You find a home you love, priced at $375K, and you know it will appeal to a lot of buyers.  So, we prepare an offer... with an escalation clause. Now comes the hard part... how high will you go?

You'd happily pay $385K or $390K. Would you pay $400K? Maybe. You're not sure.

Try thinking about it in terms of how you'd feel afterward, not just the number itself.

Paying $390K... Delighted?
Paying $400K... A bit uneasy, but still glad you got the house?
Paying $410K... Regretful you went that high?

The shift from delighted to uneasy but glad, to regretful can show us where the top of that escalation clause should be... for you... for that one property.  That number will be different for each buyer on any particular house.

Comps and market value still matter... you don't want to escalate (too far) past what an appraisal can support. But comps don't reflect you how much you want the house, or what price you'd feel good about long after closing. That part is yours to define.

When you're preparing to make an offer on an uber–popular house, we'll talk through the numbers, and the feelings, so you land on a price you'll feel good about.
   

Before you fall in love with a house, ask yourself... is anything missing? And if so, does it actually matter to you?

Maybe it's an outdoor patio or deck. Maybe it's a garage, a fenced yard, or a main level primary bedroom. Once you notice what's not there, the real question is whether it'll affect how you actually live in the home.

If it's missing and it matters... say you envision spending lots of time entertaining outside, and this house has no patio or deck... that likely means the house is not a great fit for you.

If it's missing and it doesn't matter... because you don't picture using that kind of space anyway... then no problem, this house might be a great option for you. But... keep in mind that it might somewhat limit your resale options down the road. 

We are unlikely to find a perfect house that has everything that you want, and nothing that you don't, so when we view a home that is missing a key element, let's pause to reflect on whether that actually matters to you, and how that might influence your decision making.

   

The price of your home will be one of the key factors in determining how many buyers will consider it.  Over the past year in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County, 96% of buyers paid over $200K – which is nearly the entire market. Move up to $300K, and that pool drops to 70%. Move up to $400K, and it drops to 33%. By $600K, it's down to just 10%. By $1M, it's 1%.

This is why homes in low price ranges tend to sell faster, with more certainty, and higher priced homes take longer and come with more unpredictability. Clearly, the more buyers who can afford your home, the more competition will exist and the greater the likelihood that the right buyer shows up quickly. Fewer buyers able to afford your home means it might take more time to sell your home.

This will be one part of our conversation about pricing your home... talking not only about what your home is worth... but also, how many buyers will be considering it... and what that might mean from a timing perspective.

If your home falls in the upper end of our local market, we'll likely need to plan to be patient as we market your home.  If your home falls in the lower end of our local market, it will hopefully sell more quickly.

  

Happy Monday morning, friends!  

It's not quite mid–August, but summer is starting to feel like it is coming to a close for many... with students, and parents, and teachers preparing for the school year ahead.

I hope you have had an enjoyable summer full of both adventure and moments of relaxation.  

Time at the lake does that for me... thrilling adventures during the day with water skiing and wake surfing... and quiet, peaceful morning sunrises before the activities of the day have begun.

Before we jump into the latest trends in the local housing market...

Each month I offer my readers a chance to win a gift card to a local coffee shop, restaurant or other fun destination.  This month you have the chance to win a $50 gift card to Coffee Hound, a coffee shop in downtown Harrisonburg.  Enter to win the gift card here.

Each weekday I publish an email newsletter with my thoughts, insights and commentary on buying and selling homes in Harrisonburg, the latest new developments, and more.  If you'd like to learn more about our local market, and the buying and selling process, subscribe to my daily newsletter here.

Now, let's dive into the latest real estate trends in our local market...

When looking at all residential sales in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County, we find more sales, but flat prices.  

Home sales are up across the board, with 10% more home sales in the past six months compared to the same time a year ago.  But... the median sales price is basically stuck... no change over the past six months and actually down 1% when looking at the past 12 months.  

Buyers are showing up in larger numbers, but prices are not currently pushing higher right now... though, when we look at detached homes and attached homes separately, we'll notice some slightly different trends.

