Why Move to Crozet?

It’s a real estate post; I’m real estate agent. One of the best additions to Nest’s site over the years is the Seller’s Scoop – where the seller tells their story. Pictures are worth 1,000 words, but a few authentic words are invaluable. I love the words of my clients.

Wickham Pond

  • Living Here Has Been: We have loved that we have found this place in Wickham Pond in Crozet, VA. We had no idea how much we would fall in love with this place every. single. day. The mountains, the people, the energy! We love that we can go to D.C. or Richmond or just stay home. There is magic in these mountains!!
  • View: We love our mountain view from the master bedroom. It faces toward the farm with rolling hills with the mountain as a back drop. You can literally see the weather move in as it approaches.
  • Room: We love to watch the fire in the living room especially on a chilly night.
  • Walk: We love to walk through our neighborhood and even the Wickham Pond trails. There is even a trail that crosses over into Western Ridge. It is easy to walk to Highlands as well. So many ways to walk or run. All the neighborhoods have hills and flat areas
  • Hike: We love to hike Sugar Hollow, Humpback and even Mint Springs. We just discovered the Ragged Mountain area where you can hike around the reservoir. The options are endless from the Monticello Trail to the Shenandoah National Park right in our backyard!
  • Breakfast: A new local breakfast place just opened in downtown Crozet. Simple menu. Good food. We love to go to Charlottesville and eat at the Bluegrass Grill! YUM.
  • Lunch: Roots Natural Kitchen in Charlottesville is the best. A great meal that fills your belly and doesn’t empty your wallet! A UVA student started/run business. Greenwood Gourmet Grocery Store is such a fun place to shop for local and interesting goodies and
  • Dinner: Sal’s Pizza in Crozet is our go to Pizza Shop! Restoration in Old Trail in a wonderful place to chill out and enjoy a beautiful view!! On the Downtown mall, we love to go to the Red Pump. Delicious farm to table.
  • Pub/Winery: Fardowners….local fare and hometown feel right next to the Crozet Hardware store and Mudhouse Coffee Shop!!!

Parkside Village

SELLER’S SCOOP

  • Living Here Has Been: Community. We’ll miss it. Crozet parades, special events. Passing books from one person to the next in a long line stretching from the “old Crozet library” to the beautiful new building will be something we remember forever!
  • View: Bathroom picture window. Most mornings I wake up, walk into the bathroom, and spend a second to take in the mountain view looking south from the house to Heards Mountain.
  • Room: Kitchen, as seen from the family room. Claudine loves to cook so I have spent many an evening sitting in the family room reading or watching TV while smelling the delights she’s cooking up from the kitchen. When onions, garlic, and olive oil hit the pan
  • Tree: The maple in our back yard. It’s beautiful in the spring and glorious in the fall. Best of all it’s far enough away from the house that I haven’t had to clean a gutter since moving in!
  • Walk: Name one. From this location we can walk to our favorite downtown shops or restaurants, hit the Crozet trails to surrounding neighborhoods, walk the new track around Crozet Park, or simply stroll the Parkside neighborhood.
  • Hike: Mint Springs Park – great mountain trails with great views. Once while in the park we may have even ventured off the beaten path and up Bucks Elbow Mountain to find the site of the 1959 plane crash.
  • Breakfast: Coffee and a pastry at Mudhouse
  • Lunch: Sandwich at Greenhouse or Crozet Pizza.
  • Dinner: Fardowners – Sunday evening especially – $2.50 pints on VA brewed beers!
  • Pub/Winery: Stinson Vineyards – unbelievable mountain views, great wine, and live music on Thursday evenings in the summer.

Questions/Curious about the Crozet Real Estate Market?

If you are curious about the market, and googling isn’t doing it for you, come talk to two experts about the Crozet real estate market.

Questions about the Crozet real estate market? Curious about the new construction or resale market? Stop by NestWest in Piedmont PlaceThursday from 5 to 7, grab a drink Blue Ridge Bottle Shop, a bite from Morsel Compass, dessert at Crozet Creamery, and chat with David & Jim!

