Convener and Scribe: Scott Rogers
Clementine 1:00 p.m.
Attendees:
Roger Bryant, The Gaines Group
Jonah Pence, Farmers & Merchant Bank
Benjamin Meredith, Building Knowledge
Ande Banks, City of Harrisonburg
Matt Robertson, The Stratford Companies
Scott Rogers, Coldwell Banker Funkhouser Realtors
Our local housing market is doing poorly, but is not as bad as other markets. Charlottesville, Northern Virginia are doing worse.
Lower priced homes are still moving, much more so than higher priced homes.
Low appraisals are stopping some sales.
More homeowners are looking to make their homes energy efficient, but appraisers are not attributing value to these modifications.
The market has seemed to have been slower, but steady, with small spikes of lows and highs along the way.
In the past month, there seems to be more activity in the higher price ranges.
Shenandoah County, and other areas north of Harrisonburg and Rockingham County are suffering from much higher foreclosure rates than we are.
There used to be large numbers of DC/NoVa retirees moving into the Shenandoah Valley, buying high priced homes, but that migration has dramatically slowed.
Many buyers have been hesitant to buy because of a lack of job security.
The first time buyer credit did seem to make a difference in first time buyers in the market to buy.
Why are home sales levels so low now if we have a growing population and a relatively stable economy?
- what was/is a normal sales level?
- factors affecting higher than normal buying: financing conditions, investors, short time window
- factors affecting lower than normal buying: financing conditions, unemployment or uncertain employment, long time window, investors
It is hard to independently “value” a house — hard for a buyer, a seller, an appraisal, etc.
Banks are asking for higher downpayments, which is making it difficult for some buyers to commit to buying.
Most of the cost of a house is in the labor to build it. Most local builders are commited to working with local laborers, which strengthens our local economy.
We are fortunate to have lots of very good local trades people for building homes.
We know that things are going to improve in our local housing market, we just don’t know when.
Locally, we need to start thinking about how we manage growth as the housing market starts to return.
Financing conditions became much to loose, allowing people to buy that didn’t have income, or assets. This was all in the name of expanding the number of people who could have the American dream of homeownership, but they ended up being harmful.
There is a need in our local area for a weatherization contractor.
Scott Rogers
Coldwell Banker Funkhouser Realtors
540-578-0102
scott@HarrisonburgHousingToday.com
TBD
