In a lot of ways, they are --- but it's not as extreme as you might think.

After observing several houses go under contract at fantastic prices I was pondering aloud that it seemed that finding the right price would make buyers appear . . . because you'd be offering them a great deal.

That prompted someone to ask me about current price per square foot prices for houses --- and whether buyers were getting great deals these days.  Thinking about one of the houses that had recently gone under contract, I commented that yes, houses are DEFINITELY selling at GREAT price per square foot rates.

That will teach me to make a broad statement based on one or two data points.  This evening I dove into the data to take a closer look --- and to confirm what I was quite sure to be true. 

To get the best possible sense of the deals buyers are getting these days on a price per square foot basis, I decided to narrow down the sold properties I was examining.  If I examined all properties of a variety of sizes and ages, there would be so many variables at play that it would be hard to draw any conclusions.  Here's how I limited my two sample sets of data:

• single family homes
• Harrisonburg or Rockingham County
• 2,000 - 2,5000 square feet
• built between 1980 and 2005

My first data set examined homes matching the criteria above that sold during 2009 -- there were 42 such homes, and they sold at an average of $115/sf.

My second data set examined homes matching the same criteria that sold during 2010 -- there were 35 such homes, and they sold at an average of $111/sf.

Hmmmmm......$4/sf better than a year ago.....is that a great deal for a buyer?  That provides a $8,000 savings on a 2,000 square foot house.  Instead of buying the house for $230k (in 2009) you'd have paid $222k (in 2010).  That doesn't seem like an extraordinary cost savings to buyers --- so perhaps in the aggregate buyers aren't getting amazing deals now (compared to a year ago), even though they are getting slightly better deals.

Examined one other way, 26% of these houses sold for less than $100/sf in 2009......and in 2010, 29% sold for less than $100/sf.

So, it seems that while there are some isolated AMAZING DEALS in the current real estate market, you probably won't be able to get a FANTASTIC DEAL on EVERY house that's out there.

But, of course, every seller trying to sell their house right now would like me to remind you that:

• interest rates are ridiculously low
• inventory levels are high, giving you lots of housing choices
  
• sellers are anxious to sell, and would love to have an offer to consider

Can you tell I enjoy examining data to learn what's going on in our local housing market?  If you have a theory you'd like me to test, or a hunch you'd like me to confirm.....drop me a line (scott@HarrisonburgHousingToday.com) or give me a call (540-578-0102).
 

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Have any questions? Contact Scott Rogers at 540-578-0102 or scott@funkhousergroup.com