I’ve been spending the last couple of days digging into the real estate numbers for the New River Valley, and I thought I’d share some of the figures I’m finding so far.  This post deals with sales and inventory figures in Blacksburg for the first six months of 2010, while subsequent posts will deal with market statistics for Christiansburg and Radford during the same time period.

Blacksburg Inventory Levels and Average Sales Prices

< $200000 –                   8.53 months     $143398

$200001 – $300000 – 7.51 months     $247136

$300001 – $400000 – 10.9 months     $345830

$400001 – $500000 – 17.4 months     $435668

$500001 – $600000 – 12.0 months     $545583

$600001 – $700000 – No sales

$700001+ – 20.0 months        $803166

Whenever I look at inventory levels, I’m looking specifically at the “absorption rate” – how long it would take the market to “absorb” the current inventory if nothing else came on the market.  In the New River Valley – and in most real estate markets, really – a balanced market is a figure of six months.  Anything less than six months is a sellers market, anything more than six months is a buyers market.  So by looking at how many homes are on the market in a particular price point, as well as looking at what’s sold over the last six or twelve months, we can get an idea of just how long it would take the market to absorb the current inventory levels.

In Blacksburg, real estate inventories are high.  There are a lot of properties on the market, and not many coming off, and while as a home seller that may seem like a bad thing, it isn’t necessarily so.  Every seller I’m working with is getting the same message – Price your home to sell, and make sure it looks better than everything else.  The buyers that are out there will take notice …