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Are sellers accepting home sale contingencies? |
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![]() Based on the analysis above, it would seem that sellers are not (in almost all cases) accepting home sale contingencies. Here's the logic....
I must say, I was quite surprised to find this to be the case --- I thought perhaps 10% - 20% of contracts might have kickout clauses (and thus home sale contingencies) because plenty of buyers have to sell before buying. It would seem that most buyers are likely waiting to make offers until they have their own properties under contract (thus eliminating the need for the kickout clause) AND/OR most sellers are not accepting offers with home sale contingencies unless the buyers' houses are already under contract (thus eliminating the need for the kickout clause). If you are a buyer, I would certainly suggest the strategy outlined above (and the only one that is apparently working with sellers right now) --- get a contract on your house and THEN make an offer on the property you would like to purchase! | |
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Fewer affordable homes available for purchase |
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![]() There are 7% fewer homes for sale under $200K as compared to two years ago. In contrast, there are 2% more $200K - $300K homes for sale.... ...and 20% more $300K - $400K homes for sale.... ...and 2% fewer $400K+ homes for sale. This change (fewer lower priced homes for sale) is another indicator that home prices are starting to increase again. | |
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Lot Sales, Prices Increasing in 2015 |
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![]() Sales of building lots of less than an acre in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County have started to pick up steam over the past few years. Year-to-date sales (47) point to a potential of 94 lots sales this year, which would be a 12% increase in sales. Prices also seem like they might finally be increasing. The median sales price of building lots of less than an acre declined (slightly) in 2013 and 2014 but seem poised to increase 6% in 2015. | |
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Single Family Home Sales Prices Up Nearly 8% in 2015 |
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![]() The analysis above looks only at single family home sales -- which excludes duplexes, townhouses and condos. This metric is a helpful indicator for the overall residential market because there are not usually a lot of investors participating in this segment of the market, thus it is typically a good representation of owner occupant demand for houses. As is shown above, the last few years have seen (small) declines in median sales prices with a 2% decline in 2013 and a 1% decline in 2014. It is, thus, exciting news (for home sellers, though perhaps not as much for home buyers) that these median sales prices have increased by nearly 8% thus far in 2015 as compared to 2014 median sales prices. Read more about current market trends in my monthly market report found online at HarrisonburgHousingMarket.com. | |
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July 2015 Harrisonburg Housing Market Report: Home Sales Hit Seven Year High |
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![]() Learn more about this month's Featured Property: 2826 Brookshire Drive I just published my monthly report on the Harrisonburg and Rockingham County real estate market. Jump to the full online market report, or download the PDF, or read on for highlights.... ![]() First, the fun news. As noted above, June 2015 home sales (all 126 of them) broke a long-standing record for the number of homes selling in a single month in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County. The last time we saw this many closings in a single month was waaaay back in August 2007! ![]() Moving beyond a single month of lots of home sales, it is clear (as shown above) that the first half of the year is off to a smashing start as well. There were 515 home sales in the first half of 2015 -- more than in the first six months of any of the preceding five years. ![]() Perhaps these increasing home sales are what is also helping median prices to start to rise. As shown above, after several years of slow increases (+1%, +2%, +2%) in the median sales price, we are now poised to see a 5% - 6% increase in median sales prices in 2015. Stay tuned to see how the rest of the year shakes out -- but hopefully we'll at least clear 3% or 4%. ![]() If you're thinking about putting your house on the market, this might be a swell time to do it -- as shown above, inventory levels are down 6% year-over-year AND inventory levels dropped over the past month. Buyers have fewer options right now, and there are still plenty of buyers looking to buy.... ![]() As shown above, there were more buyers (126) in June 2015 than we saw in May 2015 (114) and we should still see quite a few more months of 100+ buyers making decisions to buy homes in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County. OK, that's it for now. I'll hit some high points here on HarrisonburgHousingToday.com in coming days. In the meantime, you can read the full July 2015 Harrisonburg Housing Market Report online or by downloading the PDF. And as is always my encouragement -- if you will be buying or selling a home in the near future, become a student of the housing market! Learn what has been happening recently, what is happening now, and what is likely to happen next. Being informed will allow you to make better real estate decisions.If you are ready to buy or sell a property in Harrisonburg or Rockingham County, contact me at 540-578-0102 or scott@HarrisonburgHousingToday.com to get the process started. | |
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Mortgage interest rates have been better (3.3%) and worse (4.6%) in the past three years |
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![]() Mortgage interest rates (for a 30 year fixed rate mortgage) have varied from as low as 3.3% to as high as 4.6% over the past three years. Current rates are hovering right around 4% -- which is higher than they have been recently, but is still absurdly low within a longer-term context, providing buyers with a great opportunity to lock in their housing costs for the long-term. | |
