We did this last year and it was a great experience. Lots of Old Trail and Crozet folks participating in getting kids involved with and loving soccer.

From the Old Trail blog:

Beginning Saturday, September 11th, we will be starting the season of the Old Trail/Crozet Soccer League for children ages 3 to 6.  It is a casual program where the parents coach, kids work in small groups, and then come together at the end.  It is a great program to introduce kids to soccer, help them build skills, meet new friends and have fun!

This is a co-op soccer program, not a drop-off program.  Please plan to remain on the field while your child is at practice.  As a co-op soccer program all parents should plan on helping out in some way. 
…

If you are interested in signing up your children, please fill out and complete the registration form found here by next Thursday, September 9th:

Feel free to contact me with any questions at lisasauce@gmail.com. Looking forward to seeing you there!

For those not wanting to go the SOCA route, this is a great option.

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Crozet/Old Trail Soccer League – Starting Next Weekend

In a January post (here), we wrote about the significant influence that homeowners' associations sometimes play in deciding what a person can and cannot do on his property.  We said that clients are as likely to object one way as the other to the rules established and enforced by their homeowner's association:

It is not uncommon to hear clients complain about their association being either too intrusive or not intrusive enough in terms of regulating their -- and their neighbors' -- rights. It can certainly be a difficult line to draw, as neighbors try to be good neighbors but also express their own preferences for what is or is not reasonable.

Now, word arises from the West of a fascinating homeowners' association struggle with a property owner who objects to the association's rule against flying certain kinds of flags.

Marc Lacey has the story in Monday's New York Times, here.

According to Lacey, homeowner Andy McDonel received a notice from his association - the Avalon Village Community Association - demanding that he stop flying the Gadsden Flag on his property.

FLAG HISTORY INTERLUDE: In case you haven't recently studied the historical flags of the United States, the Gadsden Flag (which includes an image of a coiled snake and the phrase "Don't Tread On Me") was used by certain Continental naval forces during the American Revolution. It was named for Colonel Christopher Gadsden from South Carolina. More recently, it has taken on a renewed political importance as a symbol, for some people, of the Tea Party Movement. It association with the Tea Party is, no doubt, the reason that McDonel's story has received national attention. For property law junkies, it's just a good debate-starter! 

According to Lacey, the Avalon Village Community Association has taken the position that it is within its rights to prohibit its members from flying the Gadsden Flag because that flag was not included by the Arizona legislature in a law that listed several flags that all property owners have the explicit right to display.

Avalon's argument is based on the idea that the Arizona statute, by including a particular list of flags, necessarily excludes all flags which are not listed; in other words, a homeowners association logically has the right to prohibit its members from flying the flags that are not listed in the Arizona statute, including the Gadsden Flag.  This interpretation is rooted in the legal theory of "expressio unius est exclusio alterius" (now there's some Latin to spice up your Friday!), which means that items excluded from a statute were intentionally excluded by the legislators who voted for the law.

Interestingly, the Code of Virginia includes a provision similar to Arizona's, stating that property owners have the right to display the American flag, which cannot be infringed by a homeowners association. The difference is that Virginia's statutory provision is even more limited than Arizona's, as it references only "the flag of the United States."

"No association shall prohibit any lot owner from displaying ... the flag of the United States whenever such display is in compliance with ... the United States Code." (Code of Virginia Section 55-513.1)

The Avalon Village Community Association's lawyer has made the point that Andy McDonel should have been aware of the prohibition against flying the Gadsden Flag, particularly since he was formerly an officer of the association.  On this point we can certainly agree: potential owners would be wise to spend a couple extra hours reviewing their association's bylaws and other governing documents, to be sure that they agree and are comfortable with the neighborhood's rules. And if you are an adamant flag-displayer -- be it the Gadsden, the Parrothead, the Soviet, or the Cavalier Football Flag! -- be sure you have the right to fly your flag before signing your purchase contract.

It's Labor Day weekend, and The Fall is just around the corner.

