I enjoy doing these; there are always great questions, and I learn something every single time.
July’s Charlottesville real estate market is a different one than March, April, May, June, and certainly different than last year’s.
One of the challenges with tracking the real estate market too closely is the risk of tracking housing as if it was a liquid, tradable commodity. For some, that may be the case. For most of my clients, the buy/sell conversation is more focused on agency of life, stability, and securing the most affordable monthly expense (PITI + utilities + time). And on making the best decision possible.
What questions do you have?
And, thank you in advance for your questions; I learn something useful every single time I do these, and hopefully y’all find them helpful.
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Things I’m curious about right now:
– What’s the market going to do for the rest of 2025/2026?
– What effect will the City’s un-re-zoning have? (No one knows)
– What developments are coming online in the City and County – and our neighboring Counties.
– How many sellers will get frustrated because they can’t get past their anchored price and will de-list? — it’s more now than I’ve seen in years.
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July brings a couple anecdotes and more data.
* “Now that there’s a little bit of inventory, the only remaining buyers are really picky all of a sudden”
* “I showed seven houses to a buyer yesterday and eight to a different buyer today. Haven’t done that in years.”
* “We’re thinking about next steps, and would like to start receiving listing emails so we can get a feel for sale and price drop timelines.”
* We have more active inventory on the market right now than we have seen in years.
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Looking at resale single family + attached homes in Charlottesville and Albemarle.
Focusing here on days on market, and velocity of home contracts.
* Contracts are up a bit.
* Nearly half of homes listed went under contract between 1 April and 30 June.
* If you’re a seller on the market for 30 days, I’d say that that’s not the end of the world; we’re in a different market.
* Price is paramount. Price right, and you have a much better chance of going under contract efficiently.
* Want ? market value
* Broadly, median days on the market are rising. That’s okay.
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* Buyers are becoming patient.
* Sellers are feeling impatient.
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For anyone coming into our market cold, please rent first. Our rental market is hard (and always has been), but buying and selling in two years after you realize you bought in the wrong location for you is harder, much more expensive, and in an environment with stable to possibly moderating housing prices, possibly impossible.
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For legal compliance/disclosure, I am a Partner and realtor with Nest. I’m doing the AMA to help people understand the market, and selfishly, I get better at what I do when y’all ask good questions. 🙂 All data is pulled from Charlottesville MLS.