First Set Of 2007 Sales Stats for Charlottesville Area

February 12, 2007 |

The first month of the new year is now well behind us. Since the shine has just about worn off of 2007, it is time to take a look at the sales statistics for the Charlottesville area for January. As always, the stats are pulled from the Charlottesville Area Association of REALTORS MLS, and cover the areas that comprise the Charlottesville MSA.

January Sales 2007

january-2007.jpg

January Sales 2006

january-2006.jpg

Breakdown

As I expected, most of the areas are a bit behind the pace of January 2006. This isn’t surprising, given the fact that January 2006 was really the tail end of the banner-year of 2005. The only thing I found surprising was that the number of closed transactions in January 2007 trailed behind January 2004 (132 vs. 154). This is surprising due to the fact that inventory has almost doubled during that time (1879 vs. 1077 on January 30th of each year). As one would expect, this has lead to a marked increase in the Days on Market (DOM) for closed transactions. For the area, DOM has increased by 55%, or 41 days from 2006 to 2007.

Closed transactions were down in every area with the City of Charlottesville once again being the lone exception. Charlottesville experienced a whopping 79% increase in sales in January 2007.  The median price decreased in Charlottesville for January, suggesting that sales are still being driven by condo conversions and neighborhood redevelopments. Every other area experienced a short fall– Albemarle -37%, Fluvanna -40%, Greene -54%, and Nelson -5%. Only Nelson experienced a decrease in the median home price, so it doesn’t appear that sellers are being hurt too bad in the wallet.

Over the entire Charlottesville area, sales lagged 34% behind their January 2006 mark (132 vs. 199), while the median price remained virtually unchanged (-1.4%) despite median drops in both Charlottesville and Nelson.
This information just serves to further reinforce the idea that the market we are currently experiencing is here to stay. As DOM continues to increase, it will become imperative that sellers adjust their thinking and price their homes to match market trends. Pricing a home with 15% appreciation over 6-12 months may not be realistic anymore, neither is the expectation of a sale in 15 days. While the market in the Charlottesville area is stable, and prices are not receding, it is something different than what many have become accustomed to, and buyers and sellers should act and react accordingly.

Obviously, we are only 1/12 of the way through the year. Much remains to be seen as the year progresses. The January numbers suggest that there are many trends worth watching in 2007.

[tags] real estate, realtor, charlottesville, albemarle, fluvanna, greene, nelson, virginia, housing statistics, home sales [/tags]

Posted by Daniel Rothamel | Filed Under Albemarle, Buying, Charlottesville, Fluvanna, Greene, Market Statistics, News, Selling 

Comments

One Response to “First Set Of 2007 Sales Stats for Charlottesville Area”

  1. Jeremy Hart on February 13th, 2007 1:58 am

    Interesting numbers, Daniel, particularly in looking at how the Piedmont area compares to the New River Valley. I was working on our figures over the weekend, should have them up shortly. Thanks for posting!

    [Reply]

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