Dialing in to only the detached homes we see that July was a big month, with 34% more detached home sales than last year – contributing to a 9% increase in home sales over the past six months.  But... the median sales price has only risen 1% over the past six months and over the past 12 months.  Do note, this is slightly more upward movement than when we look at the overall market of detached plus attached home sales.

Switching over to attached homes, we see a lot more upward momentum here in buyer activity... with 11% more home sales over the past six months compared to the prior year, and a 17% jump when looking at 12 months of data.  But... the median sales price has dropped 2% when looking at the past six months compared to a year ago.  So, stronger growth in the number of home sales, but prices that are slipping a touch.

With plenty of new housing going up in our area, it's helpful to look just at new home sales, where we find a 3% increase in the number of homes that are selling, but a 5% decline in the median sales price.  It's important to note that this may be a result of a changing mix of what types of homes are selling, rather than a decline in values.

The existing home sales category is where we're gaining the largest increase in overall sales volume... with 18% more home sales in July, and 13% more home sales over the past six months.  The median sales price of these existing homes is also up 1% over the past year.

When considering all of the data above, it seems reasonable to conclude that we're seeing consistent growth in the number of home sales taking place in our local market, but that prices are currently relatively flat with very slow growth (1%) in the median sales price.

Thus far, 2026 is tracking right along the normal season curve of monthly home sales, and has been ahead of last year's curve for all seven months of the year thus far.  Having now passed through the most active months of May and June, we should expect to see July–like home sales over the next three months.

The 821 home sales we have seen through July is the strongest year–to–date start in four years.  The increased volume of home sales began in January and has been building ever since.  It seems likely that we will see more than 1,400 home sales in total in 2026.

As discussed previously, we're seeing steady growth over the past year in the number of homes that are selling... up from 1,328 per year to 1,429 per year.  Prices, however, are stagnating overall, but when viewed within a few more defined sectors (detached, attached, existing) we see slight (1%) growth in prices.

Prices climbed steadily, and quickly, between 2018 and 2024, but have leveled off considerably since that time.  This new trajectory (much slower growth) between 2024 and 2026 is likely what we should expect over the next one to two years.

This will be an interesting trend to watch –– we saw far fewer signed contracts (98) in July 2026 than we saw (127) last July.  Since contracts today become closed sales in a month or two, this pullback in contract activity will likely roll into somewhat lower months of closed sales in August or September.

And yet, inventory levels are not climbing.  With a drop in contract activity, it wouldn't be surprising to see inventory levels starting to creep up... but we're not.  Current inventory levels (186) are well below where we were (248) a year ago.  Thus, the lower number of signed contracts might be at least somewhat related to smaller numbers of sellers being ready to sell, rather than a smaller number of buyers being ready to buy.

Mortgage interest rates settled all the way down to about 6% in early 2026... but have risen back up to 6.66% over the past six months... about where we were a year ago.  The temporary relief buyers experienced earlier this year has faded, and it is not clear if that will return in the near future.

The Big Picture

Sales volume is having its best year in four years, with 821 homes sold through July, outpacing every year back to 2023. But that activity hasn't translated into meaningfully higher prices. The rolling 12–month median has actually eased from $349,000 to $345,005, and every home type (detached, attached, new, existing) shows prices either flat to only slightly up.

For Buyers

Even though sales prices aren't climbing at 10% a year (or even 3% a year) you are still dealing with relatively high home prices, and interest rates that can make a monthly mortgage payment feel like a stretch.  Be patient in waiting for a home that fits you will, and will for years to come, and then be ready to act quickly and decisively.

For Sellers

This is a market where pricing accurately matters more than it has in years past. Homes are selling in high volume, but buyers aren't stretching to pay more as readily as they were between 2020 and 2024. Price your home realistically off of recent comps, present the home well, and be ready to move forward with a strong and reasonable buyer.

  

If you're a first time buyer who purchased with a small down payment in the last couple of years, you might need to stay in that home for a few more years before you can comfortably move up to the next one.

A Look at the Numbers

Here's how the median sales price has changed year over year in our market:

2020: +10%
2021: +10%
2022: +11%
2023: +8%
2024: +6%
2025: no change
2026: no change

After several years in a row of rapidly climbing prices, they have essentially flatted out now.

