The real estate market in greater Charlottesville once stood astride a lofty peak, but now it’s packed up its trail mix and water bottle to head back down the mountain. Sounds a little ho-hum, right? That’s exactly what Dave Phillips, CEO of the Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors (CAAR) (www.caar.com), predicts for 2007: “Everyone will be satisfied; no one will be ecstatic.” In CAAR’s year-end report on 2006, Phillips calls 2006 “an important year of market transition” when sellers ceded control to buyers, and market forces aligned in a state of equilibrium that will keep things “solid” and “modest” in 2007. How very…mature.
 Total sales for the Charlottesville market area (including the City of Charlottesville and counties of Albemarle, Fluvanna, Green, Louisa and Nelson) were down 7.1 percent from last year. |
To break it down: Total sales in the market area (Charlottesville, Albemarle, Nelson, Fluvanna, Louisa and Greene) were 4,332 for the year, down 7.1 percent from 4,665 in 2005. Sellers of condos, though, were living in a more bubbly reality: Brisk condo sales meant Charlottesville was the only portion of CAAR’s area where sales actually went up in 2006. In fact, one out of two sales in the City last year were condos.
Though sales were down overall, prices kept going up. The median sales price was $274,900, up from $256,000 in 2005. And though the average number of days-on-market (DOM) was up 16 days
to 76, that increase is a bit low considering how sharply inventory went up—about 66 percent, to 2,504. In other words, there are lots more properties out there to buy, but by and large they keep moving anyway.
So: Condos are hot and otherwise things are pleasantly lukewarm. One more fact to remind you just how loftily those peaks can soar here in Jefferson’s Virginia: In 2006, CAAR recorded 107 transactions over $1 million. How very… mature.