I love reader questions. The meebo widget on the side allows for private messaging, so please take advantage of it!
Regarding the stats you posted on the $1+ million homes — do you have any such data on the $500-$1 million market? Thank you!
Thank you for reading and for the question. A picture says a thousand words –
Now, the data.
For the Central Virginia region* –
I have no explanation for the apparent dramatic rise in inventory in the first part of the past two years. My speculation is two-fold. Many sellers may have taken their homes off the market in the fall/winter only to re-list during the first part of the year. Second, I’m thinking that many of these are new construction, which is notoriously unreliable data.
Looking at the raw data, the number of sales has held relatively consistent over the years until April of this year, when the number of sales dropped in half, year-over-year. I’m hoping the proverbial hindsight that three to six months will provide will shed some light/insight into these numbers.
To provide some context, here are all price ranges for the Central Virginia region –
The last data point is this – New Construction properties in the Central Virginia region, priced between $500k and $1.2 million** –
I hope this helps answer your question.
* Charlottesville, Albemarle, Fluvanna, Greene, Nelson
** Seriously – it’s notoriously unreliable data, but worth looking at nonetheless.
Jim
I recently stumbled across this data http://www.housingbubblebust.com/OFHEO/Other/South.html and it seem to indicate that C’ville way out of line with other communities and this could be the beginning of a dramatic 20-30% correction. Do you think this market drop that far before it stabalizes?
-Jay
Jay –
I don’t like predictions, but I don’t think the Charlottesville market will drop 20-30% from where we are right now before stabilization occurs.
All of the bubble bloggers were right to some degree, because they kept saying the same thing for so long. Even those who say real estate is always a great investment will look credible in 10 years.