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Albemarle High School District Home Sales Update

By Jonathan Kauffmann

Real Estate Broker/Owner with Jonathan Kauffmann, Principal Broker of Nest Realty

August 19, 2010 03:30 PM

With the fairly significant drop in home sales throughout Charlottesville and Albemarle County in July, some sellers are beginning to become wary of their ability to sell their home in 2010. Pockets of Charlottesville continue to chug along, though. Real estate in the Albemarle High School District (which includes Barracks Road, Rio, 29 North, and Earlysville) saw a slight drop in July home sales, but held fairly steady overall.

August 2008 – July 2009

Home Sales: 227

Median Sold Price: $335,000

Months of Inventory: 12.52

August 2009 – July 2010

Home Sales: 295 (up 29.9%)

Median Sold Price: $340,500 (up 1.6%)

Months of Inventory: 9.60 (down 23.3%)

The last 12 months has proven to be a positive time for home sales throughout Barracks, Rio, 29, and Earlysville. As we have discovered, just about every segment of the Charlottesville real estate market has seen a big jump in sales during that same period. The positive trends seemed to have stop in July, where sales have been down significantly from the previous July…sometimes over 60% off.

Sales in the Albemarle HS district were off, but not as much as some other segments of the Charlottesville and Albemarle real estate market. Overall, home sales in July were off 21% from the previous July (30 vs. 38). However, the percentage of list-to-sale in July 2010 was up significantly from July 2009 (95.18% vs. 85.52%). That’s a fairly dangerous number to pin positive hopes on though. As we’ve talked about before, the list-to-sale ratio can be gamed a bit and isn’t always completely reliable.

The increase in jobs from NGIC hirings may be a factor helping to prop up this segment of the market. While the total number of NGIC jobs will not keep the Charlottesville real estate market alive by itself, it certainly won’t hurt. Those jobs have been a nice shot in the arm to the market over the last year…and the additional jobs over the next year will assist in our local real estate recovery.