Harrisonburg Real Estate Market Report - October, 2012

Click here to download Market Update charts for Octobe 2012.




Another good month for the local real estate market in October, with positive indicators in several areas, confirms our belief the market recovery has been underway for several months and all signs bode well for an even stronger market in 2013.

The Harrisonburg-Rockingham Association of Realtors Multiple Listing Service (HRAR MLS) recorded 74 residential sales in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County in October. This represents a 10.4 percent rebound from September’s total of 67 sales (the lowest monthly total this year since March) and totals the most October sales in several years. Further good news is 90 properties in the HRAR MLS went “under contract” in October, indicating continued strong buyer activity at a time of year when the activity typically begins to wane. In fact, the past 12 month’s sales total of 849 units is the highest 12 month total since June, 2010 and the trend of increasing sales is continuing.

Interestingly, prices have held nearly steady for the past year with the average price (based on 12 months of sales) dropping by .2% and the median price has increasing by .28%. The good news is the three year slide in prices appears to have ended around this time last year. With buyer activity remaining strong and inventory of homes on the market steadily shrinking, it is reasonable to expect price appreciation to return to our market in 2013. As of October 31, the one and three year price trends are:

Three year change:    Average Price down -9.68%, Median Price down -7.53%
One year change:       Average Price down -0.20%,   Median Price down 0.28%

Speaking of inventory, both Harrisonburg and Rockingham County numbers continued to decline in October. This is not unusual for the Fall, but since our summer inventory had been much lower than in prior years it appears we will enter 2013 with fewer homes on the market than we have had in recent memory. Again, this is good news for sellers and for the market overall as the number of buyers and sellers comes back into balance.

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

This original blog post can be found by clicking here.