While the high price of housing in Charlottesville has made headlines and plagued buyers in the real estate market for quite some time, a potential solution was recently introduced that would aim to increase the supply of affordable housing in the area.
Frazier Bell, a mortgage sales manager at Second Bank in Charlottesville, pointed out that Charlottesville currently represents one of the most expensive regions of the state to live in. To help combat the lack of reasonable housing in the area, Bell joined others in investigating a program called Community Land Trust.
"The idea [behind the trust] is to have sustainable, affordable housing," Bell said.
The trust, a nonprofit corporation, would offer housing to qualified individuals at a lower price by selling the homes at prices that do not include the cost of the land, he explained. The supply is then sustained because if houses are later resold, they must also have price tags that omit the value of the land.
"This way we can provide affordable housing for people in the community that stays affordable," Bell said.
An arrangement such as the Community Land Trust could come as a welcome solution, particularly since real estate prices aren't predicted to fall anytime soon. Hunter Huber, property manager at Blue Ridge Apartments, explained that real estate prices have been slowly increasing during the past few years. He said this is true not only in areas surrounding the University, where average rent for a four-bedroom apartment lands at around $2,000 a month, but throughout the entire City of Charlottesville.
Huber attributed the rising prices in Charlottesville to the fame the city achieved when it was named the best city to live in the U.S. and Canada in 2004.
The rising prices are "going to be the trend for a while" due to this distinction, Huber said.
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