– Why it makes sense to buy a home in Charlottesville right now

Why it makes sense to buy a home in Charlottesville right now…

When one reads the Daily Progress article dated 7/14/2016, https://www.dailyprogress.com/townnews/commerce/report-home-sales-in-city-area-highest-since/article_75db881c-11c0-55af-932d-8fc3d0a55cab.html there is no doubt that the real estate market is continuing to improve.  The facts mentioned make it easy to think that the market has fully recovered. Since 2012, Prices have continued to go up, the days on market continue to go down, and more homes are selling each year. However, although better, some of the data is misleading and there are still parts of the market that are struggling.

A case in point is reflected in the increase in median price to $295,000  What the report doesn’t show is that new construction is playing a major role in this increase. During the 2nd quarter of 2015, the median price of new construction was $373,000. During the same time period of 2016, the new home median price increased to $400,869.

What this means is the existing home part of the market isn’t as robust as the report might indicate and that sellers need to be very savvy with their pricing and have them homes in the best condition possible. This is particularly important in the greater than $500,000 price range. When one looks around the Central Virginia area, there is no doubt this will continue to be the case because there are more new homes communities projected to come on the market over the next several years.

The good news is there is no reason to think that things won’t continue to get better.  Interest rates have and will continue to remain low providing buyers more buying power. There also has been a quiet healthy growth of good, well, paying  jobs over the last few years. It has not happened because large employers have moved to town but instead, Charlottesville has become a town attracting start-up businesses that have grown from 2 to 3 to dozens of employers. Some say that Charlottesville has more start up companies per capita in the country.  Our area is also now in the Top Ten for having bio medical companies. The other positive factors for the housing market are that UVA plans to hire as many as 100 faculty members in the very near future and the Charlottesville area continues to be a place where folks want to buy 2nd homes and/or retire.

Another interesting point that the market report doesn’t say is Traditionally, housing sales begin to slow down in the 3rd quarter. Remembering, that the statistics are for closed sales, there is a reason to project that 3rd quarter sales will be positive due to new home contracts written over the 1st 6 months closing between July-September. That, along With interest rates staying below 4% versus the projected increase to 5%, more purchasers might decide to buy before the election.

To get more in depth analysis of the real estate market in the Charlottesville area, listen to this podcast of Real Estate Matters with Michael Guthrie on NewsRadio 1070 WINA https://wina.com/podcasts/2nd-quarter-caar-market-report/.

– Courtesy of Michael Guthrie