If You Bought in 2019, 2020, or 2021

Buyers who purchased during that window likely saw their home's value climb 10% or more year after year. So if you bought in 2020 and decided to sell in 2023 or so, there's a good chance you walked away with a handsome profit –– enough to make a comfortable move into a second home, maybe with a bigger down payment or a lower loan balance to carry.

That kind of equity, building quickly, was common back then. 

If You Bought in 2024, 2025, or 2026

If you bought more recently, especially with a small down payment, your home's value has likely grown by less than a percentage point a year. That means the equity you've built up is coming almost entirely from your monthly principal payments, not from rising home values.

So... if you were hoping to sell in a year or two and move up like buyers did a few years ago, you'll probably need to be more patient. It's not that it's impossible. It just likely takes longer to build enough equity to make that next move work financially.

What This Means for You

If you're in this more recent group of buyers, I'd encourage you to think of your current home as a longer term stop rather than a quick stepping stone. That's not a bad thing –– it just requires a shift in expectations compared to what buyers experienced just a few years earlier.

If you're wondering what this looks like for your specific situation, whether you're trying to figure out how much equity you have in your home, or if you're wondering about the best timing for a future move, let me know.

  

If you've been looking for a home over the past few months and haven't found the right one yet, you might be wondering what the rest of the year has in store. So... let's talk through it, month by month.

August: Hit or Miss

Right now, in August, you'll probably see some new listings trickle onto the market. But it won't be a steady stream. A lot of people are wrapping up summer plans and getting ready for the school year, whether that's someone who works in the schools –– K–12 or at one of the local colleges or universities –– or a family with kids heading back to class. Selling a home just isn't the priority for a lot of people right now. So expect some new options, but don't expect a lot of them.

September: Things Pick Back Up

Once the school year gets going, we typically see a good number of new listings hit the market. If August felt a little slow, September is usually where sellers who held off over the summer start putting their homes up for sale. This is often one of the better months for buyers still looking.

October Through December: A Gradual Slowdown

After September, the pace starts to ease. October usually brings fewer new listings than September. November typically brings fewer than October. And December usually brings fewer than November.

So... if you're picturing a steady climb in options as the year goes on, that's probably not what will happen. It's more like a wave that builds in September and then gradually pulls back as we head toward the holidays.

What This Means for You as a Buyer

If you haven't found a home yet, September is probably your best shot at a wider selection of new listings for a while. You should also have some good options in August, but likely even more in September.

After that, though, you'll likely be working with a slowly shrinking pool of new listings each month through the end of the year. That doesn't mean buying in October, November, or December isn't possible – it just means you're likely to have fewer options as fewer homeowners are putting their homes on the market.

If you're making an offer on a home but your own house isn't on the market yet, one of the biggest questions is whether the seller will even consider the offer at all.  And in most cases... the answer probably has less to do with your offer and more to do with how long their house has been sitting on the market.

A Fresh Listing? Probably Not.

If a seller just listed their home yesterday, they're unlikely to entertain an offer with a home sale contingency if your house isn't even listed for sale yet. Think about it from their perspective... they'd essentially be trading their own need to sell for someone else's need to sell. They don't know how quickly your home would sell... and they've just barely started with working to sell their own home.

Six Months on the Market? Maybe So.

Now let's adjust some of the variables.   If a seller has had their home on the market for six months and it still hasn't gone under contract, they might be a lot more open to an offer with a home sale contingency without that property already under contract. At that point, they've been trying to sell for half a year without success. So... if you come along with an offer that includes a contingency on your house selling, that might not seem quite as risky to them anymore. In fact, it might feel like a reasonable path forward, especially if they believe your house will move faster than theirs has.

So What Does This Mean for You?

If you're a buyer hoping to use a home sale contingency, have realistic expectations as to whether a seller will consider your offer, which often is related to how long their home has been listed for sale.

   

Sometimes we walk into a house and it checks every box on your list.

Three bedrooms. Two bathrooms. Garage. Nice neighborhood. Right price range.

