Yesterday I observed that about two thirds of home buyers in our area (City of Harrisonburg plus Rockingham County) buy single family homes each year.

In the City alone, it's a different story.

Only about half of buyers in the City of Harrisonburg buy single family homes each year.  The other half buy attached dwellings -- townhouses, duplexes or condos.

That ratio of approximately half and half detached vs. attached has remained mostly consistent over the past decade.  In fact, looking even further back...

It appears that before the townhouse building boom of 2002-2007, it was closer to 60/40 with more buyers buying single family homes.  As lots (and lots) of townhouses were built in the City of Harrisonburg between 2002 an 2007, the share of buyers buying townhouses increased significantly -- getting as high as 63% in 2005.

Given the existing inventory of housing in the City it seems likely that this ratio now may stay around 50/50 for the foreseeable future unless we see some major new construction developments within the City with homes (detached or attached) for sale.