Charlottesville's Real Estate Blog. Buyer &/or Seller Representation, Real Estate News
Curiosity stole an hour of my morning … I intended to update only the Crozet “When do homes come on the market†spreadsheet, got lost there for a bit and decided to look at the Charlottesville MSA numbers.
2012’s Charlottesville MSA sales trends – looking at when homes came on the market, when they went under contract and when they closed.
And 2013
Well, this is interesting.
And the differential between 2013 and 2012.
Cash transactions in Charlottesville area – 2013
1 – Inventory is low – (good for sellers, not so good for buyers)
2 – Interest rates remain low
3 – Prices (in many market segments) have stopped dropping, and are largely increasing.
4 – Sales volume is up across the board
5 – As always, do your own, supporting due diligence; your market will vary.
Click through to read the full Nest Report.
Highlights:
– Days on Market (an inherently flawed data point) are down in Charlottesville, Albemarle and Fluvanna.
– Average Sales prices are down (not surprising)
– Total sales across the MSA are down (not surprising)
Thoughts/initial conclusions:
– More buyers are looking to be closer in/closer to stuff
– Good properties are selling and selling quickly
– Interest rates remain low – a good thing for buyers.
– I think we may have pulled the spring market forward a bit; the early spring may have pulled transactions into the earlier months of the year.
Dead simple Takeaways:
– Buyers: do your due diligence, don’t let emotion enter the equation and make sound, rationale decisions with the intent of holding the property for at least five to seven years
– Sellers: do your due diligence and realize that buyers most often don’t have to buy, but want to buy – it’s your job to make them want to buy your house. This means: price, presentation, perfection … and a great location and setting.
Fluvanna residents (and potential home buyers and sellers) – be prepared.
The Fluvanna County Board of Supervisors met Wednesday evening to discuss budget. After over an hour of public testimony, the supervisors voted 3-2 to approve a major increase to the advertised property tax increase.
The increase moves the current rate from 57 to 68 cents per $100 of assessed property value.
Case Shiller doesn’t track the Charlottesville real estate market. Nor Albemarle, Greene, Fluvanna, Nelson, Waynesboro, Augusta … Case Schiller doesn’t track Charlottesville.
I wrote in early 2008 that The Charlottesville/Central Virginia/Shenandoah Valley markets are not covered by the Case-Shiller index. Real estate is local; while trends may be drawn from this type of research, and while the proverbial turned-corner may still be just over the horizon, it’s important to put his study in the appropriate context.
Crap. That “horizon” to which I referred is still a ways off. But … what I said remains true. Case Schiller doesn’t track our market.
But.