Median home sale prices increased in August across the Fredericksburg, Virginia, region compared to year earlier, while inventory declined, according to the Long & Foster Market Minute reports. The Fredericksburg region Market Minute report includes Fredericksburg City and Spotsylvania, Stafford, Culpeper and Caroline counties.
Caroline County was an outlier, with a 27 percent increase in the number of homes sold, however volume in the county is typically low, which can cause numbers to fluctuate. The year-over-year median price rose 12 percent to $199,900.
Active inventory decreased across the Fredericksburg region, including a 23 percent drop in the city of Fredericksburg. Days on market averages for the area ranged from 36 days to 54 days.
“You’re seeing the same trends regardless of where you are,” said Larry “Boomer” Foster, president of Long & Foster Real Estate. “Employment across Virginia is very strong, interest rates are low, confidence is high, and you’ve got 84 million millennials, a huge percentage of whom want to own a home.”
Many current homeowners are not putting homes on the market, Foster said. They may have refinanced at favorable interest rates that they don’t want to give up, and the lack of inventory might also be keeping some from moving up or downsizing.
“It’s a great time to sell, if you have somewhere to go,” Foster said. “At most price points, sellers have very little competition and a great deal of demand.”
Foster said buyers should go into the home-buying process prepared. That means finding an agent and lining up financing before you start looking. If you find a desirable property before enlisting the help of an agent and securing a lender, you risk losing out to a more prepared buyer.
“Get your credit together and find a good, proactive Long & Foster real estate agent,” Foster said. “You’re going to need someone who’s an expert negotiator, someone who knows the marketplace better than anyone else, and who’s a trusted advisor to help you through a relatively complex transaction.”
The Long & Foster Market Minute is an overview of market statistics based on residential real estate transactions for more than 500 local areas and neighborhoods and over 100 counties in eight states. The easy-to-read, easy-to-share reports include information about each area’s units sold, active inventory, median sale prices, list to sold price ratio, days on market and more.
Information included in this report is based on data supplied by Metropolitan Regional Information System and its member associations of Realtors, which are not responsible for its accuracy. The reports include residential real estate transactions within specific geographic regions, not just Long & Foster sales, and they do not reflect all activity in the marketplace. Information contained in this report is deemed reliable but not guaranteed, should be independently verified, and does not constitute an opinion of MRIS or Long & Foster Real Estate.