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Will you be enjoying great music, food and people this weekend at the Red Wing Roots Music Festival? |
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![]() You should be! Join me (and lots and lots and lots of other people) at the Red Wing Roots Music Festival this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. View the schedule, get directions, read the latest news, or buy yourself some tickets. But by all means, be there! Want to know even more, read this preview of the festival from the Huffington Post. | |
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How many homes will you have to choose from? |
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![]() If you are entering the market to buy a home, the number of homes you will have to choose from will vary widely based on what you are looking for in a new home. Some buyers have a very narrow scope and find themselves on a prolonged hunt for what seems to be an elusive or mythical home. Some buyers find plenty of options, evaluate quite a few, make a decision and move forward with an offer. ![]() As you consider the over 600 homes currently on the market for sale, keep in mind that some of them have been on the market for 3 months, 6 months, 9 months or even longer. The freshest of fresh listings are those that have come on in the past 30 days -- which (this time of year) is only around 100 - 125 homes out of the 600+ current listings for sale. Depending on your time frame for buying, and the narrowness of your scope, sometimes it makes sense to quickly evaluate the current options -- and then to wait and see what new and exciting listings will be coming on the market in coming days and weeks. Steps to get started include talking to a lender to get a sense of your target price range, and then chatting with me (in person, by email, by phone) so that I can also be keeping an eye out for suitable properties for you. | |
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Layout is a very important factor, especially in an expensive home |
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![]() If a buyer is buying over $400K, or even over $300K, the layout of the home becomes very important to them. That is not to say that it is unimportant for a $200K buyer -- but someone buying a more expensive home is oftentimes planning to stay in it for a longer time frame. Back in the red hot market of 2004-2008, this did not matter as much -- inventory was low, buyers were happy to just get a house at all -- but that has changed. Now days, buyers are assuming that they may want to (or have to, if prices aren't increasing over time) stay in their home for quite a while. As a result, they want a layout that works really well for their family. If not the #1 feedback, the #2 feedback I receive from showings of homes priced over $400K is that the layout just didn't work for the buyers. They wanted another bedroom here, instead of there. They wanted a more open floor plan. They wanted a more formal dining room. They wanted a more spacious basement. Challengingly, the layout is something that is hard (nearly impossible) for a seller to change in order to appeal to a wider segment of buyers. Thus, if your home has a layout that continues to not work for buyer after buyer, you must either wait (and potentially wait and wait and wait) for the buyer who loves that layout -- or adjust the list price to make the house (even with its layout) more appealing to more buyers. That said, as reflected in the conversation at the top of this post -- a great deal on a house is not always enough to sway a buyer beyond the layout challenges that a house offers. | |
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Balancing what you can afford with what you want to pay |
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![]() An important part of getting ready to buy a home is to talk to a mortgage lender (ask if you need recommendations) to find out how much money they will lend you to purchase a home. Lenders have a variety of calculations that they perform to determine how much money they will lend you -- most related to the highest percentage of your income that they are comfortable with having you spend on housing. However -- this does not always mean that you should borrow as much as you possibly can. Spending the most on a house that your lender would be comfortable with may not make you comfortable -- as it would then reduce the amount of money in your monthly budget that you could use for vacations, retirement savings, college savings, and so much more. Check with your lender to find out how much of a home you CAN afford to buy -- but then decide how much you WANT to buy. | |
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Go ahead, set off those fireworks, June 2015 home sales were hot, hot, hot |
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![]() Despite having fewer showings in May/June and fewer contracts in June, it looks like June 2015 was a great month for (closed) home sales. With a few more sales likely to trickle in over the next few days, June 2015 home sales are already showing a 13% improvement over last June. Stay tuned for more analysis in the days to come.....and Happy Independence Day! | |
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Upcoming geographical shifts in commercial real estate in Harrisonburg |
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![]() Get ready for some significant shifts in the locations considered by new businesses coming to Harrisonburg -- thanks for the upcoming completion of the SouthEast Connector Road. Read more about its potential impact on our local commercial real estate market over at Tim Reamers' blog.... 1,124 Words About Asphalt by Tim ReamerOr, find out more about Stoneport, the new mixed used development on the SouthEast Connector Road.... ![]() | |
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Showings slower (than last year) in May, June 2015 |
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![]() I don't always bring good news. Showing activity in May and June of this year was slower (-28%, -18%) than in the same two months last year. Stay tuned for further market analysis next week to see how we're doing on contracts and sales in the first half of the year. | |
