Charlottesville Area Real Estate Sales Down Again in September

Unfortunately, the theme seems to be ongoing.  September 2010 real estate sales in the Charlottesville area market were down from last September.  After 9 straight months of increased year-over-year sales, this marks the 3rd straight that we’ve seen a y-o-y decline in total sales. So, let’s take a quick look at September to see what happened:

– Total sales dropped from 192 in September 2009 to 165.  That’s a 14% drop.

– The median sales price dropped from $269,495 to $247,958.  That’s a 7.9% drop.

– Days on Market of sold properties dropped from 105 days last Sept to 98 days this September.  (Good news!)

– The percentage of List price to Sold price increased also: from 95.16% to 96.02%.

– Total inventory increased from 2776 units to 2872.  That’s about a 3.5% increase.

– Total months of inventory increased from 14.45 months to 17.40.

So what are the big numbers to look at.  For us, months of inventory is probably the biggest (pun intended).  If you are new here, months of inventory is basically the amount of time it would take to sell all the current homes on the market at the current sales pace if no new homes came on the market.  So, right now it would take 17.4 months.  As  frame of reference, 6 months of inventory is considered a ‘balanced’ market (i.e. not a buyer’s market or seller’s market).

The other big number in our minds is that the Days on Market and List-to-Sale price % are both improving.  As bad as the sales numbers have been, this has been a recent trend.  So, what does it mean?  It means that SOME sellers are getting it.  They are pricing their homes right and they are selling quickly.  At Nest, we’re actually predicting that this trend continues.  So, expect the Days on Market of sold properties to stay steady or decrease.  Also, don’t be surprised if List-to-Sale Price ratios increase.  (REMEMBER: we’re looking at SOLD properties in these stats.  These are the best-of-the-best in Charlottesville area real estate .)

Not much else to say for now.  Stay tuned and we’re going to break out some different segments of the market for the last month and also for the 3rd Quarter…including sales and inventory levels by price point.

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