41,” the for-the-crowd “Ants Marching,” and a “People in every direction” cheer that strained against the ceiling of John Paul Jones Arena.

Yet bassist Stefan Lessard found a final minor key riff in him, and kicked up a dust storm of high notes to open the band’s cover of “All Along the Watchtower” in the arena, the only home left in town that could contain DMB’s crowd and noise. And as the wind began to howl, Matthews gulped air, huffed, puffed, and finally blew the house down. Hard to imagine that, tomorrow, he’d do it again.

Just for a few days this week, you can go to The Bridge and see a top-shelf collection of largely local art. It’ll be hanging in anticipation of Saturday’s Revel, a fundraising auction and party, and I recommend you start your visit by gazing at David Ellis’s piece.

It’s a large surface onto which he’s glued printed-out e-mails, mostly pertaining to a complicated installation Ellis created in 2004 in Winston-Salem. The messages document Ellis and venue staff coordinating a host of details—technology, scheduling, etc.—and they prove that to be a working artist is not just about solitary creation or divine inspiration. It’s also about planning and organization. You have to be practical.

Over the printouts, in black and grey, Ellis has painted a swirling abstract form very much like the one he painted on the outside of the Bridge itself. So this piece is the perfect emblem for the Revel: The Bridge, having established itself as a vital artspace for Charlottesville, is raising money to continue helping artists with all those practical concerns.

Not incidentally, the pieces up for auction are a stellar bunch. There are donations from a lineup of local stars (Richard Crozier, Edward Thomas, Robin Braun, Cynthia Burke) as well as some younger artists. There are paintings, photographs, a video piece by Lydia Moyer and a prop from a film by Kevin Everson.

One highlight, for my money, is William Wylie’s pair of photographs from his series on the marble quarry at Carrara, Italy. They show enormous chunks of marble resting on bare ground, displaying scratches and marks from machinery, water, and ancient geologic processes. The images seem simple, but they speak to questions of intention (the human act of separating rock from the earth) and usefulness (the special potential of this particular raw material, the stone preferred by Michelangelo).

Also keep an eye out for some intriguing new work from Patrick Costello (a Bridge stalwart and an Aunspaugh fellow at UVA), a lovely and mysterious piece by show curator Clay Witt, and Megan Marlatt’s haunting depiction of a pile of plastic kids’ toys. There will be a lot of fine work in the room, just as there is a wealth of committed artists in Charlottesville. With the recent loss of so much gallery space here, The Bridge emerges as a more necessary institution than ever. Help out if you can.