Our local MLS provider just changed, and it has brought about a number of changes.  One interesting change relates to the map above. 

For years and years, since before I started in real estate in 2003, there were several "areas" of Rockingham County defined in our local MLS....

• Area 5 - South of Route 33, East of I-81
• Area 7 - South of Route 33, West of I-81
• Area 9 - North of Route 33, West of I-81
• Area11 - North of Route 33, East of I-81

The aged appearance of the map above might be an indicator of how long ago this map, and these "areas" have been used as a way to divide up Rockingham County.

But.....no longer!  While these areas technically still exist in our new MLS, they are now an optional field, and some new listings include them and some do not.

So, if you became accustomed to thinking about properties (or searching for properties) in one area as opposed to another, all of that must now change.  If you just focus on this now-outdated system of "areas" you'll likely be missing out on some properties as we move forward.

My recommendation for moving forward is to define your search based on a zip code, a school district, or on a custom area on a map.

Stay tuned for further updates on additional changes we are seeing in our local MLS and thus our local real estate data.

 

Side note -- our "MLS" is the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Multiple Listing Service -- which, among other things, is the online database where all real estate listings are stored.