Crozet Neighborhood Market Report: Waylands Grant Real Estate

Located in Crozet, Waylands Grant was one of the first neo-traditional neighborhoods in Albemarle County.  The colorful streetscape offers a combination of single family homes with front porches, as well as a variety of townhomes and manor homes.  With Waylands Grant, Albemarle County planners began introducing neo-traditional neighborhood design into Albemarle County real estate offerings – other neighborhoods like Old Trail and Belvedere were based on similar design philosophies. 

The neighborhood includes sidewalks, alleys accessing rear entry garages, garages with upstairs living quarters, and common park areas for residents to congregate.  Though Waylands Grant home sales were slow in the early stages, things eventually picked up and the last new home was sold in 2007.  Waylands Grant is close to Downtown Crozet, near Old Trail, and just a few minutes from the new Crozet Harris Teeter.

Detached Homes

Single family homes in Waylands Grant range in size from around 2100 square feet to almost 4000 square feet.  According to the Charlottesville MLS, home prices and values in Waylands Grant have followed an almost identical path as overall values of single family homes in Albemarle County through 2008.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2009 prices show a relatively sharp decline – off almost 25% from 2008 prices and down significantly compared to overall Albemarle County home values.  While prices clearly show a drop, there are a few factors to take into account.

1. Small sample size to-date. There has been one single family home closed in Waylands Grant and one Under Contract. This small sample size sometimes makes it hard to draw firm conclusions of overall neighborhood values.

2. The two homes in 2009 were significantly larger (averaging 3279 square feet) than the typical Waylands Grant home. Price per square foot tends to drop for each additional square foot of space. In other words, homes with larger square footage will almost always have lower square footage than similar homes of smaller square footage.

Let’s take a closer look at the second point…

Here are the two homes we’re talking about in 2009:

Address	Status	SF	Beds	Baths	List Price	Sale Price
6102 Laura Lane	U/C	3085	4	4	$324,900	TBD
1503 Edmond	SOLD	3474	5	3.5	$398,000	$378,000

 6102 Laura Lane is under contract (a foreclosure) and is listed at $105/sf.  1503 Edmond sold for $107/sf.

There was an additional home on the market for a few weeks that was 3682 square feet and was listed at $399,000 ($108/sf).  It was withdrawn from the market after about a month.

However, if we dig a little deeper into these single family home values, we’ll see that it actually isn’t quite as bad as it appears.  The average Waylands Grant home that sold between 2004 and 2008 was around 2775 square feet.  Since the2009 samplings are significantly larger, it’s like comparing apples to oranges. 

Let’s take a look at a few ‘larger’ homes sold in Waylands Grant over the last few years:

Address	Year Sold	SF	Beds	Baths	List Price	Sale Price	$/SF
6126 Laura Lane	2007	3865	4	4	$449,900	$425,000	$110
6120 Laura Lane	2007	3640	4	3.5	$449,000	$435,000	$120
1815 Clay Drive	2007	3509	5	2.5	$469,900	$465,000	$133
6120 Laura Lane	2005	3640	4	3.5	$429,500	$429,500	$118
1403 Edmond	2004	3157	5	3.5	$349,500	$353,000	$112

 The actual average per square foot price of these homes is about $118/sf.  While a drop from $118/sf to around $105/sf is a significant drop (about 11%), it’s about in line with what we’ve seen across Central Virginia.  It will be interesting to see if any homes around 2700 come on the market in Waylands Grant this year and what they sell for.

Attached Homes

Just like the single family detached homes in Waylands Grant, attached homes have almost mirrored Albemarle County per square foot values from 2004-2008.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yet, 2009 may be a different story.  With the town home and attached home market in Crozet slowing significantly, Waylands Grant hasn’t been immune to the slowdown.  In fact, since January of 2008, there have been 10 different attached homes in the neighborhood that have been listed and either were withdrawn or expired.  In that same time, only 2 have sold (one of which was a foreclosure) and 1 is currently under contract.   

Until the market stabilizes and the amenities promised in Crozet (like the Crozet Library, the Downtown Crozet Streetscape Project, and the Jarmans Gap Road Expansion) actually start to get closer to coming to fruition, I expect that the attached home and town home market in Crozet will continue to suffer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We’ll keep an eye on Waylands Grant real estate offerings and sales over the coming months.