It is often helpful to put numbers in context.  Each month I publish a report on the Harrisonburg and Rockingham County real estate market, but today I thought I'd try to put those sorts of local numbers in the context of our neighboring markets.  The following data comes from the Virginia Association of Realtors 2009 year end market report. 

First, let's take a look at how we compared to our neighboring markets as to the number of home sales this past year (2009) compared to the prior year (2008).


As you can see, the sum total of Virginia showed a 2% increase in the number of home sales.  In comparison, Harrisonburg and Rockingham County aren't doing so well --- with a 13% decline in home sales.  In fact, the markets north, south and east of our market have all shown a stronger performance as measured by the number of home sales.

But what about home values, or median sales prices, you might ask . . . .



This is the area where Harrisonburg and Rockingham County has done well --- hmmmmm --- or at least we haven't done as poorly as our neighboring markets, and the state as a whole.  Our market saw a 4% decline in median sales price, in comparison to 9% for the state as a whole, a whopping 17% decline north of our market, and a 5% decline to the east.

This data is consistent with what I have been observing for the past several years --- home values are holding steadier in our market than in most areas, but home sales have been quite slow as a result.

Now, what shall we predict for 2010 and 2011??