The Harrisonburg real estate market is returning to a healthy state because sales, sales prices, and contracts are up yet again! So far in 2012, we’ve seen a positive sales numbers each month, and March is no exception. In fact, sales are up over last year by 8.6%, and contracts are up over last year by 29.1%! Check out more below…

[Click any image to view larger version]

Month-to-month, sales increased by a whopping 53.5%, but the really good news is that year-to-date sales have increased by 8.6%. A longer-term positive shift is a stronger statistic to look at. Additionally, average sales price has risen a bit, which is a good sign. However, home values (average price per square foot) have decreased just a smidgen to $99.05/sq ft so far this year — a -0.2% change.  While this is moving still moving in the wrong direction, the drop is much less than what we experienced last year!

Take a look at the sales month by month for the past year. We’ve seen an increase each month so far in 2012, and we look forward to seeing how many more sales we’ll see in the coming months!

Contracts not only increased from last month (8.8%), but also by year-to-date at 29.1%! We’re experiencing a boost in sales because of this uptick in contracts. Not all contracts turn into actual sales, but most do. For those properties under contract, days on market has decreased — meaning they’ve sat on the market for less time than last year at this time. An increase in list price means buyers are willing to put contracts on homes that are priced higher than last year at this time.

Above is a chart showing the number of properties that have gone under contract each month for the past year. 87 contracts in March is a pretty strong number!

The chart above shows the median list versus sales prices for each month of the past year, along with the average sold/list percentage. This percentage tells us how much sellers are getting for their homes compared to the final list price. For March 2012, sellers are getting between 94% and 95% of their final list price when they close. For properties sold in March, the median list price was $167,750 and the median selling price was $157,250.

To compare sales versus list prices, the chart above shows us that more contracts were written in March than sales occurred, which means the future of the market is still going to be strong. The typical lifetime of a contract is 2-3 months, so we’ll see most of these contracts close in the next few months, so sales will continue to increase!

Stay tuned for more Market Trends and market reports right here on Harrisonblog…

If you are thinking about buying or selling a home in the Harrisonburg area, please contact us. We’d love to talk to you about how we can assist you every step of the way!