But, you feel... nothing.

When The Boxes Are Checked But You're Not Excited

Indeed, a home can meet every requirement we discussed in our first meeting and still not feel like the right house for you.

Maybe it's the condition –– it needs work you don't want to take on. Maybe it's the layout –– the kitchen faces the wrong way, or the bedrooms feel cramped even though the square footage checks out. Maybe it's something harder to name. The light. The flow. The proximity of the neighbors.

Whatever it is, we should trust your overall reaction to and feelings about the house.

You're Allowed To Say No

Even if a house technically meets all of the requirements, that doesn't mean it's the right house.  If you're not excited... you don't have to buy it... and perhaps you shouldn't!

But...

Sometimes, I'll push back a little, just to make sure you're getting to the conclusion you want to reach.

Are you passing because something is genuinely wrong with the house, or missing from the house, or because you're holding out for a feeling that might not show up until you've lived somewhere a while?

When We Walk Through Together

When we're touring a house together, I want to hear the honest reaction, not just the checklist. "This is fine" and "I love this" are two very different feelings to a house!

Buying a home is a big decision, and you're allowed to wait for one that actually excites you –– not just one that works.
  

If you price your home right, it'll sell fast. That's the theory, anyway.

But "fast" doesn't mean the same thing at every price point. The certainty around how fast a home will sell (go under contract) often changes depending on where you fall in the market.

More Buyers, More Predictability

At the lower end of the market –– an entry level home in Harrisonburg or Rockingham County –– you'll have a big pool of potential buyers. When lots of buyers want the same thing, the outcome gets more predictable. If we price your home well, we can make more assumptions about how quickly your home will sell.

Fewer Buyers, More Guesswork

But what about a higher price point... $600K... $800K... $1M+. The higher the price climbs, the smaller the buyer pool. Fewer people can afford your home if it's worth $600K or $800K or $1M+. So even if the home is priced fairly... the number of buyers who might show up this month could be two. Or it could be zero.

Timeline Impact

When I'm discussing time on the market with a seller, our conclusions (guesses) depend a lot on where we are on the price spectrum.

For a well priced starter home, we'll likely assume it the house will go under contract quickly, if it is priced well, prepared well and marketed well.  For a higher end property, it's less certain how quickly it will go under contract... even if it is priced well, prepared well and marketed well.

What This Means For You

If you're selling a higher priced home, build in some patience. A slower start doesn't necessarily mean something's wrong. It might just mean we're waiting on the right buyer to show up, and there are fewer of them out there.

If you're buying in that higher price range, don't assume a home that's been sitting a while is a red flag. Sometimes it's just... a smaller pool of buyers.

Thinking about buying or selling in Harrisonburg or Rockingham County? Let's talk about what to expect at your specific price point.
  

If you sold a home a few years ago, we may have priced it a bit above what recent comparable sales were showing... and there was a good reason for that.

From about 2019 through 2024, we were seeing roughly a 10% increase in the median sales price year after year in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County.  As a result, when we priced your home, we wouldn't just look at recent comps and stop there. We'd often round up... adding $10K or $20K on top of what those comps were showing.

Why? Because those comps reflected prices buyers had agreed to pay sometimes many months earlier. When a market is appreciating quickly, pricing strictly off of older sales data could mean we would underprice the home relative to what today's buyers would actually be willing to pay.  

Side note – even if you did price your home strictly on recent comps, between 2019 and 2024 you likely would have received multiple offers that would have increased that price for you.

But, things are different now.

Since 2024, price appreciation has slowed down considerably. We're seeing only modest increases now, nothing like the double–digit jumps we got used to. And that, reasonably, changes how we need to approach pricing your home.

In the current market, rounding up from recent comps doesn't make as much sense.  If prices are increasing very slowly, then a comp from three or four months ago is still a pretty accurate reflection of where the market sits today. Adding an extra $10K or $20K on top of that, the way we might have in 2021 or 2022, risks pricing a home above what buyers are actually willing to pay right now, which can lead to a slower sale.

So what does this mean for you?