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Will a robot build your next house, in two days? |
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![]() Probably not. But there is a robot in development, named Hadrian, that can lay 1,000 bricks per hour -- 20 times faster than a human bricklayer. It will be fascinating to see if/when we start to see more automation in the home building process. Read more.... Gizmag: Brick-laying robot can build a full-sized house in two days Mashable: A robot called Hadrian wants to build you a house in two days Also, read more about Hadrian, the Roman Emporer who rebuilt the Pantheon. | |
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Another month of 100+ contracts |
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![]() June 2015 will be the fourth straight month with 100+ contracts being signed by buyers in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County. In 2014, we saw 100+ contracts every month between April and September. In 2015, the 100+ months started in March. It seems unlikely that we will hit the high of 145 contracts that we saw in June 2014 this month, but we'll double check again in a few more days. | |
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Valley Business Keynote brings Generational Experts to Harrisonburg Event |
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![]() Don't miss this exciting event taking place on July 22, 2015. Find out more, and register, at ValleyBusinessKeynote.com. | |
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It is HOT out there! How to keep (your house) cool this summer.... |
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![]() Summer is upon us! Mid 90's earlier this week. Both my neighbor and my sister had a broken AC unit yesterday. No fun! Below are some great tips from Charles Hendricks (an architect in Harrisonburg) for keeping your house efficient and comfortable this summer. Charles' tips include information on vampire loads, smart thermostats, opening windows, energy star appliances, clothes lines, ceiling fans, reduce appliance usage, replace air filters, humidistats and indoor plants. Click here to read about 10 things to make your summer more efficient and comfortable. | |
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Reimagining Days on Market |
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![]() Two months ago, our "Median Days on Market" in this area was 119 days. Now, as shown above, it's only 66 days. What's happening? A drastic acceleration of our local real estate market? Actually, no. "Days on Market" is now being calculated differently by our new MLS. In the past, the "Days on Market" was counting the number of days between the list date and closing date. Now, it is a calculation of the number of days between the list date and when a property goes under contract. In many ways, this is a more helpful calculation -- it takes the variable of "how long it takes a buyer to get to closing once they are under contract" out of the equation. Now, "Days on Market" shows how long it takes for a house to go under contract. | |
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Maybe the price of building lots has not plummeted? |
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![]() The story illustrated above (lot prices plummeted 50% and have never recovered) is the one I've been running with over the past few years. It takes the $100K lot value as the "new norm" and then looks at all values after that point ($55K-ish for years and years) as depressingly low. Perhaps that's not the correct storyline. What if this is really the story.... ![]() Perhaps the story to be told is that lot values steadily increased between 2000 and 2005 (from $26K to $55K), then had an abnormal, unnatural, unsustainable spike (to $99K) before settling back down to the then continued norm of $55K-ish. If this, is, the more important story to be embracing, then we need not be quite as depressed. Other than a brief two year wild party (for sellers of building lots) the median sales price of these lots has been around $55K for the past decade.... | |
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Maximize strength of other offer terms when making a low offer |
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![]() If you are making a low offer, you can increase the appeal of your offer by strengthening your other offering terms.... DEPOSITS Make the largest deposit you are comfortable with so the seller knows you have money "on the line" and that you won't risk losing that money by attempting to walk away from the deal. CLOSING COST ASSISTANCE Sellers don't just look at the contract price --- they calculate their net proceeds based on the offer price and any credits or closing cost assistance. Only ask for assistance if you truly need it. FINANCING Provide as much detail as possible about your financing intentions, and always include a pre-approval letter. Sellers who believe you are capable of financing the purchase will be less hesitant as they consider other terms of your offer. And yes -- offer cash, a large pile of it, if you are able. :) PERSONAL PROPERTY Don't automatically ask for everything the seller intends to convey --- if you don't need them all, leave them out of the offer. Allowing the seller to keep their washer/dryer (for example) may make them more flexible in other areas. INSPECTIONS Having a professional inspect the property you are purchasing is usually a good idea; however if you only intend to do it for informational purposes, consider leaving it out of the contract negotiations and conducting it post-settlement. SETTLEMENT & POSSESSION If possible, cater your settlement date and the details of transferring possession of the property to the needs or wants of the seller. This can go a long way towards gaining seller flexibility on other contract terms. Finally, research the seller's context for selling. That information can be invaluable in negotiating a successful contract. | |
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Scott Rogers
Funkhouser Real
Estate Group
540-578-0102
scott@funkhousergroup.com
Licensed in the
Commonwealth of Virginia
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