Just buying, or just selling, can be challenging --- but doing them both at the same time often seems over daunting, especially if this is your first time to do so.  There are several ways to tackle this challenge --- watch the video below to learn more...

To better understand land use in our fine community, here is a basic breakdown of the 15,075 parcels of land in the City of Harrisonburg....



Zoning Distribution (Parcels)

• 84% of city land parcels are zoned for Residential Use
  
• 10% of city land parcels are zoned for Business Use
  
• 6% of city land parcels are zoned for Manufacturing Use

Zoning Distribution (Acreage)

• 64% of city acreage is devoted to Residential zoning
• 20% of city acreage is devoted to Manufacturing zoning
• 16% of city acreage is devoted to Business zoning

Residential Density (Parcels)

• 36% of residential city land parcels are zoned R1
• 25% of residential city land parcels are zoned R2
  
• 40% of residential city land parcels are zoned R3 or a higher density

Residential Density (Acreage)

• 50% of residential city acreage is zoned R1
• 15% of residential city acreage is zoned R2
  
• 34% of residential city acreage is zoned R3 or a higher density

R1 use is typically single family homes, R2 is typically a duplex or two-family home use, and R3+ are primarily townhouses and apartments.

A few weeks ago I examined the size distribution of land parcels in Rockingham County, and was asked whether such data existed for the City of Harrisonburg.  It does!

As you'll see below, most (92.5%) land parcels in the City of Harrisonburg are less than an acre in size. 


Here are a few other interesting tidbits about land parcels as a whole in the City of Harrisonburg:

• While Rockingham County is home to 46,600 parcels of real estate,Harrisonburg is divided up into only 15,075 parcels. 
  
• While thelargest parcel in Rockingham County is the National Forest (140,001acres), the largest piece of land in Harrisonburg (148 acres) is ownedby James Madison University.
• The average lot size in the City of Harrisonburg is 0.64 acres.

More to come in future days --- the data from the City of Harrisonburg provides additional descriptors (such as "current use") that will be interesting to analyze!

Rockingham County is currently in the process of reassessing all real estate in the County.  When the new assessed values are sent to property owners, there is bound to be some distress and consternation, as assessed values will increase (in many cases), yet homeowners know that home values have been decreasing over the past few years.

First, have home values decreased over the past few years?

• The median sales price in 2007 was $214,250
• The median sales price in 2008 was $204,000
  
• The median sales price in 2009 (thus far) is $195,975

This shows a 4.8% decline between 2007 and 2008, and a total 8.5% decline between 2007 and 2009. 

So, why will many assessed values going up? 

• The new assessments (effective for 2010 - 2013) will be based on real estate transfers during 2008-2009, when the median sales price was/is $200,000.
  
• The old assessments (effective for 2006 - 2009) were based on real estate transfers during 2004-2005, when the median sales price was $175,000.

As you can see, many homeowners will likely be confused and concerned.  They'll think it just isn't fair that assessed values are increasing when they know real estate values are decreasing.  It will likely be little consolation that real estate values actually have increased in the full time span since the last reassessment.

As a point of interest, property owners should actually be retroactively grateful that they are (only just) now seeing this increase in their assessed values.  Here is the tax burden over five years for the median value of homes, given that reassessments only occur every four years:

• 2006 (based on '04/'05 sales) $175,000 = $1,050 tax bill
• 2007 (based on '04/'05 sales) $175,000 = $1,050 tax bill
  
• 2008 (based on '04/'05 sales) $175,000 = $1,050 tax bill
  
• 2009 (based on '04/'05 sales) $175,000 = $1,050 tax bill
  
• 2010 (based on '08/'09 sales) $200,000 = $1,200 tax bill

As you can see, the tax bill stays the same for four years, leading to a total tax liability of $5,400 over five years.  In contrast, here's what the tax bill would look like if properties were reassessed each year:

• 2006 (based on '04/'05 sales) $175,000 = $1,050 tax bill
  
• 2007 (based on '05/'06 sales) $199,975 = $1,200 tax bill
  
• 2008 (based on '06/'07 sales) $215,000 = $1,290 tax bill
  
• 2009 (based on '07/'08 sales) $210,000 = $1,260 tax bill
  
• 2010 (based on '08/'09 sales) $200,000 = $1,200 tax bill

In this scenario, the total tax liability would have been $6,000 over the same five year time period, $600 higher than reality.

