The State of The Market – October 2008 | NRVLiving

You came back?! Wow, I lost that bet - but glad you're here!

Ah, the leaves in the New RIver Valley are changing. It’s one of my favorite times of the year here – until the winter winds decide to blow.

Just as the leaves will change every year, it’s election day today and with a lame duck President in place we’ll see change in DC, as well – you DID vote, didn’t you? The leaves change, our leadership changes, and the real estate market … well, it’s changed a bit, as well.

I’ll repeat it one more time:

“a slow, steady and calculated approach
to the market is going to be important as we move forward towards 2009.”

There are opportunities for buyers and sellers, right now, and a slow and steady approach will serve you well. That being said, I don’t think we’ll see significant market rebounds in the short-term so Sellers, if you don’t have to sell, don’t. As you can see from the following numbers, anything over 5 months is a buyers market and right now, there aren’t any buyers markets. I’m currently working on an end-of-year market report, I’m interested to see how that works out … stay tuned for that. Again, when it comes to absorption rates, we’re looking at how long it would take to sell the existing
residential inventory in a particular area, if nothing else came on the
market until supply was exhausted. Anything over 5 months is typically
a buyers’ market, and anything less than 5 months is typically a
seller’s market.

Area	# of Active Properties	# of Sold Properties	Absorption Rate	Buyer/Seller Market
Blacksburg	216	11	19.64 Months	Buyer
Christiansburg	278	14	19.86 Months	Buyer
Montgomery County	67	8	8.38 Months	Buyer
Floyd County	124	6	20.67 Months	Buyer
Giles County	60	9	6.67 Months	Buyer
Pulaski	105	9	11.67 Months	Buyer
Dublin	113	6	18.83Months	Buyer
Radford	72	10	7.20 Months	Buyer