Click here to download Market Update charts for September 2012.
The Harrisonburg and Rockingham County housing market continues to make 2012 appear to be the “year of the turnaround”, with sales through September 30 running 6.2% ahead of 2011. Further, it looks like a local housing recovery has been occurring in most areas of the County. Only the Northeast quadrant of Rockingham County is running behind 2011 sales figure. The other three quadrants, Harrisonburg City and Massanutten have experienced increases ranging from 7.3% - 56.5% over last year. Although the market is still significantly slower than several years ago, we are confident a recovery is taking place and expect 2013 to continue the trend in terms of overall sales.
Home prices, however, have yet to rebound. The good news is they appear to have stabilized, with the median residential sales price (12 month average) at $175,000 for 5 of the past 6 months. As of September 30, the one and three year trends in pricing are:
Three year change: Average Price down -10.86%, Median Price down -7.87%
One year change: Average Price down -1.05%, Median Price down -0.33%
Buyer activity remains strong as well, with ratified contracts on 97 listings is September. Properties going under contract in the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Association of REALTORS Multiple Listing Service have totaled 90 or above for 5 of the past 6 months. Prior to this period, there had only been 90 properties under contract in 2 of 23 months – quite a rebound!
Combined with increased buyer activity we have seen lower inventory than prior years, also a good sign. As with most commodities, fewer items for sale combined with more people looking to buy means prices should begin to rise. This likely will not happen over the winter months but Spring and Summer of 2013 look promising for Sellers and our market overall.
Click here to view or download our Market Activity Charts for September 2012.
This original blog post can be found by clicking here.
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