In a group discussion this morning about the Harrisonburg real estate market, someone wondered allowed about how the Charlottesville real estate market compared to Harrisonburg and Rockingham County over the past several years.  Let's take a look, pulling from:

• January 2011 Harrisonburg & Rockingham County Real Estate Market Report (pdf)
• Charlottesville Association of Realtors 2010 Year-End Market Report (pdf)

As you can see (above) the Charlottesville Area has not had as much of a decline in market activity (-39% since 2006) as we have seen in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County (-47% since 2006).  Furthermore, the market activity in the Charlottesville area is closer to leveling out (only a 1.5% drop in the last year) as compared to Harrisonburg and Rockingham County (7.1% drop in the last year).



As for median prices, the Charlottesville area fell further (12% drop from the peak to the trough) compared to Harrisonburg and Rockingham County (8% drop from peak to trough) --- however, the Charlottesville area (perhaps because of a faster price drop) has already started to see an increase in median prices (1% increase since last year) while Harrisonburg and Rockingham County continue to slowly decline (3% decrease since last year).

Despite the drastic differences in sales volume and median prices, the two markets have had relatively similar trends over the past five years.