Lot sales are still "in the gutter"

Welcome! This blog tracks the real estate market in the Central Shenandoah Valley, featuring market data and analysis, an exploration of common buying and selling questions, and candid commentary on all things real estate.

If you are interested in discussing any of the topics on this blog, or the details of your specific real estate situation, call or e-mail me!

Newer Post

home

Older Post


Lot sales are still "in the gutter"
April 28, 2009 Filed In: analysis, building lots, marketing
As I expressed some time ago, my hope for the 2009 Harrisonburg and Rockingham County real estate market is that we would see the end of the ever-decreasing number of home sales in our market. We have seen (approximately) a 25% decrease in number of sales between 2006-2007, 2007-2008, and 2008-2009. Lot sales, however are doing much worse! In the first four months of this year (2009), In all of Harrisonburg and Rockingham County, there have only been 11 lot transfers of less than one acre.
Based on information from the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Association of REALTORS® or its MLS, for the period Jan 1, 2000 through Sep 10, 2010 (unless otherwise noted).
Have any questions? Contact Scott Rogers at 540-578-0102 or scott@cbfunkhouser.com
Like what you're reading? Receive HarrisonburgHousingToday.com Updates by Email
Comments (4) or Subscribe
Close Comments 4 Comments so far . . . Keston Fulcher: Dear Scott, I liked your recent time-on-the-market tables and graphs. One might also consider that those analyses are based on the houses that actually sold. In other words, the analyses necessarily excludes the houses that have not sold. It might be interesting to look at houses that were put on the market in a certain time frame, say January to March of 2008, and examine the outcome of these houses today (i.e., what percentage of houses sold and how quickly). Such analyses might provide another perspective to potential sellers. Best wishes, -Keston April 29, 2009 8:04 am Lane Chesley: Scott: What are you observing for lot sales in excess of 1 acre? Anecdotally, it seems that the most desired building lots for new home construction are lots with larger acreage amounts. What do you think we would find if we looked at county building permits for new construction? April 30, 2009 11:23 am Scott Rogers: Lane --- great question. See my recent post analyzing land sales of parcels greater than an acre. I'll check on the building permits too. May 3, 2009 8:00 pm Scott Rogers: Keston -- you are correct, one limitation of the time-on-market analysis is that it only accounts for properties that have sold. Unfortunately, I can't go a whole lot further than that, as our MLS system purges listings that have been taken off the market (that didn't sell). Thus.....all I would be able to see if I looked at listings that came on the market between Jan 08 and Mar 08 would be those that sold. Good idea though --- keep them coming! Thanks, Scott May 3, 2009 8:53 pm Add A Comment: Name (required) E-mail (required, not published) Website Prove you're not a comment-spammer . . .