Cindy's Blog

Well, with this, the first entry of my blog, my primary goal is to a) get past the first entry of my blog, and b) determine, to some degree, what the goals of this blog are going to be in the future.

I have been on the fence for a long time about writing a blog, since many real estate blogs I've seen seem a little overblown and self serving. However, I'm going to try to get over that too, and hopefully provide some valuable information about the market in general, ways to make your current home more energy efficient, provide resources and information that (I hope) will be valuable whether you are looking to buy, looking to sell, build, renovate, or just satisfy your curiousity...

To perhaps set the stage or tone- Here is a snapshot of the market in our area. If I had a dollar for everyone who asks me if their home is going to lose value, or tell me how bad they heard the market was, I would be taking the rest of the year (and most of 2008!) off! In "real life" the Richmond area is most definitely experiencing a true buyers market, and there is LOADS out there to choose from, but the bottom is not dropping out the way the media (particularly the national media) tends to portray.

As of today, the total number of active listings in our mls (covering the majority of the Central Virginia region) is 9563. There are currently 2529 homes under contract at this time. The average days on market depends greatly on the area, but varies from the lowest in Richmond's West End of just over 30 days, to the highest in Chesterfield of right around 75.

We are seeing many more price reductions, but homes are still, by and large, selling for approximately 92-98% of their listing price- not too bad, when you compare that to what the media portrays! It is, though, definitely a buyer's market, so if you are thinking you'd like to buy a home sometime in the near future- this is a great time to make the jump! Rates are still low, and there really is alot of choice out there!