Partly in response to Marty Martin’s recent post re: the supposed real estate bubble in Southwest Virginia, but also as something I’d like to make a regular monthly feature on this blog, I wanted to detail a bit more about the market here in the New River Valley – call it my monthly State of The Market address, without all the pomp and circumstance. 

One tool that REALTORs should be using on a regular basis is the Absorption Rate.  It’s nothing but a fancy name
for supply and demand – what’s the market supplying, and what’s the market demanding.  If nothing came on the market then, with the current demand, how long would it take to exhaust the current supply?  It’s a great tool in determining all kinds of fancy REALTOR-science, including pricing and projections, because it’s based on both historical and present-day statistics.  So with all the doom and gloom going on regarding real estate, I thought it would be helpful to begin making this a regular thing – every month, we’ll look at the Absorption Rate in the market among residential (single-family, condo and townhome) listings and track whether it’s gone up, or down.  When you look at the table, typically anything higher than 5 months worth of inventory is considered a buyer’s market, and anything less than 5 months worth of inventory is considered a seller’s market.

The prognosis?  It’s a buyer’s market right now, so get out there and buy!  The economy is still strong, rates are low, and much of the doom and gloom we hear about all the time doesn’t have so much to do with the market but with consumer confidence.  Inventory has risen a few months since this time last year, providing buyers with more homes to choose from, and creating opportunities for sellers to package their homes attractively for buyers.  Call me at (540) 552-6500 or email me if you’d like more specific data, or to discuss opportunities that might be right for your situation!