Spotsylvania County – Are Home Prices Up Or Down From A Year Ago?

Here we go; as they say, the proof is in the pudding. I’m not really sure what that means. Anyway, for October of 2011, the average home sales price in Spotsylvania County was $208,321; one year ago in October of 2010 it was $220,664. Home prices have dropped, on average, almost 6%. Why, you ask? Ah, there is the $12,343 question. If you ask 5 people, you will probably get 10 different answers, and the one guy who really knows; he ain’t talking. One mans opinion (mine) is that the system is broke. Crushed. Paralyzed.

Follow the chain of events here. Market is cruising along; sure, it was a bubble, but it sure was cooking right along. Bubble breaks; everyone freaks out. Foreclosures ramp up. Prices drop due to the volume of properties on the market. Sales slow; interest rates drop. Lenders make getting a loan like getting a prostate exam because they can’t make any money on the loans they are writing, so it takes forever to get a loan.  Buyers get tired of their daily prostate exam and lenders start denying loans because they can’t get the buyers to produce documents in 24 hours that the lender could have asked for 30 days ago, and for the additional reason that they can’t find anyone to buy the loan. Contract falls out, house goes back on the market. With, you guessed it, a price reduction.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why housing prices keep falling.

 

Kevin McGrath
RE/MAX BRAVO – Broker/Owner
kmcgrath@remax.net
Licensed in the Commonwealth of Virginia

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