Harrisonburg Real Estate Market Report - December, 2013

Click here to download Market Update charts for December 2013.




2013 was a very good year for the Harrisonburg area real estate market in many respects. There were 1013 residential sales for the year in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County, as reported by the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Association of Realtors Multiple Listing Service. The year’s total sales represent a 17% increase over 2012, the best annual total since 2007, and the third consecutive year of increased sales.

The month of December was also strong, with 87 sales, recovering from November’s low numbers (possibly driven by the effect of the federal government shutdown in October). New contracts, on the other hand, fell in December as is typical during the holiday season. Also typical, therefore, are slow sales in January of each year and it looks like 2014 will be no different.

Perhaps most importantly for area homeowners (whether they intend on selling or not) in 2013 was the return of price appreciation. The 12-months average of sold prices rose almost 3% in 2013, reversing a five year trend of declining prices in our area. We expect this most welcome trend to continue, and likely to accelerate, in 2014. The recent historical pricing figures are:

Three year change:    Average Price down -4.70%, Median Price down -2.22%
One year change:       Average Price up +2.95%, Median Price up +0.57%

Finally, inventory continues to drop in the City and the County, as both are experiencing the lowest number of homes for sale in several years. Some of the factors in this are the very small amount of new construction, which had been a mainstay in our market, and existing homeowners choosing not to sell because:

a)  they are waiting for prices to increase further
b)  they have refinanced at a great rate and have decided to stay in their homes and enjoy the lower payments or
c)  both a and b

All of these trends – strong sales, price appreciation and historically low inventories will combine in 2014 to create an excellent market for home sellers. We expect sales to continue to rise, perhaps by 10 – 15%, and prices to rise due to the low inventory numbers creating intense competition for homes. This has been the trend in other markets which are typically “ahead” of ours and we think it is very reasonable to expect the same thing for our market in the coming year. Happy New Year!

Click here to view or download our Market Activity Charts for December 2013.

This original blog post can be found by clicking here.