The Lynchburg Market Report, February 3, 2010

So apparently we're going to get some snow this weekend... on top of the 20+ inches we've already received.  Needless to say, all this inclement weather doesn't do much for the local housing market.  However, as one of my former brokers used to say... "I LOVE showing houses in the snow... because you know those buyers REALLY want to buy a house!" 

So if you are one of those buyers who's ready to brave the elements to see the home of your dreams... or if you're one of those sellers hoping for a showing to one of those buyers... let's see how things look one month into 2010.

This past month (January 2010) we closed on 87 residential sales (compared to 84 in January 2009).  Of those 87 sales, the average home sold had 3 bedrooms and 2 baths (no surprise there), had ah average list price of around $186,000 and an average sales price of roughly $174,000.  The average number of days these homes were on the market was 128 days.

Now let's take a closer look... of these 87 homes that sold, 11 were in Forest (12.6%), 11 in the town of Bedford (12.6%) an 38 in Lynchburg City (43.6%).  The breakdown by price range is as follows: 22 homes sold under $100k (25.25%), 22 sold between $100k and $150k (25.25%), 24 sold between $150k and $200k (27.5%) and 19 sold over $200k (21.8%).

Finally, out of the 87 homes that sold, only 24 of them had been on the market 45 days or less (27.5%).  Nearly half of those homes were in Lynchburg City and exactly half were priced between $100,000 and $200,000.  Fifteen of these homes had 3 bedrooms and on average had right around 1800 square feet.

Now why is any of this important?  As a buyer, you should know that if you're looking at 3 bedroom homes in Lynchburg City (particularly zip code 24502) priced between $100,000 and $150,000 you aren't alone!  That's the hot spot in the market right now.  Understand that roughly 1 in 4 buyers last month bought a home very similar to what you've been looking at.  As a seller, you need to understand that if you fit these criteria and you aren't getting any showings - you're priced too high.  The buyers are looking and if they aren't looking at you, they have rejected your price in favor of more reasonable sellers.