Doing these AMAs is a highlight of every quarter. I learn something every time, get great questions, and hopefully help answer questions and educate people. Plus, doing these forces me to research and vet the information every time. I am sure I make mistakes, but they are honest mistakes that are at least very well researched!

If you have questions about any of the below, please ask me.

A colleague and I were emailing this morning about some of the data and trends we are seeing and watching. They said about the shift we are seeing “”It makes perfect sense. Pent up demand to sell has been building from the locked in effect. As inventory grows downward pressure on value presents itself and sellers get stubborn and agents give bad advice. It is hard to stay in front of a shifting market. We learned that through 3 years of bidding wars on the way up.'”

I’ve been studying and writing about the Charlottesville real estate market shift for a couple decades now.

The only consistency is that the market is always shifting and always requires constant studying and evaluation in order to best understand and best advise my clients so that they can make the best decisions they can.

July 2026 Charlottesville Reddit AMA

Short answer, since it’s what everyone always asks: no, the market isn’t crashing, and no, prices haven’t collapsed. Homes are still selling — some are taking longer, and more sellers aren’t getting what they wanted/expected/hoped for.

There are segments that have big bidding wars and segments with glutted inventory and homes sitting. Micro-market analysis and awareness are crucial.

Buyers have a lot more options than they’ve had the past few years, which makes decision analysis/paralysis a real thing — and puts a premium on the upfront legwork of figuring out where and how you want to live for the next five to ten years.

Halfway through the year is a good time to check in, and as always, there’s a lot going on. Ask your questions — what are you curious/concerned/annoyed/frustrated about? I do these to help you and me understand our weird market. (This post is too long. It is what it is.)

One bit of context before the numbers: we’re in the seasonal lull right now — after school let out, before it starts back (early this year), and some folks are on vacation.

So far this year:

Charlottesville – median days on market for properties that went under contract: 15 vs 7 last year
Albemarle: 11 DOM this year, 10 last year

Right now (ok, late Thursday night, 7/16/2026):

In Albemarle + Charlottesville there are 459 active resale listings in the Charlottesville MLS. Median days on market is 48
There are 196 homes currently pending; median DOM is 18.
In Albemarle, 972 contracts since 1/1/2026; 21% of those (206) are flagged as new construction. Last year, 1,927 homes closed in the MLS in Albemarle; 540 (28%) of those were new.

Price + demand + a bit of luck matters.

I don’t remember a market affected by so many externalities as this one – volatile rates, under/unemployment, unstable federal government, climate concerns.

I remain curious to see the effects of the thousands of new beds coming to market; have you been on Ivy Road or JPA recently? I suspect we are going to see inventory coming to market for sale or rent that the students will vacate; for now I think that’s a reasonably informed guess.

In April I wrote that the Charlottesville real estate market is bifurcated; that remains accurate.

So far this year (resales, closed Jan–mid-July):

*just resales, sold status, not “all sold” – “all sold” include those sold off-MLS, but entered for data purposes – keeping them in messes with days on market numbers*

Albemarle

Listed: 1,079 (vs 993 last year)
Under contract: 746 (vs 721)
Closed: 649 (vs 641), median sold price $570,000 (vs $550,000)
Went under contract in 10 days or less: 49% (vs 51%)
Paid in cash: 24% (vs 32%)

Charlottesville City

Listed: 363 (vs 386 last year)
Under contract: 271 (vs 244)
Closed: 247 (vs 226), median sold price $480,000 (vs $499,000)
Went under contract in 10 days or less: 42% (vs 57%)
Paid in cash: 34% (vs 44%)

Median sold price by type

Albemarle detached: $696,000 (vs $670,000) ? +3.9%
Albemarle attached: $411,000 (vs $417,000) ? ?1.4%
Charlottesville detached: $550,000 (vs $560,000) ? ?1.7%
Charlottesville attached: $337,000 (vs $355,000) ? ?5.1% (only 26 sales last year — small sample)

Resales only, off-MLS “comp only” entries excluded. Median DOM to contract: City 15 days (vs 7), Albemarle 11 (vs 10).

Things I’m thinking about:

Lennar is building on 29 North; these are not in the MLS.
There is a national movement underway by some to break the MLS and silo listings; this is, in a word, bad. Having one source to see everything – for all the reasons – is good.
Withdrawn listings are hard to track – I know and feel there are more, but aggregating them is tough.