If you're thinking about selling, we should chat about how we will use comps to arrive at your list price. The strategy that made sense a few years ago (comps, plus rounding up isn't necessarily the right one today. Sticking close to what recent, similar sales are actually showing is almost always the smarter move in the current market.

   

If you've driven through Bridgewater this week, you may have noticed something new on the skyline. A four–story hotel built out of shipping containers is going up right on Main Street, next to the Sipe Center, to be called Blox on Main, developed by Joel and Jami Kauffman of Dayton. 

The ground floor will be commercial space (not yet leased), while the top three floors will offer what the Kauffmans describe as a high–end, immersive guest experience, with hopes of partnering with local restaurants and giving visitors a home base to explore the Shenandoah Valley.  

The architect behind the design, Tony Pope of Atlanta, has built shipping container projects in nine states and even in Belize. According to Pope, this will be the tallest shipping container structure in Virginia. 

The Kauffmans aren't new to hospitality. They already run an Airbnb near Silver Lake in Dayton, a historic home dating back to before the Civil War, where they frequently host families visiting JMU, Bridgewater College, and EMU, especially during football weekends.

Construction crews broke ground this week, and the Kauffmans are hoping to open the doors by late August or early September.
  

Read more via the Daily News Record.

   

After weeks, or sometimes months, of preparing your home for market... after getting the photos, the listing details, and all the marketing materials ready... we finally launch.

But on the day before we go live, most sellers are wondering... how quickly will buyers start requesting showings of my home?!?

In the first day, or in the first week... will you have one showing, or five, or ten, or none at all?

In most cases, the speed at which buyers first come see your home is largely out of our control. It's influenced by things such as the size of the buying market in your price range, the desirability of your neighborhood, and how many similar homes have come up for sale over the past six months relative to how many buyers have been waiting for exactly this kind of opportunity.

Yes, your preparations help. Yes, top notch marketing helps. Yes, pricing matters, a lot. But the number of early showings is also largely influenced by an unseen variable... how many buyers are out there right now, quietly hoping a home just like yours hits the market.

So what does this mean for you?

If you get five or ten showings in the first week... that's a great sign. Hopefully your home sells quickly.

If you get zero, one, or two... don't despair. All is not lost. It may simply mean there aren't as many buyers currently looking for a home in your location, your neighborhood, your property type, or your price range. That's not a reflection of your home, and it's not something preparation or marketing alone can manufacture. Sometimes the buyers just aren't there yet... but that can change.
  

Let's say you find a house you'd like to buy... but it's been sitting on the market for a month or two. 

You'll (we'll) likely start to wonder... how is the seller thinking about pricing?  Are they still hoping to sell at or close to their list price?  Are they willing to negotiate down on price by just a bit... or by quite a lot?

It's hard to know... and asking that question of the seller usually doesn't provide helpful feedback.

Most sellers don't know how flexible they are going to be on price until they have an offer in hand... when they can see all of the terms of the offer, the potential sale timeline, and more.  

So... asking doesn't tell us much. But making an offer typically does.

Once we put an offer in writing, we tend to get very useful information very quickly. That isn't usually an acceptance (depending on the price you offer) but we should have some sort of a counteroffer to consider.  It might be a counteroffer that barely moves off of the list price, telling us the seller feels good about where they're priced and they are willing to wait for a buyer who will pay that price. Sometimes it's a counter that comes down more than we expected, which is always an exciting surprise.

Either way, the seller's response to that first offer usually tells us a lot about where we might end up.  

So what does this mean for you?

If you're hesitant to make an offer because you're not sure how firm the seller really is on price... that's normal. But keep in mind that most sellers don't know how flexible they are going to be on price until they have an offer to consider.  The good news is, once we make that first move, we usually get a much better sense of whether the purchase will work out or not, very quickly, and then we can discuss whether it makes sense to keep negotiating, hold your position, or pursue other properties.

  

If you find yourself making an offer on house that is listed a bit above where you think its value lies, you might find yourself thinking through which you want more... the house... or a good price.

