New-home sales rise fastest in 47 years
As regular readers know, we’re leery about extrapolating national data onto the Richmond Virginia market (usually because we’re doing better than the national average) but this item from CNN/Money caught our eye. New home sales improved in March at the fastest single-month rate in 47 years, according to a government report released Friday, as buyers snatched up properties ahead of the tax credit that’s set to expire. New-home sales... [Read More...]
Another ‘green shoot’: Demand for construction begins to rebuild
The age-old question when trying to call the ‘bottom’ is: Do you wait for the data to look good, or is it enough for the data to stop getting worse? A recent article in Bizsense bounces between these two extremes. One the one hand: New home construction is still down 34 percent from 2008 levels in Chesterfield. And overall activity (commercial, new homes and renovations) is down 50 percent from the first quarter of 2008, when Chesterfield... [Read More...]
Richmond Trying to Get Google Fiber
Richmond has responded to an RFI (request for information) from Google to be selected by the internet giant to get the experimental Google Fiber. The Google Fiber for Communities Project is an experiment to build an ultra-high speed broadband network that will deliver internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today. The planned network will offer speeds over one gigabit per second in the fiber-to-the-home connections.... [Read More...]
The Housing Clock
In 2007, the bottom fell out. We all lost equity. We lost jobs. We lost money. We burned through savings. Our 401k’s got hammered. It was not fun. From a housing standpoint, for the most part, we just stopped. We all stopped buying, selling, moving, lending or pretty much anything else to do with real estate. When we tried to sell, the offers that we got (if we got one at all) were very low with tons of strings attached. If it was a contingent... [Read More...]
Are you qualified?
When I ask if someone is qualified to buy a new home, most people think I am referring to their mortgage qualification. I am not. While mortgage qualification is always a concern, the even larger concern in my mind, is whether or not a buyer is qualified to BUILD the home. Huh? Building a new home (or more correctly spoken, having one built for you) is hard work. It is time consuming. It is frustrating. It is confusing. It is emotional. It... [Read More...]
