Economy
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Housing Market Report: Sales Increase, Prices Increase, Contracts Increase in Harrisonburg, Rockingham County |
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Below you will find several highlights from my December 2010 Harrisonburg and Rockingham County Real Estate Market Report, available as a PDF by clicking here. Our local real estate market still has a ways to go before recovering, but there are some positive signs this month. ![]() First, you'll note (above) that home sales increased in November 2010 as compared to the previous month (October 2010). Sales in November were lower than in November 2009, but last November had the benefit of being the intended deadline for the home buyer tax credit -- thus lots of extra buyers closed in November. ![]() Median sales prices and average sales prices both increased in November (10%, 8%). This, however, is likely because the median and average sales prices were much lower than normal last November as a result of so many first time buyers closing (on properties with low purchase prices) during November. Year to date figures still show a 3% year over year decline in prices. ![]() More buyers committed to buy properties in November 2010 than we have seen in the past three Novembers! Hopefully we'll see a strong December as well. ![]() Click the image above (or here) to review the entire December 2010 Harrisonburg and Rockingham County Real Estate Market Report. If you have questions about this report, or if I can be of assistance with real estate that you own, or that you'd like to own, please be in touch. You can reach me most easily at 540-578-0102 or scott@HarrisonburgHousingToday.com. | |
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What has kept home values (relatively) stable In Harrisonburg??? |
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As I mentioned in my market report earlier this week, fewer and fewer buyers have been present in the market over the past six years (demand fell) but prices have not fallen in the way that that shift in demand would suggest. I'm watching hburgnews to try to learn some answers as well, but here's what I have so far.
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Despite Slow Sales, Home Values Remain Relatively Stable in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County |
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Read on for several highlights of the November 2010 Harrisonburg and Rockingham County Real Estate Market Report. Or click here to view the PDF. ![]() Despite early gains in 2010 (particularly in April and June) home sales have stagnated over the past several months. July, August, September and October of 2010 have been the slowest such months during the past five years. Despite these low sales figures, however, year-to-date sales are only 4% below last year's sales. ![]() Late 2009 through mid 2010 showed some promise. After several years of declining home sales (pace, not values) it seemed that our local market had finally turned around. Now looking back, that increase in sales pace may have been largely related to the home buyer tax credit, as the pace of sales is now on the decline yet again. What surprises lie in store for us in 2011? ![]() As demand falls, prices should fall --- isn't that what I learned back in my economics class at JMU? Not so in the Harrisonburg and Rockingham housing market!?! Fewer and fewer buyers have been present in the market over the past six years (demand fell) but prices have not fallen in the way that that shift in demand would suggest. Calling all economists....how can we explain this? ![]() Click the image above (or here) to review the entire November 2010 Harrisonburg and Rockingham County Real Estate Market Report, complete with an all new Executive Summary this month. If you have questions about this report, or if I can be of assistance with real estate that you own, or that you'd like to own, please be in touch. You can reach me most easily at 540-578-0102 or scott@HarrisonburgHousingToday.com. | |
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The Value Of Your House Will Only Increase, Always, Forever, For Sure |
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![]() Here's an interesting report from NPR telling the story of an employee of Freddie Mac who manages an online calculator that has (intentionally or unintentionally) been telling web users that home values will only go up! Read more from NPR: Housing Guy Apologizes For Housing Bubble It is interesting --- I do wish home values would only go up --- and during most years values do increase. The last few years, however, have not held that promised increase. That said, it depends on the time horizon that you consider. First, the year to year bad news -- home values decreased for 4 out of the past 10 years. That is to say that the first six years of the decade showed an increase ('01, '02, '03, '04, '05, '06) but the most recent four years have shown a decrease ('07, '08, '09, '10). But here's an interesting cumulative look at the value of a $200,000 home purchased in 2000:
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A Falling Tide . . . Some Ships Sink Sooner |
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![]() Yesterday I discussed that when the real estate market improves all homes will increase in value. Thus, holding out to sell your current home for a higher price won't do you any good -- as you'll then also have to pay more for the house you are buying. But let's flip that on it's head....when the market is getting worse, do all ships sink at the same rate? I'd suggest that some sink faster than others, and that they sink deeper than others, for example:
This is primarily the result of the high inventory levels that almost always exist in times of slower market activity. A few years ago, being located on a busy road might have only equated as a $5k price difference because buyers didn't have many houses from which to choose. Now, however, when buyers have LOTS of houses from which to choose, most buyers will look past the house on the busy road, instead choosing a house within a neighborhood. More choices for buyers means that houses with significant "issue" (see bullet points above) will sit longer and longer on the market, and sell for less than you would expect them to sell for, given their other characteristics. | |
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Harrisonburg Home Sales Decrease, Contracts Increase, in September 2010 |
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Below are several highlights from the October 2010 Harrisonburg & Rockingham County Real Estate Market Report. Read on, or click here to download a PDF of the entire report. ![]() As you'll note above, there were very few home sales in September 2010. In fact, there were very few home sales in in July, August and September! That was, however, after very high home sales in April and June. Thus, it would seem that the home buyer tax credit certainly rearranged the timing of 2010 home sales, regardless of whether it brought new buyers into the market nor not. The question now, of course, is how many of the October, November and December closings were borrowed by the first half of 2010. ![]() After multiple years of a declining sales pace, the graph above shows that we were finally seeing a reversal for the first six months of this year. However, the past three months of slow sales has turned us back around into a declining market again. The fourth quarter of 2010 will be quite indicative as to a reasonable 2011 forecast. ![]() Please note, above, the silver lining. Despite a lower than normal number of closings in September 2010 -- the buyers were out yet again, contracting to buy real estate. In fact, with 74 properties going under contract, buyers in our market outpaced the past two Septembers. This should be a good indicator for the coming months. ![]() Above you'll see a decade-long comparison of two imprecise measures. The blue bars show the number of home sales recorded in the HRAR MLS -- this does not include private sales (sans Realtor), and some new home sales. The yellow bars show the number of Trustee Deeds recorded during each of the past 10+ years. Some of these foreclosed properties (203 in 2010) then show up in the blue bar when they are listed and then sold as bank owned properties. It would seem that foreclosures have increased nearly four-fold over the past ten years, and now make up somewhere between 15% and 26% of all home sales. ![]() My full market report (click above -- or here -- for a 20 page PDF) includes LOTS more analysis to help you make informed real estate decisions. Read through it and let me know if you have any questions, or if any additional information would be helpful to you. You can contact me (nearly) anytime at 540-578-0102 or scott@HarrisonburgHousingToday.com. | |
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Will Home Values Fall in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County? |
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An Associate Press story printed in the Daily News Record a few days ago.... ![]() The beginning of the article references an increase in prices in July as shown by the Case Schiller index. So, will home values fall here in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County as is suggested in the article might happen in many markets? Let's take a look at the support for their theory that values will fall.....
Stay tuned! | |
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What Home Sales Could Have Been in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County |
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In an interesting e-mail dialogue about the current real estate market, I was offered this terrific insight... "It seems to me that houses bought and sold in a "normal" market should have some average per capita value ... the factors which affect whether people buy or sell houses should be relatively similar from year to year (people moving in for new jobs, divorces, retirements, etc.) in non bubble years." I couldn't agree more --- so let's run with that theory for a moment and see what we can learn. ![]() The graph above shows the population for Harrisonburg and Rockingham County (source) compared to home sales per the HRAR MLS. You can see that while population has steadily increased over the past decade, home sales rose dramatically, and then fell dramatically. So....what if we took the per capita theory, and extrapolated from the year 2000.... ![]() This graph supposes that the number of home sales in 2000 compared to the total population in 2000 (0.77%) was the norm -- and then suggests what home sales would have been for each subsequent year -- still assuming they would be 0.77% of the population. You can see that home sales would have slowly increased just as the population did. ![]() The graph above shows actual home sales (blue) compared to the theoretical 0.77% home sales --- what a difference in the peak years of 2004 through 2006! Per this theory, we're "behind" as of 2009 --- there should have been more home sales, given the population figure, and assuming that home sales will usually be 0.77% of the population. ![]() To push the envelope a bit further, let's assume home sales should be 0.87% of the population. You see, in 2000 the per capita figure was 0.77%, but in 2001 it was 0.97%. If we split the difference, we have the graph above -- showing that last year the home sales were significantly below the norm. What does this mean for the future? If we buy into the per capita theory, then last year's home sales are not the pattern the future. We won't always have about 800-ish home sales per year, and see a steady increase from that number. Instead, we are likely going to see a return (over the next year or two) to a sales level closer to around 1,000 home sales per year, which will then steadily increase as the population grows. That is, of course, unless we see another market boom at some point in the future! | |