NestWest is right next to Over the Moon Bookstore & Artisan Gallery!

Crozet Real Estate with David & Jim – Start of 2018

We went for a shorter, tighter segment this time. What do you think?

Mark  your calendars – 18 January from 5 to 7 at the Rooftop. Come talk about the Crozet real estate market with David & Jim.

Questions? Ask David or Jim.

Read all of the real estate posts here on RealCrozetVA.


Transcription is in the works; I’ll update this post then.

Legal Disclosure: David and I are real estate agents with Nest Realty in Charlottesville.


Quick data points from our notes

* 150M vs 129M
* 313 vs 282 up 11%
* New construction – 113 vs 90 – up 26%
* Resale market – pretty flat 200 sold in 2017 w/ 61 DOM vs 192 in 2016 with 57 DOM
* 55 sales over 1 acre vs 52 – people want small yards
* 21 land sales
* 5 distressed

Tight inventory continues
New construction continues to do extremely well.

In Old Trail, in 2016 87 sold, and 2017, 80 sold

Fun Fact – 55 new construction sales in Old Trail both years

Fun Fact – Trails mentioned 5 times in 2007, 35 in 2016 and 40 times in 2017

December 2017 – 29 ratified contracts in 2017 vs 17 in 2016.

 

 

Transcript

 

Crozet Real Estate Market – Starting 2018

Jim: Hey there. Jim Duncan with Nest Realty.

David: David Farrell with Nest Realty, sitting here at Nest West.

Jim: Do a little bit of Crozet real estate. Looking back at 2017, Crozet had 115 million dollars of real estate sales, versus 129 million in the previous year.

David: It was a heck of a year, Jim. We had 313 sales. That was up 11% from last year — the most ever in Crozet. Remember we’re defining Crozet by the Brownsville —

Jim: And Crozet Elementary.

David: — and Crozet Elementary school district.

Jim: New construction?

David: Was also up. 113 new homes build in Crozet last year, up from 90 the year before in 2016, so that a 26% increase, new home constructions.

Jim: Heck of a year for new.

Resale, actually, was kind of flat. I think, driven by the new construction taking it. 200 sold in 2017 with 61 days on the market, and 192 sold in 2016 with about the same, 57 days on the market.

David: Still impressive though.

We had 55 sales on an acre or more. Those are typically a couple of the older subdivisions in town, but mostly properties outside of the area.

Jim: Right.

David: There were 21 land sales overall for the year, which is the same as in 2016\. The good news is, we only had five distressed sales over the whole year — short sale, foreclosures — there were 7 in 2016\. So we’re thrilled to see that.

Jim: That’s a great thing.

David: Good to see that figure drop.

Jim: Looking forward to 2018\. We’re going to have continued tight inventory. It’s going to be hard to buy a house for a lot of people. New construction is going to continue to kill it, I think.

David: Yes.

Jim: — but for those looking for stuff under 500 in Crozet…

David: It’s getting hard.

Jim: It’s going to be hard, getting harder.

David: Attached home in Old Trail or lock into a resale.

Jim: Yes.

Old Trail, 2016, 87 sold, and 2017, fewer — 80 sold.

David: I thought it was extremely interesting in Old Trail that 55 new construction sold in 2017; the exact same as in 2016\. So even though we see dirt flying over there constantly, the build-out rate seems to be around 55 — between 50 and 60…

Jim: Which is good. A good stable rate of new construction.

My fun fact for this one is that in 2007 in the MLS, trails were mentioned as a selling point five times; 2016, 35 times, and last year, 2017, 40 times. So huge kudos to the Crozet Trails crew for all that they do.

David: Great growing trail system.

Jim: Yes.

And, busy, busy December. In Brownsville and Crozet there were 29 ratified contracts in 2017, only 17 in 2016.

David: Pretty impressive.

Jim: Very.

David: Busy drinking beer around here also?

Jim: Oh, there’s lots of places to drink beer.

