- Overall Charlottesville MSA sales in Q1 were at their highest Q1 level since  2007

- Albemarle County sales in Q1 were their highest Q1 level since 2007

- Charlottesville City sales in Q1 were their highest Q1 level since 2008.

- Charlottesville City single family sales are up 40.5% year-over-year

- Contracts written in Q1 for single family were up 54.84% y-o-y and for attached up 160% y-o-y.

- Q1 sales in Albemarle County were up y-o-y in all 3 property type categories: single family up 10.8%, attached up 9.4% and condos up 62.5%

- Q1 contracts written in Albemarle County were up y-o-y in all 3 property type categories: single family up 31.6%, attached up 9.3% and condos up 22.2%

- Overall Charlottesville MSA Months of Inventory for single family homes in Q1 are at single digits (9.25).  That’s the lowest Q1 level since 2006.

- Overall Charlottesville MSA Months of Inventory for attached/condos in Q1 are at 9.2 months – the lowest Q1 level since 2007.

Median prices are down in most categories, but that’s expected.  These lower prices are definitely spurring some sales activity.

If you’re looking for some more detail, check out our Nest Report or reach out to your favorite Nest Associate.

Nest Report Charlottesville: 1st Quarter 2012

Today, we’re proud to release our 2011 Annual Nest Report.  It’s a great snapshot of the Charlottesville real estate market’s year in review.  We drill down and look at each of the major areas in the Charlottesville MSA and compare the sales and trends to year’s past.  By no means will this replace our ongoing monthly and quarterly reports – we’re definitely going to continue those.

If you would like a hard copy of this Annual Report, please drop by our office at 126 Garrett Suite, Suite E in Charlottesville or send us a note – we’d be glad to get one to you.

This is also part of our continued effort to educate our clients on the local real estate market.  In our opinion, it’s vital that our buyer and seller clients are up-to-speed on market conditions so that we can work with them to help them make educated real estate decisions.

Thanks again for your continued support and we hope you find this tool useful.

Over the past few years, Crozet and Northern Albemarle have been the big development spots in Albemarle County.  Neighborhoods like Old Trail and Belvedere have blossomed and have created opportunities close by.  But it looks like 5th Street could be one of Charlottesville’s development centers in the coming months.

Here’s a few examples of what’s happening just south of Downtown Charlottesville:

1. Site work has begun on the Cracker Barrel location along 5th Street – just next to the Holiday Inn by Interstate 64.

2. On the residential side, Whittington is getting closer to fruition.  If you’re familiar with that side of town, it will be close to Mosby Mountain and will include approximately 96 single family homes on 1 acre home sites.  Piedmont Realty and Construction will be building in Whittington’s first phase.

3. The biggest news seems to be what’s happening at the approved Avon Center development.  Rumors are swirling of a Wegman’s Grocery Store and a Target (pronounced Tar-zhay). This would be a big boom to the south side of town, but it will definitely change the landscape.  A major shopping area on this side of Charlottesville that is accessible from Downtown, Interstate 64, Avon Street, and 5th Street could actually alleviate some traffic issues along the 29 corridor, the 250 Bypass, and Hydraulic Road.  We’ll see…

We’ll keep you posted on what we hear – stay tuned to the Nest Report for more updates.

* Photo courtesy of our friends at Charlottesville Tomorrow.

The Nest Realty Q4 Nest Report was picked up yesterday by two local news stations.  If you haven’t read our report, check out these quick snippets…and then touch base with your favorite Nest Realty agent to get a little more of a recap.

Overall, we’re using the two words: CAUTIOUS OPTIMISM.  For the first time in years, there is actually a string of positive news in real estate.  It’s a combination of positive national news and positive stories locally from the real estate trenches.  Want a great story ‘from the trenches’?  This past weekend, one of our Nest agents, Janice Kavanagh, hosted an open house and had 33 visitors.  Yes, 33!  That’s a sign that buyers are beginning to look.

Here’s the story and video from Charlottesville’s NBC 29.

And here’s one from the Charlottesville Newsplex.

Stay tuned for more analysis on the Charlottesville real estate market in coming days.  We’re really working hard to dig through the numbers so that our agents and clients have a better take on what’s happening in the market.

If you are intrigued, give us a shout and we’ll shoot you over some more info.

Special thanks to Marijean Jaggers of Jaggers Communications, Barbara Hutchinson of CHO, Ron Morse of Baja Bean, and ACAC for their help.

Nest Realty is proud to announce 2 exciting additions to our Charlottesville office.  Robert Russo and Janice Kavanagh have both joined Nest and we couldn’t be happier to have them on our team.

You can get to know Robert and Janice a little better by checking out their bios on our web site.

If you do know them, I think everyone will agree that they are tremendous real estate agents that represent their clients and the Nest brand very well.

Welcome to our ‘nest’, Robert and Janice!

A report from the Daily Progress yesterday projects that there is a chance that the partially-built Landmark Hotel in Charlottesville may start moving forward again in 2012.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Landmark Hotel saga…here’s a quick recap with some additional story links from The Hook.

Though there still is obviously confusion around this ‘he said – he said’ story, it’s exciting that this project could potentially be re-kickstarted with a completion date in sight.  We can see The Landmark from our Charlottesville Nest office and it’s actually kind of depressing.  With so much vitality and excitement on the Downtown Mall, the current state of the Landmark puts a bit of a damper on the Charlottesville landscape.

We’re looking forward to see how this story unfolds over the next several months…

A quick look at life in Charlottesville.  It’s impossible to capture the true essence of Charlottesville in less than 4 minutes, but this is a start.  We hope you enjoy…