Former Spudnuts building sells for $1.1 million and 35 other Charlottesville property transactions from September 2024

Plus: Habitat Carlton Alliance takes possession of Carlton Mobile Home Park and Neighborhood Investments buys an empty lot in Fifeville

As promised, here is a list of property transactions in the City of Charlottesville for the month of September. This month seems to be one of the least active periods since I began this series in January 2021. That’s backed up by the quarterly report from the Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors which I wrote about earlier this month.

This work is a function of my research. I look at every single transaction as I sift for stories for the newsletter and to follow up my reporting on development of the city’s new zoning code through the Cville Plans Together initiative. Thanks to paid subscribers footing the bill, I’m able to do a lot of legwork.  

I am particularly interested in the growth in assessments since 2020. Both the pandemic and the increase in development rights permitted by the new zoning code likely both play a role, but scarce supply is almost certainly a factor. 

One of the products of the Cville Plans Together initiative was an Affordable Housing Plan that morally committed Council to spend $10 million a year on housing issues. They have well exceeded that amount but demands for more money are likely. 

Council’s ability to spend money is assisted by a significant rise in the amount of revenue derived from the real property tax. In 2019, the total taxable assessed value for the 15,071 taxable properties listed in the Land Book was $7,647,893,000. That yielded a total tax amount of $72,654,983 in tax revenue.

In 2024, the total number of taxable parcels rose to 15,114 and the total amount eligible for tax increased by over $3.25 billion. The Land Book published on April 1 of this year had a figure of $104,649,939.84 in tax revenue based on a tax rate of $0.96 per $100 per assessed value. 

However, Council then increased the property tax rate to $0.98 and that brought in $2.18 million in revenue. There was very little opposition at any of the public hearings this cycle. 

What will the assessments be in 2025? What will the surplus for FY2024 be? Will City Council increase tax rates any further next April? Will candidates emerge for Council that represent a different philosophy of government? 

These are the broader questions I am interested in reporting, and I am grateful for your paid support so I can keep asking the questions. This particular post is behind a paywall to encourage new paid subscriptions, but you can also wait a week and it will be posted to Information Charlottesville. August 2024 is now posted. 

There are no analytical trends in this summary, but I recognize the need to provide more of that information. I don’t mention exact addresses unless a corporation bought the property. I try to explain as much as I can, but many of these will become bigger stories. I’ve already written some of those either for the newsletter or for my weekly column in C-Ville Weekly. 

And with that the paywall drops!