So, first things first. I apologize for the delay in posting here. It’s been a very, very busy spring at Nest Realty…spring market, new office, new marketing initiatives, updates to our web site…but no excuses. We’ll be better about keeping you informed moving forward.
And that brings us to this month’s installment of the Nest Charlottesville market report: as expected, sales dropped fairly significantly in Central Virginia in May 2011 as compared to May 2010. This was expected since the Homebuyer’s Tax Credit pushed a huge number of closings into the April/May/June 2010 timeframe so that buyers could capitalize on the credit. The downside of that was that the 2nd half of 2010 suffered as sales essentially ‘fast tracked’ to these months. So, it’s not a shock that total sales are down in all Central Virginia regions: Charlottesville, Albemarle, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa, and Nelson.
We’re continuing to move towards a recovery, but we’re not quite there yet. Why do we think this? Inventories continue to hold fairly steady and median prices continue to drop in most areas. Two of the biggest factors towards a market recovery are tied to inventory levels and price…and probably can be tied to just price.
Here’s what I mean: when prices get back to levels where purchasers feel there is a) value and b) low risk, those purchasers buy homes. So, as sellers drop prices, they are opening their potential buyer pool up more and more. While none of us want prices to fall, it is (unfortunately) a necessity for our market (or any market) to recover.
So, to recap: sales numbers in May were stable – nothing spectacular. Median prices are down from May 2010 about 5%. Days on Market held fairly steady (109 vs. 107). Overall Months of Inventory increased over 2010 (10.4 to 12.64), but is down from 2009 (14.54 to 12.64).