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Online Property Views and Residential Property Sales Appear To Be Heading Up! |
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A lot of you might view properties online today --- only a few of you might close on a home sale today. That said, there often seems to be a correlation between the number of people viewing properties online, and the number of people closing on properties. It makes sense --- if more people are going to buy a home, there will likely be more people looking at said homes online. Take a look at the interesting two year trends below. Not only do they mimic each other, but they are both headed up! ![]() ![]() Now, I don't wear the rose colored glasses 24x7 --- I know we're not out of the woods yet. We still have super-high inventory levels, we haven't decidedly seen a turn of the tide in sales volume, and it will probably be another year or more before we see prices starting to stabilize. However, there are more and more indicators of late that we may be seeing a gradual change towards more positive times in the Harrisonburg and Rockingham County housing market. | |
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How Much Of An Effect Did The First Time Buyer Tax Credit Really Have in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County? |
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Many people have asked me how much of an affect on our market the first time buyer tax credit has had over the past year. It's a challenging question to answer --- some first time buyers who bought this year may have bought because of the tax credit, but some (or most?) may have bought even if the tax credit didn't exist. One way that we should be able to tell if the tax credit had a big impact is to see if there are more first time buyers in the market now as compared to last year. Thus, I decided to examine the breakdown of sales prices during May and June 2010 (it should be a lot of first time buyers) as compared to all of last year (2009). ![]() As you can see, above, I assumed that I would probably find a pretty big increase in the proportional number of lower priced homes selling this May and June as compared to last year. ![]() Above, however, you'll note that there wasn't actually much of a change at all. About 60% of the homes sold in the last two months were priced below $200k and the same percentage of the sales from last year were below $200k. I welcome your suggestions for other ways to slice and dice the data to get at whether the tax credit had an impact on the market. For now, we'll say the jury is still out... | |
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Buying A House In A Buyer's Market |
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![]() For each of the past four years, fewer and fewer home buyers have purchased homes in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County. The annual rate of home sales has declined from 1,669 in 2005 down to 816 in 2009 – a decline of more than 50%. Even though the first five months of 2010 indicate that sales activity may finally be starting to increase again, it is still a buyer's market. There are far more sellers needing, hoping or wanting to sell than there are buyers who need, hope or want to buy. In many senses, this is great news for buyers – there are fewer buyers to compete with, and more houses to choose from. Add to that the amazingly low interest rates and you'll see why today's home buyer is excited to be in the market to buy. But despite this excitement, most buyers want to make sure they are making a wise investment. In years past, just about any home would do – when the overall market was increasing by 15% to 20% per year, just about any home would see great appreciation. Now, however, prices are holding relatively stable, so it becomes more important which house a buyer chooses. As you look at which particular house you choose, one perspective to consider is how you'll do when you re-sell the house you are buying. Some homes currently for sale need updating – hardwood floors to be refinished, a roof to be replaced, wallpaper to be removed, or a driveway to be re-surfaced. These homes that are need of some updates can be a good opportunity for buyers – if the seller is pricing based on these imminent costs. An even better opportunity, however, is a home where brand new value can be added through your improvements. If you sand and stain the hardwood floors, you will have added value through improving the look and ambiance of the home – but you had hardwood floors before your work, and you still do. If you replace the roof, you will have added value through lower roof maintenance for the next buyer – but you had a roof before your work, and you still do. As you look at homes as a buyer you should not only look for updates that you might choose to or need to make, but also totally new areas where you can create space to add value. Homes with unfinished bonus rooms or unfinished basements offer lots of potential for adding brand new value. The layout of some homes invites the addition of a deck or screened porch – both of which add brand new value – or perhaps an existing porch can be converted into a sunroom. When you're just refinishing the existing spaces, you usually aren't changing the functional space offered to the next buyer – but if there is an easy way to add more functional spaces, this can offer you many options during your time of homeownership, and when you re-sell. A second perspective to consider when buying in a buyer's market is the "timeless value" or quality found in a home you are considering. Look for appropriately sized rooms, the types of rooms that you use on a daily basis, and the quality of construction and craftsmanship that means your home will still look great in 5, 10 or 15 years. In this case, it's not just about buying the biggest house, or the house with the biggest yard. Some 2,000 square foot homes