The Charlottesville Association of REALTORS has come out with the 2007 Year End Market Report!

For first time home buyers, this is the best market we have seen in years.  There are over 500 homes on the market for under $200,000 and there are special financing options for first time buyers.

Time to look at our market as a great position to enter the market, either as a first time home buyer or as an Investor!!!

I want to give you a couple of quotes and my comments on this report:

By historic standards, 2007 will go down as the 4th-best year for real estate sales in our area. That is not a "slow market," but it sure felt like it after zooming along at 80 miles per hour for the last three years. To be sure 2007 was a very interesting year in real estate - troubling in many ways - and anything but ordinary.

This is so true, we have had a market that went a little "Crazy" and we have now pulled back to reality....

There were 3,560 homes sold in 2007, which was down 835 (-19%) from 2006. All local areas (Albemarle -19.8%, Charlottesville -17.7%, Fluvanna -22.4%, Greene -33.3%, Louisa -16.8%, and Nelson -25.5%) posted lower sales than the same period last year. Looking at the past six years, our region has returned to a sales level just above 2003 - which was a record at the time.

So if you look at the numbers (contact me for specific details) we are at 2002-2003 sales (in my opinion) and this is a good thing as we have corrected the "bubble".

The inventory of homes for sale in the Charlottesville area has been a key factor in the local market for the past several years. In 2005, we had fewer than 1,200 homes on the market in the CAAR MLS, and prices sped up. In 2007, we had over 3,000 homes on the market, and prices slowed down. There is a direct, inverse relationship between inventory and prices. The more homes we have on the market, the more pressure there is on sellers to keep prices down.

Currently, we have 3,072 homes on the market, compared to 2,504 at this time last year. The median price of these homes for sale is $324,600. The average DOM (days on market) of these homes is 161 days. It is a great time for first-time buyers, because there are 556 homes for sale under $200,000 with an average DOM of 151. There are 223 homes currently on the market priced at a million dollars or more with an average DOM of 202.

These Numbers are key. the fact that inventory is high and DOM is extended gives us as buyers a great oppertunity to get into a home and negotiate a great deal!!!

STAY TUNED!

Charles McDonald
Your Agent in Charlottesville

NOTE: Part of this marterial is from Dave Phillips, CEO of the Charlottesville Area Association of REALTORS, comments are my own and if you have any questions please feel free to contact me directly.