Charlottesville Area Sales Continue Trend
November 8, 2006 |
Now that the first week of November is just about over, it is time to take a look at the October sales statistics for the Charlottesville area. Since my template seems to suffer from the same malady as the template over at Behind the Curtain, I am releasing the statistics in a little bit different format. I am using screen grabs from the MLS to show you the numbers, and then I have calculated everything else that the MLS does not. Enjoy!
October Sales by Area
2006
2005
Breakdown:
A look at these stats shows us that for October 2006, every locality showed sales below the level of last October 2005. Albemarle sales were 33% lower, Charlottesville was a whopping 63% lower, Fluvanna was 29% lower, Greene was 24% lower, and Nelson was 6% lower. It is safe to say that the boost that condo sales gave the Charlottesville area has now effectively ended.
2006 Year-to-Date
2005 Year-to-Date
Breakdown:
We all know that 2005 was a banner year for real estate. 2006 is good, but not that good. Charlottesville’s sales for the year have increased by 36% (due almost entirely to condos). Albemarle is down 17%, Fluvanna is down 18%, Greene is down 4% and Nelson is down 37%. The good news is that the median home price is increasing. In fact, the median home price has increased in every locality except for Charlottesville. Again, condo sales are probably responsible for that fact. For the area, the median home price has increased 6% in 2006.
As far as inventory is concerned, I don’t put much faith in the Days on Market (DOM) statistic that the MLS reports because there are too many ways that the statistic can be inaccurately reported. It is, however, the only measure of inventory available. As you can see from the charts above, the average DOM has increased across the area. The increase hasn’t been eye-popping, but when you combine an increase in DOM with an increase in listings and a decrease in overall sales, the inventory begins to pile up. According to the MLS, there is was 11.62 months of inventory on the market when November began.
Now that 2006 is almost over, one would think that most buyers and sellers, and all REALTORS, have discovered that the market of 2006 is not the market of 2005. Those that have not come to this conclusion, and therefore are not acting and preparing accordingly, are probably going to be in for a very long 2007.
[tags] real estate, realtor, charlottesville, albemarle, fluvanna, greene, nelson, housing, housing statistics, housing sales, real estate sales [/tags]
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3 Responses to “Charlottesville Area Sales Continue Trend”
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Disclaimer
My name is Daniel Rothamel. I am a licensed real estate agent in the Commonwealth of Virginia and a member of the National Association of REALTORS. As such, I adhere to a strict code of ethics and all laws with regard to equal housing, which is reflected in the content of this blog. My broker is Strong Team REALTORS, 86 Joshua Lane, Palmyra, VA 22963; (434) 589-5800. My VA Real Estate License number is 0225 077325. All of the opinions in this blog are mine, unless otherwise noted.
Daniel - If the prices went up, they went up. Same thing in Phoenix. There’s a possible trend emerging here don’t you think?
The buyers are now ‘voting’. It’s very possible that they’ve decided the market has bottomed out. We now have two unrelated regions reporting very similar behavior. It’ll be interesting to see if it carries forward into November and December.
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With low cost affordable rental housing becoming an issue, what is Fluvanna’s stance on putting in small mobile home parks in the county?
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Tom-
I don’t think that the county would take very lightly the issue of mobile home parks. We have very few in the county right now, and the ones that we do have are all quite old. It takes approval from the board of supervisors to erect a mobile home anywhere, so the construction of an entire park would be subject to even more scrutiny.
Sycamore Square, which was the subject of a recent post, has plans for town homes, and the county has made it very clear that they are reluctant even to approve town home construction. There was talk a few years ago that barely touched on the issue of affordable rental housing, but even during the course of the Sycamore Square town home debate, there has been little talk of rental housing.
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