• 162 of 2906 properties of all types sold in C'ville, Albemarle, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa, Nelson  in August 2010.
• 127 of the 162 were  single family homes.  2047 of the 2906 properties currently available are detached, single family homes.
• This means homesellers had a 6% rate of success.  Or, to put it the other way, a 94% chance of failure.
• Sales were down 30% for all types of inventory in the City + 5 Counties from August 2009. 
• Sales for individual counties have not yet been posted, to compare with July 2010's news, which included a nationwide drop of 27% in sales to a  15 year low, plus a drop of 48% in Albemarle County for single family homes.  Read.
• Inventory for August 2010 is up 50% from August 2009.
• Inventory in August 2010 is up 20% from July 2010. 
• "18 Months of Inventory" means that it would take that long, at this pace, to clear the housing stock.  A "balanced" market has 6 months of inventory.
  
• National inventory (existing) is at 12 months supply.
• Mortgage Rates ave declined for 10 of the past 11 weeks, now at 4.3%.

The data comes from Nest Realty Group.  Broker Jonathan Kauffman comments that the market will continue to "correct" itself, but that the two major factors are unemployment rising locally and rising nationally, plus  huge inventory. 

Actually, the most important element holding back sales in this market: price.  Inventory will clear out when prices reflect  the idea that bubble prices of earlier years do not indicate actual value now.  In this area, Foreclosure resale prices are closest to "fair market value," and Short Sale pricing is getting more realistic as well.  Check out daily "Price Reductions" on Trulia.com.

Read the Nest Realty Group post.

Below: Graph of 2009 and 2010 Single Family Home Sales in Charlottesville, Albemarle, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa, Nelson  
Click for larger image in new window.

Below: Table of 2009 and 2010 Single Family Home Sales in Charlottesville, Albemarle, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa, Nelson.
Click for larger image in new window.

Below: Changes in Inventory Levels for All Property Types, C'ville + 5 Counties
Click for larger image in new window.

Below: Table of Inventory and Sales 2009 - 2010, All Property Types, C'ville + 5 Counties
Click for larger image in new window.

Colored graph via C'ville Bubble Blog; all others via Nest Realty Group

Put it on your calendars.

Look at the schedule.

Check out the artists.

Buy tickets!

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Search the MLS for homes for sale in Crozet, also known as the 22932 zip code. :)

Copyright RealCentralVA.com, LLC. If you like this post, please, visit RealCrozetVA.comwhere this was originally posted.

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Crozet Music Festival 1-3 October 2010!

Tonight at 6:30 watch as the UVA band marches down the downtown mall and onto the pavilion stage.  Tomorrow will be the first UVA home game of the season!  Kickoff is 6pm.

The US lost 54,000 jobs in August.  The Charlottesville Metro Area is following this trend of vanishing jobs. The "real" national rate (unemployed long term, stopped looking, underemployed)  ticked up to 16.7%.

Click for larger image in new window.

Where are the College Bubble Blogs? Why is the same amount of vitriol not conveyed upon higher education institutions?

The Higher Education Bubble: It’s About to Burst

Found via TaxProf Blog, via Instapundit.

Update: Read this horrifying story sent to me by a reader, Higher Ed. Racket: How Kids Are Paying a Fortune for Rip-off ‘Prestige’ Educations:

What if we actually started measuring how much students learn at their colleges and universities? How would that change the competition among institutions? Would the schools with the blue-chip price tags and high average debt loads fall from the top ranks? Would it spell an end to the era in which a forbidding set of entrance standards and a few stone facades are enough to tell us that a school is doing a great job? Let’s hope so. It would be great if more universities competed to be excellent. What we have now is schools that spend a lot of money — students’ money, taxpayers’ money — merely to look that way.

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Friday Chart – Housing Bubble versus Higher Education Bubble

Be there or be somewhat uninformed. Me? I’ll be pulling my shift in a soccer carpool and depending on others for their accounts.

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Search the MLS for homes for sale in Crozet, also known as the 22932 zip code. :)

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Crozet Community Association Meeting 9 September

Why not to get credit cards in the time leading up to buying a home.But … apparently lenders wont’ have to run a second full credit check before closing on a mortgage:

Despite earlier reports to the contrary, it turns out that your mortgage lender will not have to pull a second full credit report on you hours before closing on your home purchase or refinancing.

In a clarification of a policy announced earlier this year, mortgage giant Fannie Mae now says that applicants will need to come clean about any debts they have incurred since they submitted their mortgage application — or debts they never disclosed on the application. But a formal pre-closing credit report will not be mandatory to confirm creditworthiness.

The chances of everyone in the lending pipeline (underwriters) actually getting this memo: slim to none. Best advice: be careful with your credit when you’re buying a home.

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When Buying a Home, Manage your Credit Wisely