With that preface, welcome to the market report for the Charlottesville area for November 2007.This month I am including data from 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007.Conclusions — Read beyond the headlines.- There is no “national” or perhaps even “regional” real estate market….  For example – the neighborhood that is stable, in a great location and is desirable is going to be in better shape than the neighborhood that shares a border with a new construction development that has seen its asking prices slashed by twenty or thirty percent.- Things are selling, and now is regarded by many to be an excellent time to buy – so long as you are looking to buy for an appropriate timeframe….  People still need places to live.- Due diligence and statistical analysis on every real estate purchase and sale should be performed prior to every transaction.- The data, while skewed by inaccuracies here and there, offers the best trending information available.Highlights — For the entire Charlottesville MSA, the absorption rate for our inventory is currently more than four times that of November 2004 and five months more than November of 2006.- Days on market for the entire area is slightly higher than this time last year.- Average sales price is higher than the average sales price in 2005, but lower than 2006.- Median Sales price numbers are interesting and all over the board.Caveats — It is very difficult to pull new construction data out of the MLS statistics, and even then, the data is often grossly inaccurate for myriad reasons, so I go with what is there.- The data is only as good as the people doing the input.- Buyer and Seller psychology are very difficult, if not impossible, to quantify.The data speaks for itself.  (Click images for larger versions)Inventory levels for Charlottesville/Albemarle 2004-2007The year end report should be equally fascinating, and I will revisit my predictions from earlier this year and make new ones for next year.How low will the Realtor membership decline?*Including Albemarle, Augusta, Charlottesville, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa, Nelson, Waynesboro below the fold.*All market statistics that I have written can be found here.2007 information for the entire region.2006 information for the entire region.There is more to the above data that I am digging into for a later story.Waynesboro and Augusta are included because they are becoming more and more a part of our market, but the data remains quite incomplete.

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