The real estate business can be a tricky thing to follow. If you look at the statistics for different areas of the country, you’ll get a wide variety of results, and if you look at the statistics at different times of the year — even when looking at the same specific area of the country — the numbers can also change quite a bit. Back in June, I posted this same sort of snapshot of the local real estate market, and thought it would be a good idea to catch you up to how Harrisonburg and Rockingham County are doing now. (Note: all of this data comes from the local MLS as of 9/10/09.)
CITY OF HARRISONBURG
- 151: Active residential listings — single family homes :: down 10 from June
- 171: Active residential listings — townhomes :: down 4 from June
- 40: Under Contract residential listings :: down 6 from June
- 177: Active residential listings priced < $200,000 :: down 2 from June
- 128: Active residential listings priced $200,000 < $400,000 :: down 9 from June
- 17: Active residential listings priced >= $400,000 :: down 3 from June
ROCKINGHAM COUNTY (not including Massanutten)
- 450: Active residential listings — single family homes :: up 8 from June
- 96: Active residential listings — townhomes :: same as June
- 83: Under Contract residential listings :: down 39 from June
- 211: Active residential listings priced < $200,000 :: up 24 from June
- 221: Active residential listings priced $200,000 < $400,000 :: down 18 from June
- 114: Active residential listings priced >= $400,000 :: up 2 from June
Many of the numbers on this snapshot have decreased since June, but that doesn’t mean the real estate market is moving in a negative direction. It means quite the opposite, actually! When the number of active listings decreases from month to month, it means they are either selling (a positive), going under contract (a positive), or withdrawing/expiring from the market (a neutral in some cases, a negative in others).
The local housing market has been experiencing an adjustment phase in which the housing prices are coming in line with what they should be. The housing boom a while back caused housing prices to increase tremendously, and now our market (with help from the mortgage industry) is figuring out that those prices were too high, and fair prices are being reached. Thus, homes are selling a bit faster now than even a year ago because prices are more in line with where they should be. Plus, it helps to have incentives for first time buyers, like the $8,000 tax credit (which expires December 1st!).
If you’d like information specific to your home, we can put together an analysis for you to better determine your home’s value.