What To Expect For The Second Half Of The Year In Our Local Real Estate Market


What To Expect For The Second Half Of The Year In Our Local Real Estate Market
By Scott Rogers • July 6, 2020
I spent some time this past weekend cleaning up my crystal ball - oh wait, no, I was cleaning my garage. My crystal ball is always ready and waiting to convincingly and accurately predict the future of our local real estate market. Or something like that... But really -- here are several of my predictions for the second half of 2020... MORE HOME SALES - The pace of contract signing (the earliest indicator of market activity) lagged behind (2020 vs. 2019) for quite a few months this year but has now broken through last year's trajectory and we're seeing more cumulative contracts signed in 2020 as compared to 2019. So, it doesn't seem that COVID-19 will end up resulting in a net decline in home sales in our local area. HIGHER SALES PRICES - Even as contract activity lagged behind in 2020, the median sales prices of those homes that were selling kept on climbing. We are not seeing any indicators on the horizon at this point that would seem to cause home prices to flatten out our decline. CONTINUED LOW MORTGAGE INTEREST RATES - I certainly didn't think we'd keep hitting new low after new low for mortgage interest rates in 2020, but indeed, that has been the case. The average 30 year fixed rate mortgage interest rate is 3.07% as of the moment I am typing this. Wow! I certainly don't expect them to be any lower than this, but I think they'll likely stay below 4% for the rest of the calendar year. SPEEDY SALES - Homes are selling faster and faster and faster. The "median" days on market has declined 37% over the past year from 24 days to 15 days. So, buyers have to be ready to jump on new listings quickly. LOW INVENTORY LEVELS - There were some times over the past few months when I thought we might start seeing inventory levels creeping up -- because sellers would unexpectedly need to sell, or because buyers weren't able to or interested in buying -- but neither of those happened. I suspect we will keep seeing very low inventory levels throughout the remainder of the year. OK - in the end - my predictions don't point to anything particularly surprising or unexpected - but perhaps that is the main take away. I don't think we are going to see anything drastically unexpected or surprising in our local housing market in the 3rd and 4th quarter of this year. Receive Updates by Email Recent Articles: Is There A Price You WOULD Pay For This House? 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
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 24, 2024 (unless otherwise noted).
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