CAAR breaks down first quarter housing report

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - The real estate market appears to be booming in the Charlottesville area.

The Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors recently released data from this year’s first quarter. Its report says the area is still a sellers’ market and there is no sign of that changing anytime soon.

“We’ve only got 1.1 months of inventory. We had one month of inventory in the fourth quarter last year, so a little bit more inventory. But you know, that’s not still a whole lot more,” CAAR President Pam Dent said Wednesday, May 4.

Dent says six months of inventory would balance the market: “Sales are still historically strong,” she said. “We’ve still got a long ways to go before we get to even a balanced market, so we we expect to see it continue to be a sellers’ market.”

Year-over-year from 2021, sales are down this quarter, but Dent says that is only because there are fewer homes to sell.

“And prices are still rising, maybe not at that crazy trajectory that they were last year,” Dent said.

Prices also seem to be enduring rising mortgage rates.

“I think what we will see we’ve still got pent up buyer demand, and as long as we have that, then they’re they’re going to rise,” Dent said.

Looking at Q1 2021 data compared to this year, there were 177 fewer home sales and the median sales price jumped 13%.

Homes are selling quickly, too.

“We’re looking at an average of 30 days on market overall, but we’re still seeing a lot that are going off in three days, five days, one day,” Dent said. “It is still a very competitive market.”

As houses fly off the market, affordable housing is an issue. CAAR says the lack of availability is forcing people to move farther away from Charlottesville and Albemarle County.

“There’s just not much if you’re talking about the city and Albemarle County without having to move farther out there,” Dent said. “Anything you see that’s priced under, I’m going to say $200,000, doesn’t it stick around very long.”

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