Last year (2015) was a solid year for the Harrisonburg and Rockingham County residential real estate market, with a 3% increase in the pace of home sales.  This level of home sales (1,022) was the highest number of home sales seen anytime in the previous seven years.  I expect that we will see continued improvement in the number of home buyers purchasing homes in our local area in 2016.  As shown to the right, I am predicting a 5% improvement in the pace of sales, for a total of 1,175 home sales in 2016.  I believe we will see continued increases in local employment opportunities, combined with only small increases in mortgage interest rates, leading to continued increases in home buyer activity. 



After three years (2012, 2013, 2014) of very small increases in the median sales price (+1%, +2%, +2%) we finally did see a more substantial increase in 2015.  The 4% increase in the median sales price last year increased the median price to $185,000 -- the highest price seen since back in 2009.  Over the next year, expect that we will see further improvements up to a median sales price of $192,500.  If this indeed happens, this will be the third highest annual median sales price we have ever seen in this area.  The highest median sales prices on record of $195,000 in 2008 and $195,100 in 2009 were both during the real estate boom.