February 2022 Property Transactions: Brown’s Store on Avon Street sells for $2.4 million; Former Cavalier Diner building sells for $1.3 million

Another anecdotal look at property transactions within Charlottesville

When you read through my latest installment of monthly property transaction summaries, think about the 2022 assessments in Charlottesville. Virginia state law requires properties to be assessed at 100 percent of their fair market value as determined by the appropriate local government. 

“Market value is defined as the most probable price expressed in terms of money that a property would bring if exposed for sale on the open market,” reads an FAQ on the website of the Charlottesville City Assessor. “The sale should be an arms-length transaction between a willing seller and a willing buyer, both of whom are knowledgeable concerning all the uses to which the property is adapted and for which it is capable of being used.” 

Those uses are now more expansive and allow more intense development now that the City Council had adopted a Future Land Use Map that grants significantly more buildable space pet lot. The rezoning process continues to be worked on by consultants and staff in order to govern how the theoretical will translate into the actual.

Meanwhile, the property market continues to transform, transaction by transactions. Charlottesville’s assessments have been increasing in value for many years, but this year the overall average property increased 10.77 percent, with residential properties increasing by an average of 11.69 percent. (read the January 27, 2022 news release)

I began doing this work in January 2021 in order to learn more about what’s happening on the ground in a market that many don’t understand. Plenty of others do and a major reason I do all of the work I do is to try to learn what’s happening and share it with the public. The more of us who know how these things work, the more fair the housing market might be. 

I am not a real estate expert, but I know a few things about how things work. Or don’t work. Many people have differing opinions, but my hope in sharing this is to establish more shared facts to assist the community conversation. I disclaim again I am a homeowner in Charlottesville, but I’m a professional journalist first. 

This article goes out first to paid Substack subscribers and those who pay through Substack. It will be posted on Information Charlottesville on Monday, March 14, 2022. Take a look at the past 13 installments.

I appreciate those who have opted to support my research these past 19 months and this is one of the ways.