The Housing Interpreter December 2015

COME HOME TO RICHMOND FOR THE HOLIDAYS

DECEMBER 2015

IN THIS ISSUE: • 10 RICHMONDER FAVORITE HOLIDAY TRADITIONS • LOCAL REAL ESTATE TAX ABATEMENT PROGRAMS REWARD HOME REVITALIZATION • THE TRUE VALUE OF EARTHCRAFT HOME OWNERSHIP

10 RICHMONDER FAVORITE HOLIDAY TRADITIONS

Given

all the festivals and other special events the Richmond region hosts, it should come as no surprise that it also hosts a wealth of vibrant and diverse holiday traditions each year.

From cultural events to family outings and spectacles, these ten Richmonder favorite holiday traditions make the region a particularly enticing destination this time of year:

1. Gardenfest of Lights From the end of November through early January each year, Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens welcomes families from alll over the region to walk through a 30-acre light and botanical display. The spectacle features more than half a million twinkling lights, hand-crafted decor, model train displays, a large tree in the conservatory, holiday dinners, and other family activities. Each year, a new theme related to nature is selected for the display.

2. Court End Christmas The Valentine, a local museum that has been collecting, preserving, and interpreting Richmond’s 400-year history for over a century, hosts a one-day open house each holiday season that includes special events and tours at ten historic sites in downtown Richmond. This free event features carriage rides, carolers, living history, live music, children’s crafts, complimentary shuttle rides, and more. The shuttle rides are an event in themselves, with a museum guide aboard sharing stories and pointing out sites in between each stop that are rich in history. Long-time

residents and visitors alike are bound to learn something new. Participating sites include: • The Valentine/Wickham House • The John Marshall House • St. John’s Church • St. Paul’s Episcopal Church • The Museum and White House of the Confederacy • Monumental Church • The Egyptian Building (VCU Health Campus) • The Beers House (VCU Health Campus) • The Virginia State Capitol • Virginia’s Executive Mansion

3.Tacky Lights Tour and Run Several Richmonders have a tradition of striving to one-up the Jones’ in tacky lights displays, much to the delight of local gawkers. The Richmond TimesDispatch maintains a list—and now, a mobile app— documenting each noteworthy display in the region and its address. To avoid rubber-necking, many spectators opt to hire a driver or charter a bus to shuttle their party around to one tacky light display after another. This tradition has also inspired the “CarMax Tacky Light Run,” a 6k race that has festively dressed participants running along a route of some of Midlothian’s best tacky lights displays.

4. The Nutcracker, with Richmond Ballet and Richmond Symphony This traditional holiday ballet is performed each year at the majestic Carpenter Theatre at Richmond CenterStage. After select matinee performances,

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Richmonders and guests now have the opportunity to attend a separate ticketed event and join Clara (the principal character) and other cast members for a tea party in CenterStage’s Rhythm Hall.

5. RVA on Ice

RVA on ice is a collaborative effort among the City of Richmond, the CenterStage Foundation, and SMG Richmond, offering residents and visitors a chance to ice skate under the festively lit Richmond skyline from late November to early January on a 60’x150’ outdoor ice rink on Broad Street.

6. Bizarre Bazaar®

This large marketplace of arts, crafts, and other handmade item vendors is a forty year Richmond tradition at the Richmond Raceway Complex. Sunshine Artists Magazine ranked it the number 3 show out of its top 200 shows in the country.

7. Victorian Holidays

For six weeks, from late November through early January, Maymont attracts visitors for guided holiday tours of its seasonally decorated Gilded Age mansion. Other special events are held at the estate during a few weekends in December.

8. Fan and Church Hill Holiday House Tours

The Fan District Association and Church Hill Association both offer holiday house tours. Church Hill is the oldest community in Richmond and has homes in a mix of Federal, Greek revival and Victorian styles that were built as far back as the 1700s. Each year,

about 10 to 12 residents open their elegantly decorated homes to visitors, offering an up-close look at some of Richmond’s magnificent historic architecture. The homes in both neighborhoods are within walking distance from one another, but shuttle services are offered between sites during both tours.

