I am asked this question quite frequently, often from buyers who are relocating to the Shenandoah Valley from other areas of the state or country.  Since 2006, Harrisonburg and Rockingham County has not seen an increase or decrease in median home prices.  This is in contrast to the nation (as a whole) and most metro areas around the country who have seen 20% to 40% declines in median home values during the same time period.

So....why aren't home values falling here in the Central Shenandoah Valley?  Here are some factors that are certainly at play...

• Home values did not increase as much nor as quickly in this area as compared to most other areas of the country.
• Since home values were not increasing as quickly here, fewer buyers obtained "risky" loans --- stretching well beyond their means to buy a home.
• Fewer risky loans resulted in fewer foreclosures.  High foreclosure rates in other areas of the country resulted in large price declines as banks re-listed homes well below their prior value.
• In many other larger markets, investors were speculating heavily on new construction --- entering into contracts to purchase with the intent of flipping the homes when they were complete before they even closed on the houses.  This injected a false (temporary) demand into these markets, which created excess inventory when the market frenzy began to slow.
• Our local economy is very diverse (many jobs across many sectors), and we have a very low unemployment rate.  This reduced the number of families that "had to sell" their homes.

These are but a few of the reasons why we haven't seen overly significant declines in home values in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County.

This is not to suggest that all homes have "held their value" over the past few years --- some homeowners have certainly seen declines, but any such declines are quite modest in comparison to most other real estate markets across the country.