have layouts that won't fit most people's lifestyles, where an 1,800 square foot home down the street might be perfectly designed for comfortable daily use. In her very well read book, The Not So Big House, Sarah Susanka encourages us to think differently about the layout of a house: "It's time for a different kind of house. A house that is more than square footage; a house that is Not So Big, where each room is used every day. A house with a floorplan inspired by our informal lifestyle instead of the way our grandparents lived. A house for the future that embraces a few well-work concepts from the past. A house that expresses our values and our personalities. It's time for the Not So Big House." Saranka points out that it's not all about quantity in a house, but about quality – quality in design and materials. Finally, it is very important to consider location and neighborhood, when buying a home in a buyer's market. A home can be beautiful, well designed, and desirable to all – but if it is located on a busy road, or in the far corner of the county, or on a street where most homes are old and poorly maintained, the future value of the home suddenly changes. Buying an older home, or one that needs work, can be a much better opportunity for you, as you have more control over the changes to the value of your home. You'll likely never reduce the traffic count on the road in front of your house, you'll never make city and employment growth stretch all the way out to your corner of the county, and you won't spend your free time fixing up the other ten houses on your block. With many more homes for sale than buyers to buy them, and with amazingly low interest rates, and with fewer buyers to compete with when negotiating a deal with a seller, it can be a very exciting time to buy a home. When you do so, it is important to consider how well the home will fit your needs, but it is also wise to consider how the home you are considering will fare when you need to sell in 5, 10 or 15 years down the road. | |
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Home Sales versus Foreclosures |
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![]() Data Sources: Harrisonburg/Rockingham Association of Realtors MLS, Rockingham County Circuit Court Clerk's Office (Thanks Chaz & April!) Many have asked me how foreclosures are affecting our local real estate market. Absent hard data on the number of foreclosures in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County, I have always mentioned that there aren't an overwhelming number of foreclosures --- and certainly not enough to make a huge difference in home values. Now, I have the data, thanks Chaz & April at the Clerk's Office . . . ![]() What can be seen here is that the percentage of the home sales that are foreclosures has certainly been on the rise over the past several years. However, despite this being based on hard data, there is still a bit of fuzzy math.... The "Sales" includes all home sales as recorded in the HRAR MLS. This includes most foreclosures, because most such properties end up being bank owned properties that are then listed (and sold) by Realtors via the MLS. However, if only 127 of the 177 foreclosures ended up in the MLS as sales, then the true number of total sales for 2009 would have been 866 sales, making foreclosures 20.4% of the market as opposed to 21.7% of the market. This year (2010) and next year will be important to watch as we see how many home sales we'll have, and how many foreclosures will exist in the market. I predict that home sales will level off this year (and thus, stop declining), but that foreclosures will increase over last year. | |
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Low to Mid Priced Homes Are Sustaining The Market |
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Home sales have certainly started to bounce back in 2010... ![]() Skeptics certainly won't believe we're making any progress until we pass June 30th and the end of the tax credit season. Big picture thinkers will want to delve into why our market has outperformed so many others across the country.. But now let's examine what is actually selling this year: ![]() Sales of homes priced under $300k have increased compared to last year. Sales of homes priced above $300k, however, have declined this year. Is it because of the tax credit? Is it because buyers of sub-$300k homes often don't have a home to sell before buying? Plenty of possibilities --- but so far the market is looking strong for the spring and summer! | |
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Why Have Home Values Remained Stable in the Central Shenandoah Valley? |
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Some reports indicate that Americans lost over $1,000,000,000,000 (one trillion dollars) in home values in the last three months of 2009. When looking at the sum of the last several years, the figures are even more staggering – declining home values across the United States have resulted in trillions of dollars of losses for American homeowners. Yet during this same time period, homes values in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County have only been marginally affected. In fact, it wasn't until 2009 that this area saw any significant decline in median sales price, and then it was only a 5% decline. So why and how, in this time of rapidly declining home values, have homes in the central Shenandoah Valley held their value? First, while Harrisonburg and Rockingham County did see a sharp increase in home prices (51% increase in median home value between 2003 and 2006), our median sales price started out quite low ($127,700 in 2003) and only increased to $192,983 in 2006. Median sales prices in many other metropolitan areas increased to much higher levels leading to borrowers stretching pursuing riskier mortgages for their purchases. In such areas with significant increases in home values, many homeowners took on risky mortgage programs such as variable rate mortgages, interest only