My Charlottesville BLOG

CAAR Market Report

2009 Year-End

Published by the Charlottesville Area Association of REALTORS®

Where Are We Now?

Home sales, compared to 2008, continued to show improvement in the second half of 2009. At mid-year, sales were down 28%, but by year-end sales were only 8.7% below the 2008 levels. In the 4^th quarter of 2009, sales (696) were up 34.1% from the same period in 2008 (519). This is the first year-over-year increase in sales we have seen in several quarters in the Charlottesville area. While it is certainly exciting to see such a significant increase in sales, it is important to remember that the 4^th quarter of 2008 was the height of the economic and housing crisis. As predicted, the 4^th quarter of 2008 (and the 1^st quarter of 2009) appear to be the bottom of the housing downturn in the Charlottesville area.

As reported for the past two quarterly reports, significantly lower home prices (down 20% or more) are driving the pick-up in sales. In addition, the $8,000 tax credit for first time buyers supercharged the sale of starter homes (below $300,000) in 2009. 67.5% of home sales for the year were in this starter home category, which is approximately a 10% increase in this category.

Home Sales for 2009

There were 2,730 homes sold in the Charlottesville area in 2009, which was down 8.7% (-261 sales) from 2008. Albemarle (+5.7) and Greene (+11.7) showed an increase in sales for the year. All other ares were down from last year: Charlottesville -19.9%, Fluvanna -15.4%, Louisa -15.8%, Nelson -12%, and Orange -20%.

Sales in the Central Valley region were generated from the Greater Augusta MLS, which has more complete data on the Valley market than the CAAR MLS. Sales were down in the Valley by 14.9 % compared to last year.

*includes sales outside the counties listed

**numbers courtesy of the Greater Augusta MLS