Click here to download Market Update charts for May 2012.




Our market report has undergone a significant change this month – we are now reporting only on residential real estate activity in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County as opposed to the entire Harrisonburg-Rockingham Association of REALTORS Multiple Listing Service (HRAR MLS). The reason for this change is protecting the integrity of the data within our report and the conclusions one may reasonable draw from them.

Here’s what has been happening…over the past couple of years we have noticed an increasing number of listings from areas outside Rockingham County in the HRAR MLS as agents from other areas try to get greater exposure for their Seller clients in the slower market we have been experiencing. We feel the increase in “outside” listings has now reached a point which changes the accuracy of market comparisons with prior years. For example, when looking at total residential sales in the HRAR MLS it appears there has been a 13.7% increase in sales over the first 5 months of last year. However, when looking at just Harrisonburg and Rockingham County numbers we see an increase in units sold of only 5.6% through May 31. How can this be? Are properties outside Rockingham County selling better than within the County? No, a closer inspection of the numbers shows more “outside” listings have been entered in the HRAR MLS this year than last so the reason total HRAR MLS sales are up is not a reflection of a faster pace of sales, but is because more homes outside Rockingham County have been entered into in the system! In other words, the pace of sales has not increased but the total number of homes being tracked (HRAR MLS) has, so as those homes sell the overall sales figures appear larger than last year. By comparing only sales within Rockingham County to prior year’s sales within the County we will get a more accurate idea of the real sales trend locally.

Interestingly, it appears pricing is a bit better within Rockingham County than in the entire HRAR MLS, with declines over the past 1 and 3 year terms less severe in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County than overall:

Three year change:    Average Price down -11.73%, Median Price down -9.61%
One year change:       Average Price down -2.82%,   Median Price down -0.21%

If you have any questions about this report or our change in format, please contact us at Info@KlineMay.com.  Thanks!

Click here to view or download our Market Activity Charts for May 2012.

This original blog post can be found by clicking here