mortgages, or mortgages with a teaser rate. Those with 30-year fixed rate mortgages knew what to expect of their housing payment and likely were able to continue to pay their mortgages after buying several years ago, but those with these higher risk mortgages often had trouble keeping up with their mortgages and were foreclosed upon. Variable rate mortgages have been somewhat problematic, but not to a great degree because interest rates have remained relatively low for the last several years. Interest only mortgages have proven to be quite dangerous, because the homeowners has not been paying down any principal on their mortgage, and thus does not build up an equity in their home absent any appreciation in the market. Mortgages with teaser rates provided for a very low rate (1%, 2%) for a short time period in order to qualify a home purchaser. These teaser rate mortgages would then reset to a much higher rate after several years, then putting the homeowner in financial duress, unable to make their mortgage programs Since home values didn't go too drastically in this area, home buyers did not (in large number) feel pressured to obtain risky mortgages with variable or escalating future housing payments. As a result, we have seen a very low number of foreclosures in the central Shenandoah Valley. I have heard, anecdotally that earlier in 2009 over half of the homes on the market in the Winchester area were "bank owned" homes --- homes that had been foreclosed upon. This high, high number of foreclosures lead to rapid decreases in home values, as banks quickly reduced the prices at which they would sell their inventory in order to get these homes off their books. Thus while high foreclosure rates in other metropolitan areas lead to declining home values, the very low foreclosure rate in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County has lead to relatively stable home values. The Harrisonburg and Rockingham County market has also been greatly protected by its diverse and stable local economy. We have not seen significant losses of jobs over the past five years, which could have put large numbers of homeowners in a position where they had to sell their homes rapidly because they were unemployed, or because they were moving to another area to find work. Our economy includes jobs from many sectors, and is largely supported by the colleges in universities in our midst. It also helps that we have always had very low unemployment rates as compared to most every other metropolitan area in the country. Since 2005, the pace of home sales has declined drastically, with only 813 home sales in 2009 compared to 1,669 home sales in 2005. The law of supply and demand would suggest that such a large reduction in demand (a 51% decrease) would certainly lead to a drastic decrease in home values. Yet, in the same time frame (2005-2009), the median home price has shown a net increase from $169,900 to $186,300 (a 10% increase). While we have seen a 5% decrease in home values between 2008 and 2009, our local housing market continues to be amazingly resilient, without any significant shift in home values. While we can't point one particular factor that has protected home values in the central Shenandoah Valley, it is highly related to the relatively slow and small increase in home values, the conservative mortgage programs used by home buyers, our low foreclosure rate, and our stable local economy. | |
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Standing Firm: The Harrisonburg and Rockingham County Real Estate Market Holds Steady In February 2010 |
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Click here or on the image below to view the full March 2010 Harrisonburg & Rockingham County Real Estate Market Report (PDF). Read on below for a few highlights. ![]() Some high level February 2009 to February 2010 observations include:
![]() Don't delay -- get all of the exciting (and not as exciting) details and beautiful charts by downloading the full March 2010 Harrisonburg & Rockingham County Real Estate Market Report (PDF). If you find the information in this report to be helpful....
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2000-2009: Population Up, Home Sales Down |
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Over at hburgnews I noticed a link to a new study from the Weldon Cooper Center indicating that the Harrisonburg / Rockingham County MSA has grown roughly 13% between 2000 and 2009. [ read more at hburgnews ] Knowing that home sales have decreased during the same time period, I thought I'd see how the two data sets lined up. First, though, please note that:
![]() This graph shows something (somewhat) similar --- a higher percentage (1.43%) of our population bought a home in 2005 than the percentage in 2000 (0.77%) and 2009 (0.66%). As I ponder this data, I wonder what will be "normal" over the next 20 years as to what percentage of our population will buy a home in any given year. Is 0.77% the magic number (shown in 2000 and 2008)? If so, home sales were depressed in 2009 (how surprising). Or perhaps we should expect about 1% of our population to buy a home each year. The most pressing question in my mind is when we will start to see an increase again in home sales --- both as a raw number, and as a percentage of the population. I thought we'd see in 2008 (we did not). I thought we'd see it in 2009 (we did not). I think the third time might be the charm, and we'll see home sales (quantity, not sales prices) increase in 2010. What do you think? Also, another interesting way to look at the data above is as follows:
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Harrisonburg, Rockingham County Housing Market Stabilized By Low Unemployment Rates |
