One of the most important stories of the 2026 Charlottesville real estate market remains pricing + velocity.

82% of homes listed this year that went under contract went under contract in 30 days or less.

In Charlottesville + Albemarle, 914 resale homes have been listed since 1 January 2026.

• 284 of those are pending
• 286 have sold (25 of those sold off-market)
• Of the 545 that are pending or sold (not including the 25):
  • 298 went under contract in 7 days or less – nearly 55%
  • 149 went under contract in 8 to 30 days – 27%

The ones that went under in 7 days or less? Sold for asking price or better in most cases. And many had multiple offers.

We had a meeting at Nest yesterday and I asked our agents to raise their hands if they’d recently been involved in multiple offer situations. I think all of us raised our hands.

A few quick thoughts:

Contextual data matters – to a point

When my buyer and seller clients are making “right now” decisions, what data points are most important?

• Does historical data matter to the family or the individual making the decision to buy/sell/rent/stay/go?
  • Yes, because the data gives us context
  • No, because it gives us context
  • To fully trivialize this, does the price of a half gallon of milk in 2001 matter when I’m choosing which milk to buy in 2026?
• Does the median price of a detached home in Charlottesville in 2011 matter if you’re choosing to buy a home (or not) in 2026?
• I talked to a new seller client the other day who bought nearly 20 years ago, and was above water for the first time just a few years ago. The price of homes 20 years ago matters to them, but to buyers or sellers making decisions now?

Download the CAAR real estate market report here, if you’re curious. And read the Charlottesville Community Engagement story here.

A different sort of Charlottesville real estate market post with data points that I think might matter more to you:

• Are homes in Charlottesville and Albemarle selling right now?
• What kinds of homes are selling?
• How fast are homes selling?
• Where are homes selling?
• What is the market going to be like when I want or need to sell in five or seven or more years?
  • This is a conversation I have with every single one of my buyer clients – we evaluate the market, expected competition, expected growth, infrastructure, etc. so while we may very well be wrong about our “in 7 year” expectations, we at least have had the thoughtful and considered dialogue.

The answer to all of the above starts with “it depends,” and we dive deeper as we need to.

The Charlottesville market is one market. And it’s also many many micro-markets.

I asked Claude

• How has the median sold price of all resale homes in Charlottesville and Albemarle changed, year over year?
  • YTD-aligned 2026 vs same window 2025: ?2.1% ($535K ? $523.5K).
• How has the median sold price of all resale detached homes in Charlottesville changed, year over year?
  • YTD-aligned: ?6.6% ($562K ? $525K). Cville detached turned a year before the rest of the market.
• How has the median sold price of all resale detached homes in Albemarle changed, year over year?
  • YTD-aligned: ?1.5% ($660K ? $650K). Albemarle detached is the most resilient of the four cuts.
• How has the median sold price of all resale attached homes in Albemarle changed, year over year, for those townhomes built between 2000 and 2020?
  • YTD-aligned: ?9.3% ($479K ? $435K) — but n=27 is too small to call a trend. Directional only.

And Claude picked up on the micro-markets (as I’ve trained it to do) — “Median is mix-sensitive. A 20-year build window on Q4 (2000–2020 attached) spans Old Trail townhomes through Belvedere/Foothill Crossing — changing mix between Glenmore/Old Trail vs. cheaper inventory will move the median as much as actual price movement. If you’re using Q4 for a blog or client argument, run it as a same-subdivision comp set or split pre-2010 vs. 2010–2020.

As I was saying — micro markets matter.

Data
(resale only)

• Charlottesville: 130 closings, up from 105 (+24%)
• Albemarle: 298 closings, identical to last year

Prices

• Charlottesville: $467,000 median, down from $497,500 (-6.1%)
• Albemarle: $550,000 median, up from $542,000 (+1.5%)

How fast?

• Charlottesville: 15 days, up from 7 (+8 days)
• Albemarle: 12 days, up from 7 (+5 days)
• The two-weekend rule is back in force — If you’re not under contract after the first two weekends, you might be overpriced. In other words, if you’re not under contract after the first two weekends, a price reduction might be in order, because today’s buyers are watching the market in their specific market segment like proverbial hawks. They know the market.

How many new listings?

• Charlottesville: 249 new listings, down from 271 (-8%)
• Albemarle: 663, up from 614 (+8%)
• More sellers are choosing to sell; this is a good thing

And the product mix?

Detached vs. attached/condo changes the picture:

• Charlottesville detached: $565,500 ? $523,500 (-7.4%, n=84). Not a small-sample fluke
• Charlottesville attached/condo: $320,000 ? $338,000 (+5.6%). City’s price drop is a detached-side story
• Albemarle detached: $650,000 ? $650,000. Identical, two years running
• Albemarle attached/condo: $396,000 ? $363,250 (-8.3%). The segment to watch
• More attached supply hitting from Crozet, Old Trail, Brookhill, Belvedere, Pantops corridor — this is a segment to watch — for buyers anticipating resale and for sellers looking to price right.

How many new listings will come in 2026?

This is just math, not a forecast.

• Historically, 37–47% of a year’s new listings hit by April 30 (avg ~40% over 8 years)
• Charlottesville projected 2026: 550–680, midpoint near 600. Roughly flat to 2025 (599)
• Albemarle projected 2026: 1,430–1,775, midpoint near 1,625. Modestly above 2025 (1,547)
• Caveat: rates, economy, seller & buyer psychology can break the seasonality — this is a range, not a guess made with utmost confidence.

The data matters, as it helps to pull the emotions and the opinions out of the conversation. Yes, the math matters, and yes, interest rates matter. And yes, getting to the point of making a good decision to buy or sell depends on evaluating the narrow and relevant data set. And also yes, the decision has to feel right to you.