Lynchburg area home sale stats mixed

By Bryan Gentry
Lynchburg News & Advance
Published: April 25, 2008

Existing home sales in the Lynchburg area were down during the first quarter of 2008, but home prices actually rose, according to the Virginia Association of Realtors.

The association released statistics for the first quarter Wednesday.

In the Lynchburg area, 461 existing homes sold from January through March.

That was a 25 percent drop from the first quarter of 2007, and an 18 percent drop from the last quarter.

Meanwhile, the median price in the first quarter was $147,511, 13 percent more than in the first quarter of last year.

The area’s average price also rose to $184,148, a 15 percent increase.

“I think that’s a big kudos to our area, to say that our economics are substantiating that,” said Betty Burch, president of the Lynchburg Association of Realtors. “That’s what we hear from all the business people. Economically, we are much better than some other areas.”

She said she and other real estate agents at John Stuart Walker remain busy. She closed on a home Tuesday and is scheduled to close on another Friday, she said.

To date in April, 124 homes have sold in the Lynchburg area, Burch said. More than half of those sold in 90 days or fewer, though the average number of days a home sat on the market was at least 120 days, she said.

The need for people to sell their homes in other areas before moving here might be slowing the local market, she said.

More buyers have been asking for contingency contracts, which would allow them to get out of a contract if they can’t sell their old home, she said.

“Almost everyone I work with from out of town seems to have a house to sell,” Burch said.

The national housing market has been turbulent since last year, when foreclosure rates increased and the credit market tightened.

The National Association of Realtors reported recently that the median price of homes selling in March was 7.7 percent lower than the same month last year.

The number of homes selling nationally has continued to decline as well, according to the April 22 news release.

But many areas in the state are doing better than the national market.

According to the Virginia Association of Realtors, the state saw a 26 percent drop in home sales during the first quarter. The statewide average price dropped 5 percent and the median price did not change.

In a Wednesday conference call sponsored by the realtors association, economist Lisa Fowler of George Mason University said many small and medium markets, such as Lynchburg, saw positive price appreciation.

The Lexington and Buena Vista market saw a 13 percent increase in average price and a 30 percent increase in the number of homes sold.

Some larger markets, such as Fredericksburg and the Dulles area, saw decreases in the number of homes sold and prices in the first quarter.

The Northern Virginia market saw a 36 percent drop in the number of sales and an 11 percent decrease in median price.

“The potential for continued downward pressure on prices will probably continue to come from Northern Virginia,” Fowler said.