David: Third Thursday of the month, we’re going to be up at the Roof Top, so that’s Thursday, January 18th; we’ll be up there from 5 to 7 if you want to come talk about real estate. If you have any questions about heading into 2018, just stop by and have a beer, and we’ll be happy to chat with you.

Jim: If you’re thinking about selling your house, I think now is the time to start having the conversation about getting ready for the spring market, because it is really and truly right around the corner.

David: I’ve got listings coming on this week. I bet you do also?

Jim: Same too.

David: OK. I’m David Farrell of Nest Realty.

Jim: Jim Duncan of Nest Realty.

David: Good luck with your real estate in 2018.

Prepping for Crozet’s 2018 Real Estate Market

A lot of homes will come on the market in 2017 in Crozet, but how many will fit you?

Crozet, Brownsville Elementary Schools -New listings, contracts, solds
Crozet, Brownsville Elementary Schools -New listings, contracts, solds

Q: When should a buyer or seller start the “I’m serious about buying or selling a home next year” conversation?

A: As early as possible. (same advice goes for Crozet area sellers)

Some perspective on the Crozet market … if you are looking to purchase a resale home, best start targeting your micro market now.

From January 2016 to 25 September 2017

  • 533 homes sold in Crozet via the Charlottesville MLS
    • 331 homes sold for less than $500K
      • 43 of these were new construction (13%)
      • 206 sold for more than $500K; 135 were new construction (66%!)
    • 111 were attached homes; 421 were single family
  • Of the 331 that sold for less than $500K
    • 114 had at least 4 bedrooms
    • 111 with at least 2 bathrooms
    • 108 with at least 1,700 finished square feet
    • 91 within 2 miles of The Square
    • 38 sold for less than $400K
  • 12 homes sold in Crozet + Brownsville for less than $350K
    • Days on market for these 12? 0, 5, 11, 12, 19, 36, 41, 55, 76, 81, 116, 127
  • Schools matter; luckily, Crozet schools are pretty darn good, with great leaders in each.

Short story – it may look like a lot of houses sell every year, but when you start drilling down, determining your locational and life triangles, there may be fewer homes that come on the market in Crozet than you might think (or want/hope).

Disclosure: I’m a real estate agent. But you knew that, right?

NestWest Open House - Friday, 29 September 2017. 5pm - 7pm. With David Ferrall & Jim Duncan
NestWest Open House in Piedmont Place (between Over the Moon Bookstore & Morsel Compass) – Friday, 29 September 2017. 5pm – 7pm. With David Ferrall & Jim Duncan

Relevant


 

Continue reading “Prepping for Crozet’s 2018 Real Estate Market”

Crozet’s Real Estate Market Update – Spring 2017

David Ferrall and Jim Duncan met at the Rooftop and talked about the Crozet real estate market in Spring 2017 – resale homes, new construction, price per square foot, and a fair bit more.

Our conversation is never about just real estate numbers and data (although we could talk about that stuff forever) … we also talked about the Rooftop, Great Valu improvements, Piedmont Place, PRN’s containers, Crozet Trails and connectivity, and generally about how Crozet is truly a great place to live.

All in under 6 minutes! Questions about the market? Ask us, or stop by PRN on the Third Thursday of the month from 5pm to 7pm.

 

 

Crozet Real Estate Conversation – Looking back at 2016, forward to 2017

The Crozet real estate market … David Ferrall and Jim Duncan (that’s me!) met at PRN last week and talked about the Crozet real estate market in 2016, and speculated a bit about the 2017 market.

But the conversation is never about just real estate … we also talked about businesses that have opened in Crozet (Smoked Kitchen & Tapnée Smoked BBQ, Morsel Compass, Blue Ridge Bottleshop in Piedmont Place), changes (Southern Way moved from its spot across from Starr Hill to the old Three Notch’d Grill building, Great Valu changed hands), our favorite charities, and of course, our love for Pro Re Nata brewery.

All in under 6 minutes! Questions about the market? Ask us, or stop by PRN on 19 January at 5pm.