Peak-A-Boo: Does Believing in the "Recovery" Make It Real?

Does believing in the "Recovery" make it real? wonders Charles Hugh Smith, whose Peak post is embedded below.  Don't miss him on the Twitter.
Local, recent:
Albemarle County Home Prices and Sales Q1-12
City of C'ville Home Prices and Sales Q1-12

UK Scriptwriters Podcast: Mailbag

The latest UK Scriptwriters podcast is live!

In this edition, me and Tim round up the latest screenwriting news and opportunities, and discuss the hot screenwriting topics via our mailbag. You know the drill: listen, download, share!

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Albemarle County Home Sales Q1 2012: Will the Road to "Recovery" Be Blocked By Rising Asking Prices?

The sales and price data come from the Nest Realty Group Q1 market report, embedded below.  See also a recap of City of Charlottesville Sales and Price Declines in Q1 2012.

The positives in Albemarle County:
 Inventory is lower.
The sales activity is highest since Q1 2007.  
There are reports of "multiple offers." 
There are "well priced" homes that sell in under two weeks. 
Buyer activity is

As Prices Continue to Decline, 61% of All Home Sales in the City of Charlottesville Were Under $250K in Q1 2012

The details come from the Nest Realty Group market report, embedded below.

The report states "The reduction in prices likely has had a positive impact on generating more sales." Additionally, mortgage interest rates have been  at or under 4% since the Fall of 2011.

The positives: Price declines are a big positive for buyers.  And buyer activity is up, with significant increase in contracts

Origin wins at LIFF!

Origin has won Best Sci-Fi/Horror Short Film at this year's London Independent Film Festival!

It's difficult to describe just how much this means, and how happy it makes me feel.

As any regular reader of the blog will know, making Origin was a real labour of love, and I got incredible help from cast & crew, not to mention amazing contributions from the blog and Twitter.

It's almost three years to the day that we started filming (a terrific four-day shoot), but it took another year to get the film in the can. Since then, it's enjoyed a fairly good festival run (Brancharge, Raindance, London Short Film Fest, Berlin British Shorts, Shortcutz London, Purbeck Film Festival) but, in truth, my resources for the film had run out, and I was unsure whether to push Origin further on the festival circuit. The call for entries for LIFF came up, and I decided to give it a punt, and naturally I'm delighted I gave a festival another go!

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I attended the LIFF screening last week. Here's how it went down:

Get the train from Bournemouth to London in plenty of time for the 6.30pm start. In fact, I grab a quick bowl of noodles with the mighty Phill Barron, who's made it to the last stages of the Sitcom Mission. Noodles swiftly scoffed, and good lucks exchanged, I head for my screening but I'm unfamiliar with the location of Shortwave's cinema, and I end up doing a long sprint from Borough tube, arriving ten minutes late. Luckily, the screening's just about to begin, and my good luck charm Darren Doherty is waiting as he hands me a pint of Peroni. Erich Schultz, organiser of LIFF, announces that Origin will be the first film, which surprises & flatters me, and the familiar music of the opening titles booms out of the speakers. 14 minutes later, and the pint of Peroni hastily drained, the film is over and seems to have gone down well. There's a terrific line-up of other shorts, and there's a fun Q&A with all of us afterwards (which I wasn't expecting but very much enjoyed).

The key to a good short film festival, I think, is to structure the screenings into digestible & fun chunks. An hour of 4-6 short films seems to be the best way to do it, with a brief Q&A if possible. Then, everyone can decamp to the bar and have a natter. Which is what we did here. More pints of Peroni, going down far too easily, and me and Darren chat with festival staffer Caroline and her sous-chef boyfriend Greg (from Dstrkt restaurant). I also squeeze in a good old chinwag with Irish actress Clare Cathcart (who, as it happens, is very good friends with Lee Ross, the lead actor in Origin).

The Peronis have made me enjoy myself far too much, and I get the 2nd last train to Bournemouth. To help sober up, I indulge in my very first Night Owl burger on the way home (since moving here in 2005!).

All in all, a lovely night out. London Independent Film Festival offers a great vibe of films & networking at Shortwave cinema, and I highly recommend you go along next year or submit a film. Winning Best Horror Short obviously makes it my absolute favourite film festival, ever!

First Quarter 2012 CAAR Market Report: Sales Rise As Charlottesville Area Average Home Prices Drop 7.5%

Supporting the old saying "There's nothing price won't fix," the greater Charlottesville Area (City plus 5 counties) is seeing a rise in closed sales as well as properties going under contract.   The -7.5% year-over-year decline in average price represents all property types combined.  The "American Dream" category of the single family (detached) homes in the Greater Charlottesville Area fell

1st Quarter 2012 Charlottesville Area Housing Market Report: Upside, Downsides, Expectations, and A Recap of Sales and Prices 2002 - 2011

2012 First Quarter price and sales data for the Charlottesville Area Real Estate market will be published soon.   The closed sales from January and February, contracted a few months earlier, show Winter weakness: 

February 2012 Charlottesville Area Single Family Home Prices Drop -32% Since 2010 
January 2012 Home Sales: Charlottesville Down -39%, Albemarle Down -15%

Those numbers give pause,

"The Great American Foreclosure Song"

Catchy tune from ProPublica via Patrick's Housing Crash blog.

Origin at LIFF

Very pleased that Origin, my super supernatural short film, is going to screen on the opening night of this year's London Independent Film Festival (Thurs 12th April)!

Here's the full schedule & ticket info (only £2!). If anyone's going, then I will see you there. If you're fairly new to my blog ramblings, and not heard of Origin before (full blog rundown via the link), then here's the trailer: