The State of The Market - October 2009

Ah, the leaves in the New RIver Valley are changing.  It's one of my favorite times of the year here - until the winter winds decide to blow.

Just as the leaves will change every year, it's election day today and with a lame duck President in place we'll see change in DC, as well - you DID vote, didn't you?  The leaves change, our leadership changes, and the real estate market ... well, it's changed a bit, as well.

I'll repeat it one more time:

"a slow, steady and calculated approach to the market is going to be important as we move forward towards 2009."

There are opportunities for buyers and sellers, right now, and a slow and steady approach will serve you well.  That being said, I don't think we'll see significant market rebounds in the short-term so Sellers, if you don't have to sell, don't.  As you can see from the following numbers, anything over 5 months is a buyers market and right now, there aren't any buyers markets.  I'm currently working on an end-of-year market report, I'm interested to see how that works out ... stay tuned for that.  Again, when it comes to absorption rates, we're looking at how long it would take to sell the existing residential inventory in a particular area, if nothing else came on the market until supply was exhausted.  Anything over 5 months is typically a buyers' market, and anything less than 5 months is typically a seller's market.

Area	# of Active Properties	# of Sold Properties	Absorption Rate	Buyer/Seller Market
Blacksburg	216	11	19.64 Months	Buyer
Christiansburg	278	14	19.86 Months	Buyer
Montgomery County	67	8	8.38 Months	Buyer
Floyd County	124	6	20.67 Months	Buyer
Giles County	60	9	6.67 Months	Buyer
Pulaski	105	9	11.67 Months	Buyer
Dublin	113	6	18.83Months	Buyer
Radford	72	10	7.20 Months	Buyer

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