9. Church Hill Candlelight Walk and Caroling

The view at night from the top of Libby Hill Park is a sight to see any time of the year; but during the holiday season, it is nothing short of spectacular. Each year, on a Friday evening in December, a candelight walk begins at Jefferson Park (Union Hill), with bagpipes and drummers leading the way. Participants proceed to historic St. John’s Church, where the congregation joins the walk, following Vespers. The crowd continues to grow, as neighborhood parties empty out onto the streets and sidewalks. Once the crowd completes its walk down streets lit by gaslights, participants gather at Libby Hill Park for caroling, and a visit from Santa. All are welcome to partake in this Church Hill neighborhood tradition.

10. It’s a Wonderful Life at the Byrd Theatre

On Christmas Eve (coincidentally, also the birthday of the Byrd Theatre), residents and visitors gather at Richmond’s treasured historic movie palace to view the classic film, “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Patrons sing carols before the show, while Bob Gulledge plays the “Mighty Wurlitzer” pipe organ. Two more showings are offered on the evening of Christmas Day. It is also a frugal way to celebrate—tickets for these shows are $1.99, just like any other show at the Byrd. ■

Local Real Estate Tax Abatement Programs Reward Home Renovation

by Jo Gehlbach, Government Affairs Coordinator, Richmond Association of REALTORS®

A few of the best kept secrets in Richmond Metro Area are the tax

abatement programs offered by Chesterfield, Hanover, and Henrico counties, as well as the City of Richmond. Each locality offers a partial exemption from real estate taxes when a property owner renovates their house or, in some areas, commercial or industrial property. Unfortunately, these mutually beneficial programs are underutilized.

For example, Chesterfield offers an 8-year partial real estate tax exemption for residential properties that are 25 years or older and have undergone improvements that increase the assessed value by more than 10%. When a property owner renovates their home, the abatement provides them with the opportunity to recover from the upfront investment, while creating more equity in the property. Neighbors adjacent to the improved property win because their property values also increase, especially if the improved property was in disrepair. And in the long run, this creates a larger tax base for the locality to reinvest in the community.

In Richmond, programs exist for single family homes, multi-family residences, commercial, and industrial properties. The property must be over 20 years old and depending on the type of property, the renovations must improve the value between 20%-40%. The increase in market value caused by the renovation will be credited from the taxable assessment for up to ten years.

Hanover offers a similar program for residential, commercial, and industrial real estate; however, the property must be over 25 years of age.

And finally, in Henrico, they will not tax any additional value gained from the improvement for seven years. Properties must be over 40 years old and assessed at no more than $250,000.

Don’t miss out on these great opportunities; visit your respective locality’s website to see if you are eligible. ■

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The True Value of EarthCraft Stuart Nuckols, Home Ownership byDirector of External Affairs, EarthCraft Virginia

Over the past 6 months, EarthCraft Virginia

has shed light on the growing role of energy efficiency in the home building industry. From rising consumer interest to the realization of “green” upgrades in the value of the home, there are more opportunities than ever for builders, Realtors, and homeowners to incorporate energy efficiency and sustainability into their lives.

In the last issue of The Housing Interpreter, you were introduced to Mark Waring, Vice President of Bain-Waring Builders and the EarthCraft Virginia Board of Directors. As an early adopter of the EarthCraft program, Bain-Waring has been building EarthCraft-certified houses since the early 2000’s, giving some of these homes plenty of time to turn over to new owners. In this article, we’ll take a deeper dive into two of these homes, reviewing energy efficiency and sustainability features along with impacts on utility costs, the sales process and homeowner satisfaction.

