About Rockingham County, VA

Click here to download Market Update charts for February 2012.




We are making some important changes to our market report this month. First, we are adding a new infographic entitled “Months Supply of Inventory”. This graphic will show, by area of the County, how many months supply of homes for sale exist at the current pace of sales. Sales over the past 12 months will be used to calculate the current pace of sales. This graphic will give an easy to read snapshot of the supply vs. demand balance throughout our area. As a rule of thumb, a 4 – 6 month supply is considered a healthy, balanced market. You will see on the graphic that all parts of the County are above that figure, but are also all below 12 months (many areas were above 12 months supply last year), which is a good trend and indicates our market is finally coming into balance.

In addition to adding this new infographic, the data set for one of our two existing infographics has changed. Previously the Average Price graphic was prepared based on year to date information. Beginning with this month’s report we will be using the past 12 month’s data for each graphic. We feel this gives a much more accurate indication of pricing throughout Rockingham County.

Here are the latest changes to average and median sales price throughout the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Association of Realtors Multiple Listing Service:

Three year change: Average Price down -14.30%, Median Price down -14.68%
One year change: Average Price down -7.07%, Median Price down -8.13%

Overall February was a very encouraging month for our market, not so much in terms of closed sales but new purchase contracts and buyer activity in general. Based on the contracts currently in process we feel March will be similar to February in closed sales but beginning in April we will see much stronger sales as the recent buyer activity comes to fruition!

Click here to view or download our Market Activity Charts for February 2012.

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Click here to download Market Update charts for January 2012.



Although January’s sales were not stellar, they were very comparable to Januaries past, as can be seen on the Closed Volume and Closed Transactions charts. January is typically one of the slowest months of the year due to the decreased buyer activity during the holiday season.

The real news in real estate locally is the activity level seems to have gone through the roof! We will begin to see the results of this activity with late February settlements, but probably won’t really feel it until March and April. When we take a look at some of the leading indicators in our business like phone calls to our office, showings set up for our listings and visits to our website, we are seeing activity levels higher than our typical summertime peaks. Could it be that Buyers can no longer resist the combination of declining prices and very low interest rates? We shall see….

This activity, combined with low inventory relative to January inventory levels in 2009, 2010 and 2011 may provide enough demand to finally begin turn around the slide in home prices. Home sales are just like other markets – supply and demand sets the market, like it or not. If the increased demand we are feeling now continues through the year without a significant increase in supply, prices should stop falling. For now, however, prices continue to soften, with the average sales price for homes in the past 12 months falling to $184,717.

Here are the latest changes to average and median sales price throughout the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Association of Realtors Multiple Listing Service:

Three year change: Average Price down -14.86%, Median Price down -14.21%
One year change: Average Price down -7.45%, Median Price down -7.16%

Click here to view or download our Market Activity Charts for January 2012.

This original blog post can be found by clicking here

The Washington Post reported on Friday that 243,000 jobs were added in January, a stark contrast to the 155,000 jobs that economists predicted. On top of that good news, the unemployment rate dropped to 8.3%, which is the lowest unemployment rate in three years.

While politicians continue to argue over what caused the dramatic shift in hiring, we at Kline May Realty prefer to look at this from a consumer and housing aspect. This positive news will drive consumer confidence up and help in the effort to keep our local housing market on the rise (home sales were up 3.3% in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County in 2011). As consumer confidence increases, we anticipate home sales will also increase. As home sales increase, mortgage rates will come off of their all-time lows. Because of this, we feel that this spring will be one of the best times to buy a home in the Harrisonburg and Rockingham County area.

This original blog post can be found by clicking here

Click here to download Market Update charts for 2011.



Something happened in the local real estate market in 2011 that had not happened since 2005 - more homes sold than in the previous year.  While the increase in activity is fairly small at 1.86%, the fact that there was an increase at all after 5 consecutive years of declining sales is very significant.  Further, the year to which we are comparing 2011 sales (2010) was  a year in which sales were artificially enhanced by the Homebuyer’s Tax Credit, making the seemingly small increase in 2011 look a bit more impressive.

On a monthly basis, residential sales reported by the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Association of REALTORS Multiple Listing Service increased to 104 units in December, up from 82 units in November and 84 in October.  Interestingly, December sales have been very consistent over the past 5 years, generally falling between 90 and 100 units no matter what the pace of sales throughout the year had been!

Pricing continued to soften in December leaving the average and median prices of homes sold in 2011 at $186,577 and $165,000 respectively.  During the year we briefly saw prices stabilize and even bump up a small amount as summertime activity increased, but the long term trend continues downward.  We expect this to continue at least through the early part of 2012 as more distressed properties, previously bottlenecked by administrative issues with the larger banks, are released to the market.  The one and three year changes in sold prices are:   

Three year change: Average Price down -13.80%, Median Price down -13.11%
One year change: Average Price down -6.56%, Median Price down -6.16%

The continued bright spot for Sellers in our market is the decline in inventory.  Throughout all of 2011 inventory levels were lower than comparable months in 2010 and December’s average inventory levels were the lowest monthly averages in several years.  The increase in sales has accounted for some of the inventory reduction and has been combined with current and potential Sellers choosing not to sell (or maybe to lease their home instead) due to the market conditions.   

So what does 2012 hold?  In general we feel Buyer activity will continue to increase at a modest pace, prices will continue to soften at least through the Spring and bank owned properties will have a slightly stronger influence on the local market than in 2011.  Interest rates will likely stay relatively low, contributing to unprecedented affordability for Buyers.  For Sellers it will be another challenging year, but for Buyers the time has never been better! 

Click here to view or download our Market Activity Charts for 2011.

This original blog post can be found by clicking here

Click here to download November's Market Update charts.



November, 2011 was similar to October in many ways for our local real estate market. For the month, the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Association of Realtors Multiple Listing Service (HRAR MLS) reported 82 closed residential transactions, just slightly behind October’s 84 closings. Through the first 11 months of the year, total residential sales are 8 units ahead of the 2010 total at November 30. This is encouraging and gives us some hope that 2011 will be the first year since 2005 in which the HRAR MLS records more residential sales than in the previous year.

While the slowish but steady sales activity is a positive sign, prices continue to fall at an increasing rate. The average sales price of homes sold in the past 12 months dropped $1,274 in November to $187,147 and the median sales price for those homes fell $2,000 to $165,000. Of the 14% decline in average sales price over the past 3 years, a 6.37% drop (45% of the total 3 year loss) has occurred in the past 12 months:

Three year change:    Average Price down -14.00%, Median Price down -13.16%
One year change:       Average Price down -6.37%,   Median Price down -5.74%

Residential inventory has declined in both the City and County, a good sign for sellers. The drop in homes available for sale was particularly large in Rockingham County with 39 fewer homes for sale (on average) during November than October, a 7.5% reduction.

Based upon the consistent buyer activity through November (118 contracts vs. 120 in October) it appears 2011 will finish at a pace which is similar to what we have experienced for the past couple of months. Conditions for buyers remain fantastic but until buyers begin to see interest rates and/or prices increasing and develop a greater sense of urgency, we believe the real estate market will continue at its current pace. Industry predictions indicate many more distressed properties will be released to the market over the next 12 – 18 months, and government influence in the financial markets will keep interest rates from rising so….it appears the current market pace is with us for awhile.

Click here to view or download our Market Activity Charts for November, 2011.

This original blog post can be found by clicking here