• Avalon Woods
• Beacon Hill Townes
• Blakely Park
• Country Club Court
• Emerald Drive Estates
• Harmony Heights
• Liberty Square I
• Liberty Square II
• Meadow Pointe
• Northfield Estates
• Parkcrest
• Preston Lake
• Reherd Acres
• Southside Heights
• Stonewall Heights
• Taylor Grove Townes
• Taylor Spring
• The Gables
• The Townes at Bluestone
• The Townes at Wellington Park
• Twin Gables
• Vista Terrace

• The pace of home sales bottomed out in 2010.  Sales have been improving since that time.
   
  
• Median home sales prices bottomed out in 2011.  Sales prices have been (slowly) improving since that time.
   
  
• Buyers were able to negotiate most heavily in 2011.  The average list price to sales price ratio has been improving since that time.
  

Popular single family home neighborhoods in and around Harrisonburg include: 
Ashby Heights •  Barrington •  Battlefield Estates •  Belmont Estates •  Blue Stone Hills •  Bridlewood •  Crossroads Farm •  Fairway Hills •  Forest Hills •  Greendale •  Hampshire Estates •  Highland Park •  Holiday Hills •  Lake Pointe •  Lakewood Estates •  Madison Village •  Maplehurst •  Monte Vista •  Old Town •  Parklawn •  Park View •  Pleasant Hill Acres •  Preston Heights •  Preston Lake •  Purcell Park •  Reherd Acres •  Stone Spring Village •  Sunset Heights •  Westfield •  Wyndham Woods

Popular townhouse communities in and around Harrisonburg include: 
Avalon Woods  •  Beacon Hill Townes  •  Blakely Park  •  Country Club Court  •  Emerald Drive Estates  •  Harmony Heights  •  Liberty Square I  •  Liberty Square II  •  Meadow Pointe  •  Northfield Estates  •  Parkcrest  •  Preston Lake Rowhouses  •  Reherd Acres Townhouses  •  Southside Heights  •  Stonewall Heights  •  Taylor Grove Townes  •  Taylor Spring  •  The Gables  •  The Townes at Bluestone  •  The Townes at Wellington Park  •  Twin Gables  •  Vista Terrace

Search for homes in your favorite city or town: 
Bridgewater •  Broadway •  Dayton •  Elkton •  Grottoes •  Harrisonburg •  Keezletown •  Linville •  Massanutten •  Mount Crawford •  Penn Laird •  Port Republic

• two appraisals will likely be needed, instead of just one
• the appraiser will likely need a list of the improvements that were performed along with the value of each improvement
• purchasers (borrowers) will be required to have at least a 20% down payment

The third item above (20% down payment requirement) is what can quickly make a deal backfire, especially if you have purchased and renovated a home that will be appealing to first time buyers.....many of whom will not have a 20% down payment available.

So, as an investor, or someone considering purchasing a property to renovate and then list for sale, it is highly advisable that you wait to list the renovated property for sale until at least 90 days after you closed on the purchase of the property.

• Insurance companies consider a vacant home to be a much higher risk than an occupied home.
   
  
• Some insurance companies do not offer Vacant Home Insurance.  Thus, do realize that if you notify your insurance company that your home is vacant, they may give you a limited timeline during which they will still insure the home.
   
  
• If your insurance company does offer Vacant Home Insurance, it will likely be at a much higher cost than your current insurance policy.
   
  
• If you do not have Vacant Home Insurance, but your home is indeed vacant, and you file a claim for property damage, your current insurance policy may not cover that loss because your home was vacant.
   
• Some insurance companies will merely limit the scope of your current coverage once you move out of the house.  For example, some companies may not include coverage for vandalism or glass breakage.

It is best to have these conversations with your insurance company before you move, but regardless of where you are in the process of moving out of your home (and thus leaving it vacant) you need to understand what your current insurance policy will and will not cover so that you can make the appropriate decisions about your insurance coverage into the future.

• Farmers Insurance Vacant Home Insurance
• American Family Insurance Vacant Home Insurance
  
• Foremost Insurance Group Vacant Home Insurance
• Bankrate.com: Insuring Your Vacant Home

Please note that I am not endorsing Farmers Insurance, American Family Insurance or Foremost Insurance Group --- I do not know much about any of these companies --- but these are some companies that seem to offer this type of insurance coverage.  Please do your due diligence in making any changes to your insurance coverage or company.

• Home Sales are up 21% compared to last year.
• (Median) Home Prices are up 3% compared to last year.
• (Median) Days on Market is down 12% compared to last year.

Assuming you are hoping for a strengthening local housing market, these are all great news for our local area. 

Below you can see the reason why the year-to-date home sales figures are so strong....

As you can see, above, the past four months of home sales (Apr, May, Jun, Jul) have been much stronger than any of the previous three years --- with the one exception of June 2010 when the federal home buyer tax credit expired. 

What, you might ask, should we expect for the next few months?

Based on the trend in signed contracts, shown above, I believe we will continue to see strong home sales over the next several months.

It is also important to note that it's not just the short term indicators that are positive in our local housing market....

Each of the data points on the graph shown above takes 12 months of data into account --- thus these trends take a long time to show any substantial change, but they are excellent indicators of the overall shifts in a housing market.  As can be seen, above, we are seeing steady growth in the pace of home sales, and stability in home values.

There is a LOT more in my full report, including....

• Inventory levels decline 7% year over year.
• Median prices on the up-swing
  
• Foreclosures slow in 2013.
• The List Price to Sales Price Ratio is edging up.

Click here to download the full August 2013 Harrisonburg and Rockingham County Real Estate Market Report.