In 2006, Bain-Waring built a 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom single family detached ranch in Richmond, VA (pictured below). This 1,251 square foot house was efficient features in this 2006 home included: insulated crawl space, R-13 exterior wall insulation, R-38 blown insulation in the attic, and a 14 SEER heat pump, located in conditioned area. In 2007, 2008 and 2009, electric costs in this home were just over $1,000 for the entire year. In 2008, average monthly electric costs were under $100 – almost half the statewide average. (See table, above. *Current electric costs for VA are based on myenergy.com). certified to EarthCraft House and ENERGY STAR standards and achieved a HERS Index Score of 85 (or 15% more energy efficient than a standard home built at the time of certification). Some of the energy

Homeowner, Rob, not only saw benefits while living in the home but also in the home sale. When he put his house on the market in the spring of 2014, he was able to use the historical energy data to make

a more competitive sale.

“The buyer was specifically interested in the reduced energy consumption data and the quality construction of the home,” Rob said. The real estate agent for the home, Greg Spicer, echoed Rob’s enthusiasm. “Based on Bain-Waring’s quality construction and efficiency, the home sold in less than 6 days, for full price, with the buyers’ qualifying ratios increased due to the EarthCraft’s product,” he said.

A few years later, Bain-Waring certified another home with EarthCraft House and ENERGY STAR— this time in Henrico, VA (pictured, left). This home has a similar layout of 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, and despite its larger size (1,867 square feet), it reached a HERS Index Score of 60 (meaning 40% more energy efficient than a standard home built at the time of certification). To achieve EarthCraft and ENERGY STAR standards, Bain-Waring included: insulated crawl space, exterior wall insulation R-19 with Cellulose, R-38 blown insulation in the attic, 14 SEER A/C located in conditioned area, air sealing, tankless gas water heater, low flow faucets, and more. Since then, the home has had two owners. The original owner, a real estate agent, noted that the home’s energy efficiency was a strong selling point for him in finalizing the sale. The second owners, Jan and her husband—who were motivated to buy the home due to its energy efficiency and sustainability—tracked their utility bills and were delighted in the savings.

At almost 2,000 square feet, this home only cost an average of $105 per month for electricity and gas (see table, left).

In the fall of 2015, when the need to relocate forced Jan and her husband to put the house on the market, the real estate agent used the utility data to help sell the house in only seven days. “When we mentioned the low cost we pay for the utilities, we were asked to put this in a spreadsheet by our Realtor because this served as a great tool when marketing the house to prospective buyers,” Jan said. “The agents who showed the house mentioned how favorable this was. The efficiency this house offers is going to be hard to leave, since we have become accustomed to the low utility bills.”

As shown by these two homes, to understand the true value of owning a green home, it is important to consider the significant impact of reduced operational costs and increased sales potential. Buyers may show interest in sustainable, efficient homes for different reasons–environmental impact, health, and durability—but no one will argue with significantly lower utility bills and a secure financial investment.

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How EarthCraft Can Help?

The EarthCraft House program, offered statewide in Virginia and throughout the Southeast, offers builders third party verification and compliance with both HERS Index Score and EarthCraft certification.

Comprehensive verification and testing ensures that all EarthCraft homes are top quality and a cut above the norm. By incorporating energy and resource efficient designs and systems, all EarthCraft homes demonstrate lowered energy costs, directly translating to monthly utility savings for the homeowners, while lessening the home’s impact on the environment.

With energy efficiency at its core, EarthCraft Virginia’s average HERS score is 65, and can even get down to single digits on some homes. This means that EarthCraft certified homes are often 35%+ more energy efficient than a standard new home on the market today. Coupling the HERS Index Score with high quality, sustainable construction, EarthCraft builders are bringing the next generation of housing to Virginia homeowners.

You can expect more from your home with EarthCraft. You’ll notice the difference with these benefits: • • • •

Significant savings on operating and maintenance costs Conservation of energy, water, and natural resources A healthier living environment, with improved air quality A quieter home, with increased comfort and enhanced durability

For more information on EarthCraft Virginia and the EarthCraft family of programs, green appraisals and their application on high performance housing, and for Realtor training opportunities, contact EarthCraft at admin@earthcraftvirginia.org. ■