Starter Home Buyers Increase, High End Home Buyers Decrease . . . And Prices Remain Constant??


Starter Home Buyers Increase, High End Home Buyers Decrease . . . And Prices Remain Constant??
By Scott Rogers • January 20, 2010
Jennifer Chapman, one of my associates at Coldwell Banker Funkhouser Realtors brought some very interesting data to light yesterday. She noticed that there are fewer and fewer homes selling over $300k. I thought I'd take a look . . . . First, bear in mind that the median sales price has gone largely unchanged between 2006 and 2009, showing only a 3.5% decrease. (full market report) This would suggest (in some ways) that we've probably seen a roughly equivalent number of inexpensive and expensive homes selling over the past several years. This actually does not turn out to be true . . . . I can make plenty of guesses as to why we're seeing these shifts, including: The first time buyer tax credit has likely increased the number offirst time buyers, and thus the number of inexpensive home sales. Most upper end home buyers have to sell an existing home before buying. A slower market has likely slowed down this trading up process, and thus decreasing the number of high end homes. Do you have other explanations for the shift in what types of buyers are actually buying in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County? Let me know what your guesses are. The fascinating part ot me is that despite a 35% increase in sales of inexpensive homes (sub $175k) and a 27% decrease in sales of expensive homes ($300k plus), we still only saw a 3% decrease in median sales price over the past three years!?! Receive Updates by Email Recent Articles: There Are Plenty Of Types Of Houses That Exist That Just Are Not Available To Purchase Home Sales By Price Range In The City Of Harrisonburg Are You Compromising On Aspects Of Your Next Home That You Can Or Cannot Change Later? How Much Slower Are The Winter Months In Our Local Housing Market? Rockingham County and New Home Sales Drive Surge in Area Housing Market Find The Balance Between Optimistic And Realistic Home Pricing Room Size Is Difficult To Understand Solely From Real Estate Photos How Much Would You Value Not Having To Prepare Your Home For Showings? One Out Of Four Homes Is Taking Longer Than A Month To Sell Consider The Cost Of Your Planned Renovations When Planning Your Offer
Have any questions? Contact Scott Rogers at 540-578-0102 or scott@funkhousergroup.com
Based on information from the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Association of REALTORS® or its MLS, for the period Jan 1, 2000 through Nov 21, 2024 (unless otherwise noted).
Comments (0) or Subscribe