Check out these two stories about Urban Exchange that both hit the news today . . .



Downtown living: Urban Exchange sets a new course for Downtown Harrisonburg  (The New Dominion)






Urban Jungle: Urban Exchange Home To City's First ‘Green' Roof  (Daily News Record)

Below you will find an embedded version of my August 2009 report on the residential real estate market in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County.

SUMMARY:  The pace of home sales continues to slow, home values continue to stay relatively steady, and thus we haven't turned the corner yet to head back to more hopeful times.

Click here to access a larger version, download a PDF, share it with a friend, etc.



Do you have questions?  Suggestions for other analysis?  Do you disagree with the perspectives I offer?  Feel free to leave a note in the comments section, or e-mail me at Scott@HarrisonburgHousingToday.com.

Enjoy!

I showed four homes in the City of Harrisonburg this afternoon to one of my buyer clients, and as my clients and I viewed the homes we sensed a very strange relationship between asking prices and our perception of their value.  That is to say that we didn't sense much of a correlation between what the owners were asking for the houses and what we thought they were worth.

To explore the relationship (somewhat) objectively, I thought I'd compare the asking prices to assessed values.  But first, here is how sale prices and assessed values compare for the last three sales in the City of Harrisonburg between $240k and $260k.

Sold properties are selling for 97% of assessed value --- based on an unreasonably small sample size of three properties:

• Property #1 sold for $244,500 and is assessed for $240,300 --- 102% of assessed value.
• Property #2 sold for $252,000 and is assessed for $259,400 --- 97% of assessed value.
• Property #3 sold for $250,000 and is assessed for $273,800 --- 91% of assessed value.

So.....let's take a look at the four properties we viewed today:

• Property #1 is listed at $239,000 and assessed at only $213,900.  The list price is 112% of the assessed value, which was evident when we viewed the home.  We thought the asking price was pushing the envelope.  If listed for the average of 97% of assessed value, at $207,483 it would have been MUCH more interesting!
  
• Property #2 is listed at $249,900 and assessed at $228,400.  The list price is 109% of the assessed value.  Again, we were scratching our heads trying to figure out why it was priced as high as it was.  Again, if it had been listed at 97% of assessed value ($221,548) it would have been MUCH more interesting!
• Property #3 is listed at $249,950 and assessed at $266,900.  The list price is 94% of the assessed value, and this was CLEARLY evident --- the property seemed to be a good value even at the asking price.
• Property #4 is listed at $289,000 and assessed at $235,100.  The list price is a whopping 123% of the assessed value.  As you might expect, the asking price on this house was the most shocking to us, which makes sense when now looking at the assessed value.

BOTTOM LINE -- the assessment for your property shouldn't be the primary OR only guide for pricing your home . . . BUT if you are more than 3% or 4% above the assessed value, you might want to reconsider your pricing strategy!

For almost a year now, I have been posting information about scheduled foreclosures (Trustee Sales) in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County to HarrisonburgForeclosures.com. 

In the more recent past I have been compiling some basic details on these scheduled foreclosures, an analysis of which is presented below, but first let me explain why this is only a "casual examination" of foreclosures.  HarrisonburgForeclosures.com offers information on scheduled foreclosures, not just those that actually are foreclosed upon (some Trustee Sales never take place.)

Thus, this analysis is based on properties that are headed towards foreclosure, but isn't just based on those that are actually foreclosed upon.
Click here to view a larger version of this document

As you may have imagined (above) most of the properties are in Harrisonburg (which includes Harrisonburg-addressed Rockingham County properties, and is the largest area in the County).  Coming in behind Harrisonburg are Elkton, Broadway and McGaheysville.

This next document examines when these homeowners purchased the home that is now being (possibly) foreclosed upon...

As you can see, the vast majority of these homes were purchased in 2005, 2006 and 2007.  This should serve as no significant surprise, as that was when loan requirements were being pared down and pared down, such that anyone with a pulse could obtain a mortgage.  These lax guidelines resulted in some people owning homes that weren't really in a financial situation that would allow them to consistently pay their mortgage. 

I'll update this analysis from time to time, but one thing that you ought to be sure to remember is that (thankfully) Harrisonburg and Rockingham County have an extremely low rate of foreclosure as compared to other parts of the country.  This is wonderful news, as it has not negatively skewed our home values as has happened in many larger metropolitan areas.

For more details on upcoming foreclosures, visit HarrisonburgForeclosures.com.