A look through real estate sales in Charlottesville for the first month of the year shows a market with signs of a cooler 2023, while also revealing hints that there is money to be made in the future. Sales volumes are down from January 2022, while inventories are beginning to increase.
“January saw fewer transactions than we are accustomed to, and likely represents the start of a trend that we’ve seen where people are choosing to not sell because they either have no compelling reason to sell, or they have interest rates below 4 percent,” said local realtor Jim Duncan. “Current market rates are well above that.”
But one month of data is not enough to predict a trend, and there is still a long way to go in 2023 to see if this year will follow the past two years, which have seen double-digit assessment increases in both Albemarle and Charlottesville. Plus, any analysis of the market must also factor in changing rules that will give property owners significantly more development rights in the near future.
In many cases, properties sold just below the 2023 assessments, including a house on Minor Road in the Lewis Mountain neighborhood: Its sales price of $534,600 was 4.63 percent under the assessor’s value. A house at 907 Nassau St. sold for $485,000, just under the 2023 assessment of $503,800.
Anyone buying property in Charlottesville now has a clearer picture of what the future zoning code will allow. Three empty lots sold in January in the new Residential A district, which will allow for three housing units on each property.
A single-family home on Fontaine Avenue went for $355,000, right between the 2022 and 2023 assessments. The purchaser may not realize that the property will jump from R-2 to the new Commercial Mixed Use 5, which, under the draft zoning code, allows up to five-story buildings before any bonus height is given for providing below-market residences.
House flips to watch include a two-bedroom house at 1213 Little High St. that was purchased for $208,000, more than half under the 2023 value of $448,800. The buyer is Quick Fix Real Estate LLC. Another, a property at 1205 King St. in Fifeville, sold for $175,000 to Cardinal Ventures. A house on 12th Street in the Venable neighborhood was bought by a Puerto Rico-based nonprofit that paid about $50,000 under the 2023 assessment.
Other existing homes continued to sell well above assessment, including a two-bedroom house on Sheridan Avenue in the Locust Grove neighborhood that was bought for $375,000, or 17.8 percent over the 2023 assessment. A three-bedroom house at 815 Elliott Ave. went for $565,000, or 35.07 percent over the assessment. That property includes a separate apartment.
A house at 1505 Cherry Ave. was purchased for $425,000, or 43.1 percent above the 2023 assessment. That property is within the new Residential B zoning, which could allow up to six units by-right and 12 if all of the units will be subsidized.
Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville sold two new homes in the Jefferson Park Avenue neighborhood to two qualified homebuyers. They went for $281,900 and $284,900, and the deeds include restrictions that allow Habitat to have the right to buy them first if the owners decide to sell. Both are single-family detached units that are also located in the new CX-5 district.
“Families only pay what they can afford, which is always less than that and generally about half of that,” said Dan Rosensweig, Habitat’s CEO. “In addition, we provide a zero interest mortgage to them, which saves them generally tens of thousands of dollars in interest expense.”