It remains a tough time to buy a home in many or most price ranges and locations -- with limited resale inventory leading to continued low levels of contract activity.

As shown above, the 99 contracts that were signed in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County in June 2023 was the lowest number of contracts signed in a month of June for the past decade.

At first glance some might assume that the low number of signed contracts is an indication that fewer buyers want to buy homes right now -- but with inventory levels starting the month low and ending the month low -- the bottleneck seems to be almost entirely on the supply side of the equation.  There aren't enough sellers willing to sell their homes.

Getting into the details of new homes versus resale homes for a moment, let's take a look at the highest and lowest data points...

June 2020 = 124 resale homes + 49 new homes = 173 total contracts

June 2023 = 73 resale homes + 26 new homes = 99 contracts

So, if we take out new homes, not only did only 73 buyers sign contracts to buy home in June 2023 compared to 124 in June 2020... only 73 sellers were willing to sell their homes in June 2023 as compared to 124 in June 2020.

I don't expect we'll see much of an increase in resale homes being listed for sale as we continue through 2023, so any upside potential for increased contract activity likely lies on the new home side of the equation.

If you were one of the 99 buyers to secure a contract to buy a home in June 2023... congrats!