As Nation Shifts towards Buyers,

Richmond’s Southside Favor Sellers

According to the 24 hour news networks, it would seem that home prices nationwide are falling sharply. And while markets that experienced a steep increase in home appreciation over the last few years are seeing prices returning to normal, Richmond seems to be immune to this trend. In fact, due to large numbers of relocations into Richmond from companies such as Mead Westvaco and Infineon, combined with the realistic appreciation in the past few years, sellers here are breathing a sigh of relief.

Houses currently on the market are averaging 74 days, normal for this time of year before the traditional spring season gets into full swing. In April 65 homes went under contract and 56 were sold. These numbers equate to a shift towards a sellers market, good news for many thinking about cashing out their equity.

Here at WEICHERT, we track the inventory with our unique “Price Trend Analysis Tool.” With the use of this highly effective tool we can determine what the absorption rate is for any given market. The absorption rate tells us how many months inventory of homes there are currently on the market. This is determined by taking the current number of homes for sale and factoring in the number of homes that have gone under contract within a given time period. Anything less than a 5-month supply of inventory indicates we are in a sellers market. For April our “Price Trend Analysis” showed there were only 1.93 months of inventory in the “Hills and Heights” Neighborhoods. This compares with 2.13 months of inventory in the Greater Richmond Metropolitan Area and a National Inventory level of a little over seven months for March (the latest figures available).

In spite of all the hype we hear from the media, we are still at a historically low level of interest rates for mortgages. This coupled with a higher than usual inventory of homes in the winter months has worked together to bring more buyers into the market and decrease the available inventory of homes. These factors created an environment promising for Sellers, who are considering putting their home up for sale in the next few months. If your home is properly priced, staged and well-marketed it should sell in a timely manner.