Brought to you by Scott P. Rogers, Funkhouser Real Estate Group, 540-578-0102, scott@HarrisonburgHousingToday.com
Brought to you by Scott P. Rogers, Funkhouser Real Estate Group, 540-578-0102, scott@HarrisonburgHousingToday.com
Tuesday, June 16, 2020
The blue line shown above is showing you the change in the number of homes for sale under $200K in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County. As you can see, this segment of our housing market has offered fewer and fewer choices at any given time over the past few years.
Some further explanation and caveats...
- At face value, the number of homes for sale under $200K has declined 47% over the past year. Ouch!
- Each data point shows the average number of homes for sale in the given price range over the previous 12 months. As such, the "49" homes for sale reported in May 2020 means that in the 12 months leading up to the end of May 2020 there were an average of 49 homes on the market at any given time. Looking at these numbers as an average of the past 12 months eliminates some of the month-to-month volatility in inventory levels and allows us to more clearly evaluate long term trends.
- This doesn't mean that 47% fewer homes are selling under $200K - it is just looking at active inventory once a month throughout the year. If 800 homes under $200K were listed for sale on Tuesday of this week and were all under contract by Wednesday of this week, the inventory level would stay the same, despite the fact that there were LOTS of homes available to buy.
- This does mean that buyers buying homes priced under $200K in the current market have fewer and fewer choices at any given time and they also have more and more competition from other buyers.
So, if you are having difficulty finding a home to buy under $200K, maybe now you can see why you are having this experience! Be ready to pounce on any new listing of interest and you better already have a pre-approval letter in hand from your lender!