For example... let's say you've found a house you'd like to buy, and it's listed for $450K. When we look at recent comparable sales, we believe it's really worth something closer to $440K. So you want to offer $430K, because... why not start low and negotiate up?

This makes sense... until it doesn't...

If you offer $430K, a few things could happen. You might land somewhere between your offer price and the list price, perhaps around $440K, right where you thought the value was. Great! But... before countering to your offer, the seller will likely (reasonably) let other showing agents know they've received an offer, which might cause another buyer to make an offer closer to the list price.  Suddenly someone else offers $445K or $450K and the next thing we hear is that the house is under contract.

If you offer $440K instead, you're not leaving as much room to negotiate down – and you might end up paying $445K, a little more than you think the home is worth. But... your odds of actually getting the house go up. The seller will hopefully go ahead and negotiate with you and won't be quite as likely to try to fish for other stronger alternative offers.

So which is right?

As usual, it depends.... on how much you love the house... and how much you believe a few thousand dollars actually matters to you within the context of how long you plan to be, or hope to be, in the house.

Either offer strategy can be a reasonable path forward (depending on your goals, and the particular house) – but they may have different outcomes.
   

Where is our local housing market headed over the next 10 years?  It's a great question, but not one that is easy to answer.

That said, here are five significant factors that will likely do more to shape our market over the next ten years than anything else...

1. Rezonings – approved or denied

Every time the City of Harrisonburg or Rockingham County votes on a significant rezoning, it's worth paying attention. Approved rezonings open the door to new housing supply... sometimes a lot of it. Denied rezonings keep that land locked up under its current use, which keeps supply tighter than it might otherwise be. Either way, these decisions set the stage for what gets built years down the road.  Recent proposed rezonings of note have included...

Massanutten Resort Expansion (1880 units, approved)

Quarry Heights (953 units, approved)

The Walk (739 units, denied)

Weidig Property (425 units, approved)

Bluestone Town Center (415 units, approved)

Granite Farm (242 units, approved)

The Lindsey/Link (180 units, TBD)

Weston Park (128 units, approved).

2. Whether development actually happens

Sometimes we forget... a rezoning isn't a guarantee that construction will begin. Plenty of properties get approved for development and then just... sit there. Land costs, construction costs, interest rates, market conditions, all of it factors into whether a developer actually breaks ground. So it's not enough to watch what gets approved. We have to watch what actually gets built.  Ask anyone in community development in the City or County and they'll tell you that we have seen many (many!) housing developments proposed and approved over the past decade (+) that have yet to begin.

3. Employment

Right now, some of our largest local employers are already anchors... JMU, Harrisonburg and Rockingham County Public Schools, Bridgewater College, and healthcare and manufacturing companies that have been here for decades. But newer announcements also matter... such as when last Fall Merck announced a $3 billion investment in a new pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Elkton, expected to bring 500 new jobs to Rockingham County over time. And this spring, the Virginia Poultry Growers Cooperative announced a $113.9 million expansion, bringing another 146 jobs to the county. Neither of those show up in our housing market overnight... jobs like this get filled gradually, over months and years. But when you add several hundred new positions across a couple of major employers, some portion of those employees are going to need a place to live here. 

4. JMU enrollment

JMU is one of the biggest economic engines in this area, and its enrollment numbers ripple through our housing market in a real way. More students generally means more demand for rentals, more demand for housing near campus, and more spillover into the broader market as families and staff relocate here too. If enrollment grows, expect that pressure to grow with it. If it flattens or dips, that pressure eases.  Recent updates to JMU's strategic plan indicate that student enrollment might increase from about 23,000 to 30,000 within the next 10 years.

5. New student housing supply

This one connects directly to the last point. JMU hopes to build an additional 10,000 beds of on campus student housing within the next 10 years with a goal of having 60% of students living on campus.  This would potentially create vacancies in off campus housing developments currently inhabited by college students – which might then cause some of those apartments or communities to move more towards workforce housing.

None of these factors work in isolation. They're all tied together... zoning decisions shape what can be built, development activity determines what actually gets built, and JMU's enrollment and housing needs shape how much of that gets absorbed by students versus everyone else.

