Real estate is a very personal interest for homeowners, and we always look forward to reporting how the local market is doing month-to-month. Last month, the stats were quite positive, with a big increase in contracts, and a nice dip in days on market. Take a look below to see how May fared this year:

Sales for the year are up nearly 26%! We’ve also seen a very slight increase in sales prices, with an increase of 0.1%, which is what we predicted would happen about this time of year. You’ll also notice a slight decrease (-0.3%) in average sales/list percentage, which means sellers are selling their homes for a bit less than they were a year ago compared to their list price. (e.g. If a seller sells their home for full asking price, it would be a 100% sales/list percentage, which is, of course, ideal for the seller.)

Above, you can see how sales have trended over the past year on a month to month basis. Although this May is slightly lower than April, it still rests at the #2 sales spot for the past year!

Moving on to contracts, WOW! The Harrisonburg and Rockingham County real estate market has seen an increase in contracts of nearly 50% compared to last year! This proves that buyers are active in our local market, which bodes well for the rest of the year — not to mention the rest of the economy. Prices for homes that have gone under contract have also increased by just over 2%. Plus, the average days on market has decreased by over 20 days. This is all great news!

Above is a visual for contracts written month-by-month over the past year. May 2013 is by far the busiest month for contracts this year!

To make it even more clear how great the May contracts number is, the chart above shows us that May has blown every other month since January 2010 out of the water in terms of contracts written! Take note, too, that contracts have increased every month since November 2012.

Finally, above you can see how sales have fared compared to contracts over the past 12 months. Though sales have varied some in the past several months, contracts prove to be stronger and stronger each month. We look to see most of these turn into sales in the months to come.

Overall, May was a strong month for our local real estate market, with YTD sales up over 25%, contracts up nearly 50%, days on market down by about 20 days, and sales prices holding steady!

Stay tuned for more Market Trends, right here on Harrisonblog…