If You're Buying A Big Or Expensive Home, Will It Be In The City of Harrisonburg, or Rockingham County?

Every five years (or so) the Harrisonburg Redevelopment and Housing Authority conducts a detailed analysis of City housing.  In 2005, S. Patz & Associates, Inc conducted the analysis, available here: Citywide Housing Analysis for Harrisonburg, Virginia.

One interesting "housing issue" that is identified as affecting the City of Harrisonburg was identified in the 2000 analysis, and re-confirmed in the 2005 analysis:


I had never considered that this might be occuring --- that most higher price new homes were being built in Rockingham County instead of in the City of Harrisonburg --- but it makes sense, because undeveloped land is generally quite scarce in the City of Harrisonburg.

To confirm (or reject) this conclusion, let's take a look at the homes that have sold each year since 2000, that were built within 3 years of when they were sold (thus, new-ish homes)....

First, here's the break down of where all of these homes sold....

You'll note that the majority of the new-ish homes that were sold (and thus purchased) where in Harrisonburg, as opposed to in Rockingham County with a Harrisonburg address.

Now, let's look at "large" new-ish homes, those with 2500+ square feet....


Here we do indeed find the phenomenon that the report described --- almost all of the large (and thus expensive) homes were built just outside Harrisonburg, and not within the City limits.

Of note --- the City of Harrisonburg identifies this phenomenon as an "issue" because....


For even more reading, read the full housing analysis!