The Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors (CAAR) has just released this year’s third quarter market report. Compared to this time last year, home sales for the Charlottesville area—including the city, Albemarle County and five surrounding counties—increased 3.6 percent. The city of Charlottesville, however, showed a decrease of 17.3 percent.
CAAR says that the impact of the homebuyer tax credits had on the market earlier this year make it difficult to examine the data and draw conclusions.
According to the report, 2,111 homes were sold in the area from January until now, an increase from 2,037 last year. Sales in Albemarle rose by 6.1 percent, in Greene by 9.5 percent, in Louisa by 14.3 percent and in Fluvanna by 18.8 percent. The biggest increase, 45.3 percent, was recorded in Nelson, which posted 138 sales to date compared to 95 in 2009.
Following the negative trend of the city of Charlottesville, Orange saw a decrease of 8.5 percent.
Median prices decreased across localities as did the average number of days on the market. The average price per square foot in Charlottesville dropped to $163 from $172 in 2009; in Albemarle, the average dropped to $148 from $152.
“We are still in a buyer’s market, which means the best way to shorten the days your property is on the market is to price it correctly,” states the report.
