After a somewhat slow start to 2019, the local real estate market has now picked up speed in April!  But before we start looking at the data, two quick links for you...

Lots going on above...but here are the high points...

OK - here's what I was talking about earlier. 

January, February and March sales were simply nothing to write home about.  This February was the slowest February out of the past four years.  January and March were the 3rd slowest such months from the past four years. 

But April -- wow!  Home sales surged in April, up to 112 home sales -- the best month of April seen in the past four years!

Zooming out from the granular data, this graph looks at long term trends -- the slowly shifting 12-month trend line for the pace and price of home sales.  As you can see, sales prices have been increasing despite somewhat slower sales.

It shouldn't be too much of a surprise that stable sales, rising prices, low inventory levels and low days on market are leading to very little negotiating on price.  Homes are selling at a median of 99% of their list price.  This means that half of homes are selling for 99% or more of their list price. 

OK - this one was a bit surprising. 

And I squished all of the data down so far to fit a large context on the graph above that the image is not quite as crystal clear as I'd like it to be. 

But the message is quite clear - buyers came out in full force in April 2019 -- the 158 contracts signed last month was the second highest month of contracts seen in the past three years! 

That said - prepare yourself to be at least a bit disappointed next month.  I think it's relatively unlikely that we'll be able to see a spike of contract activity all the way up to the showing 171 contracts that were signed last May!?

Home buyers like choices, right?  Well, right now, they don't have many.  In all of Harrisonburg and Rockingham County there are only 270 properties listed for sale.  This number has been steadily declining over the past few years -- and the supposedly busy Spring of plenty of listings has not been able to increase these inventory levels -- probably because buyers keep snapping the new listings up as soon as they hit the market.

As some welcome news for buyers who are able to find a home to buy - they're able to finance that purchase at a relatively low interest rate!  After having risen all the way up to 4.86% (it seemed like 5% was bound to be seen) mortgage interest rates have now dropped all the way back down to the low 4% range.  This gives buyers the ability to lock in low monthly housing costs for the long term!

OK - we'll cut it off there for now - though there is plenty more that you can scroll through in the PDF of my full market report.