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In conversation today about our local housing market, I was asked how in the world Harrisonburg and Rockingham County home values have stayed relatively level over the past few years when many parts of the state and country are not. One key reason for the relative stability in our housing market is continued LOW UNEMPLOYMENT. Thanks to Jim over at RealCentralVA, for pointing out the Washington Post's interactive unemployment map. As unemployment has increased in other parts of Virginia, and the United States, there have been many ripple effects that directly impact those local housing markets:
![]() As seen above, all areas in Virginia and most in neighboring states experienced sub 7% unemployment rates in July 2007. ![]() As shown above, quite a few areas in neighboring states, and a few in Virginia started to see unemployment creep up to the 7% - 10% range in July 2008. ![]() OUCH! The vast majority of states surrounding Virginia were above 7% or above 10% or even above 13% in 2009. Most areas of Virginia outperformed these neighboring states --- and Haririsonburg and Rockingham County STILL experienced an unemployment rate below 7%. | |
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6,500 Reasons Why It's Great If You Have Owned And Lived In Your Home For Five Or More Years! |
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![]() Somehow, the $8,000 tax credit for first-time buyers is getting all of the attention, meaning that most people don't even know about the $6,500 tax credit available to you if you've lived in your home for five years. If you have owned your home for five or more years, you will (almost certainly) receive a $6,500 tax credit if you buy your next home by April 30th, 2010. To clarify -- you must have a contract on the house by April 30th and close by June 30th. Many people that I talk to who would be eligible for this $6,500 tax credit don't even know that it exists. If you're in this situation and planning to buy a new house in 2010, you really ought to consider making a move in the first four to six months of the year. Click here for more information (from the IRS) about both tax credits. Again, to try to really drive this point home: If you've owned your house (and lived in it) for more than five years, you are very likely eligible for a $6,500 tax credit if you buy a new home by the spring/summer. | |
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Selling For A Profit All Depends On When You Bought! |
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Thankfully, the value of homes in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County hasn't taken a nose dive like has happened in many other markets. As you can see below, modest (normal?) growth in values occurred between 2000 and 2003, unbelievable (and unsustainable) growth in values occurred between 2003 and 2006, and prices became stagnant between 2006 and 2009. ![]() That being said, since we haven't seen consistent growth in home values since 2006, there are some homeowners who are unable to sell their house (after costs) for as much as they bought it. Conventional wisdom pre-2003 said that you should only buy a house if you knew you'd be living in it for 5 or more years. You see, with the principal balance of the mortgage declining SO SLOWLY at the start of a 30-year mortgage, it would take a full five years to have paid down the mortgage enough to cover the costs of selling. As you might imagine from the graph above (or from talking to your friends), some people bought in 2003, 2004 or 2005, and then sold a year later at a tidy profit. The market was going up so quickly that they could sell one year later with no financial detriment because of the high rate of appreciation. Let's take a look at how our market has performed over the past decade by imagining that someone has to sell three years after they buy. ![]() As per the chart above, a homeowner buying 2000 or 2001 would have been experienced a good sized gain. ![]() The gain is starting to be more and more unbelievable at this point. Buying in 2003 and selling in 2006 would have resulted in a whopping $53,000 gain, or roughly $18,000 per year. ![]() While things are starting to slow down, we see here that someone could have bought as late as 2005 and been just fine, given that there was such a big jump in median home values between 2005 and 2006. ![]() OOPS! Wait a minute! A $16,000 loss?? It's true --- if you bought in 2006 or anytime thereafter, and you want to sell your house, you'll need to prepare to do so at a loss, given the costs of selling. The big question: When will the median sales price start to stabilize? When the supply of homes for sale starts decreasing more rapidly than it has, I believe we'll start to see the median price inch upwards again --- though not at the pace it did between 2003 and 2006! | |
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Pondering The Future Of The Harrisonburg and Rockingham County Real Estate Market |
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![]() Over the last few days I have had quite a few discussions with developers, builders, buyers, sellers, and other Realtors regarding the exciting change of pace our local real estate market experienced in November 2009. To remind you of this astonishing news:
All of these are wonderful indicators, and we find yet another one at the top of this post, showing that while online property views (defined below) have been declining over the past few months, they are much higher than could be expected. In fact, there were more properties viewed online in November 2009 than in March 2009. Wow! We would typically expect that most buyers would be looking at properties online (and in person) at the start of the spring "buying season" -- but the graph above shows that there are still LOTS of buyers looking (at least online) at properties for sale. Online property views is the sum of all property views on the Coldwell Banker Funkhouser Realtors network of web sites, including our company web site, and all agent web sites. | |
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Scott Rogers
Funkhouser Real
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scott@funkhousergroup.com
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