Land sales increase, in pace AND price!

The housing market as a whole in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County seems to be stabilizing.  As per my market report earlier this week, sales increased by 4% in 2011, even though prices declined by 3%.

Land sales, however, are looking even better!  There is quite a bit of information packed into the graph above, but here are the main things I think are important to note:

• Land sales soared in 2004 and 2005, and stayed at respectable levels in 2006 and 2007 -- for a total of 435 sales in 4 years.  Then, sales dropped steadily between 2008 and 2010, to a low of only 27 sales in 2011.  Let's look at that again --- in all of Harrisonburg and Rockingham County, there were only 27 sales of land of an acre or more.  Wow!
  
  
• Sales of land greater than an acre almost doubled in 2011, to 49 total sales.  That is quite an increase, and it beats 2009 sales figures as well.
  
  
• Prices also rebounded -- increasing to an average of $16,355 per acre -- it is encouraging to see this rebound in pricing in tandem with the rebound in sales pace.
  

Hopefully, a year from now, we'll have seen prices of residential properties stabilize in response to the increase in their sales pace --- similar to what we have seen in land sales.  Stay tuned!