If we keep an eye on these five things, we'll have a pretty good read on where our market is headed.
   

When we're talking about pricing your home, I will give you my recommendations based on how much I think a buyer is likely to pay for your house in the current market.

But... in the end... you can price your home however you want.  It's your house.  Though, there's a catch... you need to be comfortable still owning it if it doesn't sell.

Let's think about a few examples...

If recent comparable sales are hovering around $350K and you want to list for $375K, no problem... but that might not result in a buyer making an offer on your home.  So long as you are comfortable with the possibility of not securing a buyer for your home, it's certainly OK to price your home at $375K... or even $400K.

When I prepare a market analysis of your home, I will be trying to pinpoint a price (or a range) that recent home sales point to as a price current buyers will be likely to pay for your home.  

But, it's fine to round up on that price to get to a higher list price... again... so long as you are comfortable continuing to own the home if it doesn't sell.

Sometimes the answer is yes, I'm comfortable with still owning the home. Maybe you're not in a rush. Maybe you'd rather wait for a buyer to (hopefully) pay your price rather than take less.

But sometimes the answer is no... and that's when starting off with too high of a price can be detrimental.  When a house sits on the market too long (in a price range and location where homes usually sell faster) potential buyers start to wonder why nobody wants to buy your home, even if you later decide to drop the price.  

So, my pricing advice is just that... advice... but we should talk things through related to the ramifications of potential list prices before we finalize a price for your home.

Because at the end of the day, it will be the market (buyers making offers or not making offers) that will decide what your house is worth... not the listing price. The listing price often just determines how long it is likely for that sale to take place.

   

James Madison University just landed a pretty big chunk of state money that will impact multiple areas of JMU and Harrisonburg itself.

Virginia's new state budget, passed in late June, includes nearly $150 million for JMU. Most of that... $115.3 million... goes toward a new five–story addition to the College of Health and Behavioral Studies building, located on Martin Luther King Jr. Way. Another $30.5 million is earmarked for renovating Johnston Hall on the Quad. Plus, there's $1 million a year (ongoing) to support JMU's new accelerated nursing pathway called Fast Flex.

So... what does that mean for Harrisonburg?

First of all, significant construction.  The addition to the College of Health and Behavioral Studies building will be about a 125,000 square foot of new space... and the Johnston Hall renovation will modernize a building originally built in 1929. Groundbreaking is expected this fall, with the building opening in 2029.

Second, jobs in the longer term time horizon. This is the piece I find most relevant to our housing market. JMU is already one of Virginia's top producers of nursing graduates among four–year schools, but they've had to turn away some qualified applicants... about a third of them in one recent year... simply because there wasn't enough space or faculty. The new Fast Flex funding helps address both problems. More nursing graduates means the potential for more healthcare jobs filled locally, and healthcare has been one of the steadier employment sectors in the valley for a while now.

Finally, people who stay. This part actually connects to housing directly. Local officials pointed out that a lot of JMU grads from these programs choose to stay in the valley... to work, to buy homes, and to raise families. Thus, every year, we're not just producing new nurses and healthcare professionals, we're potentially producing new long–term members of our local community.

Here are a few more details, if you're interested...

The College of Health and Behavioral Studies is JMU's largest college with more than 7,000 students across eight majors, 20 graduate programs and various minors.  The significant expansion of the CHBS building will include teaching labs, community oriented clinic spaces, classrooms and faculty workspaces and more.

Johnston Hall was originally a residence hall and was later converted to an academic building.  The renovation project is expected to take 18 months with Johnston Hall reopening in Fall 2028.

The Bachelor of Nursing Fast Flex Pathway is the first of its kind in Virginia and will allow nursing students to complete their core nursing credits in one year instead of two by having some coursework and clinicals in the evenings and on the weekends.  The Fast Flex program will allow nurses to enter the nursing field faster than they would through a traditional undergraduate nursing program.

Read more about the new state funding and its use at JMU here.
  

Sen. Mark Warner was in Harrisonburg last Friday to present $2,000,000 of federal funding to the Harrisonburg Redevelopment and Housing Authority. The money will be used to renovate and maintain the Lineweaver Apartments downtown. This money was part of the funding Congress secured in its most recent spending bills.

