Our Relatively Low Foreclosure Rate

Published by Waldo Jaquith on February 24, 2008 in Business. 2 Comments

'We Buy Houses' SignIn today’s Daily Progress Brian McNeill writes that the area is weathering the foreclosure crisis better than most, but it still looks like a bad situation. 0.5% of area homeowners are facing foreclosure, compared to 0.8% for the whole of Virginia and 1.3% for the whole country. Piedmont Housing Alliance reports a 174% increase in people asking for help between ’05-’07. But the most clever figure comes from the Progress itself:

Meanwhile, the number of notices of foreclosure published in the Daily Progress’ classifieds section also jumped significantly. Last year saw a 30 percent increase in the notices over 2006. Moreover, there were 47 percent more foreclosure notices in January than in the previous year.

Why the comparatively low numbers here?

A key reason Charlottesville has fewer foreclosures is because the region has far fewer subprime mortgage loans than elsewhere in the state and region. Roughly 2.43 percent of the Charlottesville area’s owner-occupied homes were financed by a subprime loan, while that figure was 5.66 percent in Richmond, 4.14 across Virginia and 5.62 percent for the nation.

I assume we’ll know if the numbers spike, because foreclosure scam signs will spring up in the median strips like mushrooms after a spring rain.

Craigslist Hookers

Published by Waldo Jaquith on February 21, 2008 in Crime. 22 Comments

Mark Tenia at WCAV called up a Craigslist hooker, who offered him a “Greek” or a “French” for $150/hour. He called back and said he was a reporter, and she did a phone interview, saying the usual things prostitutes say when they’re interviewed. Tenia even called up the Albemarle Police, who said they they’d never even heard of Craigslist.

French? Greek? Am I so unhip I don’t even know the slang anymore?

Sports Complex Proposed for Pantops

Published by Waldo Jaquith on February 18, 2008 in Business, Development and Sports. 18 Comments

In an effort to worsen traffic on Pantops (one assumes), a Pennsylvania businessman has proposed building an indoor sports complex there. Jeremy Borden writes in the Progress about the $9M, 125k ft.2 soccer, tennis and basketball facility, which would be built on land that the guy already owns. He’s looking to work with the guy who owns the land adjacent, too, for an even larger project.

Pantops is probably an appropriate place for this sort of a thing, but without doing something radically different with the transportation network there, things are only going to get worse.

Bus Rapid Transit Would Cost $100M+

Published by Waldo Jaquith on February 18, 2008 in Taxes and Transportation. 63 Comments

The proposed city/county bus rapid transit system would cost over $100M, Seth Rosen writes in today’s Daily Progress. Both municipalities have agreed to petition the General Assembly for permission to create a joint transit authority, but there’s not much agreement how that will manifest itself. The most expensive option is to create bus-only lanes along 29 N, allowing mass transit to become a faster means of commuting than driving.

This seems to be a lot like the “need” for an larger, $19M sewer line running up 29 N. If we intend to continue our rate of growth then, yes, these things do qualify as needs. But if we look at the costs of a new lane, new buses, a new sewer pipe, a new fire station, new schools, etc., and decide that it’s too much, then we’re obligated to limit our growth accordingly and live within our means.

Waynesboro to Get a Minor League Team?

Published by Waldo Jaquith on February 16, 2008 in Sports. 9 Comments

Camden Yards

An investor is in talks with the Red Sox and Waynesboro about establishing a minor league team there, Jimmy LaRoue reports for the News Virginian. Jim Morris is looking to plunk down $20M on a 4,000 seat stadium, but he’s looking for W’boro to chip in some money to make it happen. Though this island of Red Sox nation would certainly love it if the Sox did establish a team here, there’s more than enough cause to think that it ain’t gonna happen. But that doesn’t mean that an independent franchise couldn’t be persuaded to open up a location in our area.

(Via Jim Duncan)

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