While in Harrisonburg, Warner talked about the recently passed ROAD to Housing Act, some of which he helped write. 

Part of this new act is aimed at cutting through the red tape that slows down rezoning and new construction. The core idea is speed. Warner put it plainly... government has been slow, and this law is meant to strip out some of the regulatory hurdles that have been holding up rezoning and new construction. It also creates incentives for communities that move through their zoning process faster. So instead of a builder waiting months, sometimes years, for approvals, the hope is that timeline shrinks.

Laws like this take time to actually show up in a local market. We probably won't see the effects overnight, and Harrisonburg and Rockingham County's zoning and planning processes still have their own local pace regardless of what changes at the federal level. But it's a meaningful shift in direction, and it's the kind of thing worth watching over the next year or two to see if it actually moves the needle here.

Another interesting piece of this new legislation is the RESIDE Act, a pilot program that intends to take vacant buildings... old hotels, warehouses, strip malls... and converts them into affordable housing. A lot of these places already have water, power, and internet access but are sitting unused. Turning them into homes instead of building housing from scratch could be a faster, cheaper path towards expanded housing options. TBD if we will see any of these types of transformation in Harrisonburg.

The $2,000,000 of federal funding will certainly help the Harrisonburg Redevelopment and Housing Authority with their mission of promoting adequate and affordable housing – and hopefully the Road to Housing Act will create more opportunities for housing in our local community to support the continued growth of our area.
  

JMU may soon become an even bigger player in our local housing market.

The university just put out a formal request looking for a private development partner to help plan and build significant physical improvements on the JMU campus, all at once, over the next several years. The RFP page can be found online here, with a link to a campus planning document, and the actual RFP document.

So... what exactly is JMU asking for?

A lot of new student beds. The RFP asks for at least 1,000 new student beds by July 2028... and roughly 10,000 beds total through phased projects after that. That would be a mix of suite–style housing, apartment–style housing, and traditional residence halls, plus some graduate and professional–style housing too. They also want this housing built alongside retail, dining, and student services, not just standalone residence halls.

Why does that matter to those of us watching the local housing market? JMU has been depending on the off–campus student housing rental market for a long time to house students it doesn't have room for on campus. If the university builds thousands of new beds on its own land, that could, over time, reduce demand for off–campus rentals in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County. President Jim Schmidt actually said as much... he mentioned that bringing more students to campus could help free up workforce housing in the surrounding community.  

Athletic infrastructure is a big piece of the plan as well. JMU wants to expand Bridgeforth Stadium to a minimum of 30,000 seats, up from around 25,000 today, with more premium and flexible seating options. There's also a new field house and athletic performance center in the plan, which would give the football program (and other sports) better training and sports medicine facilities.

And then there's everything else. The RFP also references mixed–use campus districts, student life and recreation facilities, conference and event space, retail and dining, research facilities, and parking and mobility improvements. Basically, a full district built around the stadium and mid–campus area.

The University is looking for a private partner (or partners) to finance, design, build, and in some cases operate all of this... a structure known as a public–private partnership. That's a big deal for a school this size, and it signals JMU likely wants this to move fast.

I'll be watching this closely, especially the housing piece, since it touches directly on what we see and will see happening in our local real estate market for the years and decades to come.

   

Read further coverage in the Daily News Record:

JMU seeks proposals for massive stadium, mid–campus projects 

  

A new development, Orchard Ridge Apartments, may soon be built on the corner of Spotswood Trail (Route 33 East) and Jim Britt Way (previously Boyers Road) as shown here...

The property owner is proposing that the 2.698 acre parcel be rezoned from A–2 to Planned Multi–Family (PMF) to allow for the construction of 60 apartments each with two bedrooms.  The apartments would be constructed as (5) apartment buildings as shown on the proposed site plan below.

The Rockingham County Planning Commission recently held a public hearing regarding this rezoning request and recommended approval.  Next up, the Board of Supervisors will consider the request.

Download the rezoning request details from the Planning Commission meeting here.