If you will be selling your home to buy another, there are a lot of numbers floating around.... what you'll sell for your closing costs when selling your mortgage payoff how much you'll pay for your new home how much of the purchase price you will finance how much your mortgage payment will change Above you will see a spreadsheet I put together to help you think about some of these numbers as you are evaluating if and when you will make a move to a new house. In yellow, are all of the inputs you will need to provide, or that you and I can determine together, such as your current payment ..read more

When a seller signs a contract with a buyer, they want to be as certain as possible that the contract will proceed to settlement. The king of all offers, providing the most certainty to a seller would be a cash offer with no contingencies whatsoever. As each of the contingencies below are added to a contract, the seller's certainty decreases... financing contingency appraisal contingency home inspection radon test septic inspection home sale contingency It is important, as a buyer, to remember that most sellers are thinking about certainty alongside price. Which of these offers is like ..read more

Quite a few home buyers (or would–be home buyers) have asked me lately about whether we are seeing fewer resale homes (not new construction) being listed for sale in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County. Indeed, as shown above, we have seen fewer resale homes listed for sale in the first quarter of this year than in any other recent year. So, it's not just your imagination –– if you're looking to buy a resale home, you have had fewer choices thus far in 2024. But... we're in the thick of the spring market now... with 75 homes listed for sale thus far in April... so the spring and summer mar ..read more

Inventory levels are rising.  That much is true.  At the end of last month there were 172 homes for sale in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County... well more than the 111 to 135 at the end of March each of the past three years. But... if you consider a context of any length of time longer than four years, you start to see a pretty different story. It's hard to believe, but back in 2008 – 2011 there were over 800 homes for sale at the end of March!?! All the way through 2016 we were generally around or above 600 homes for sale. We did see large year over year declines between 2016 ..read more

The current real estate tax rate in the City of Harrisonburg is $0.96 per $100 of assessed value.  That means that if you owned a home assessed at $280,000 (median City sales price over the past 12 months) you would pay $2,688 of real estate taxes each year... or $224 per month. City Council is considering an increase of the real estate tax rate to $1.04 per $100 of assessed value.  If this change is approved, your real estate tax bill on your $280,000 home would increase to $2,912 pear year... or $243 per month. Looking at the details and the big picture, both of these statement ..read more

We saw a surprisingly high number of homes go under contract in March this year... 143 of them, compared to only 118 last March. And... this April is also starting off strong compared to last April.  In the first 12 days of this month (through this past Friday) we saw 44 houses go under contract in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County compared to only 33 last April. It is turning into a busy spring in the local housing market!   Have Any Questions? Contact Scott Rogers at 540-578-0102 or scott@funkhousergroup.com ..read more

Happy Friday morning, friends!  We're having some warmer (and mostly sunny) days this week in the Shenandoah Valley.  We probably needed yesterday's rain, though unfortunately it didn't result in another rainbow like the incredible double rainbow that showed up last week... Warmer weather finds me running outside more these days, preparing for a few races over the next few months... which leads me to my monthly giveaway for readers of my monthly market report.  This month you have a chance to win a $50 gift certificate to Sole Focus Running, a new running shop in downtown ..read more

The current average 30 year fixed mortgage interest rate is 6.82%. If you are waiting to buy a home until mortgage interest rates fall below 6% you might be waiting a while. A compilation of mortgage interest rate projections by Fast Company (here) show the following projected mortgage interest rates for the first and second quarter of 2025... Mortgage Bankers Association:   5.9% in 2025–Q1 5.8% in 2025–Q2 Fannie Mae: 6.3% in 2025–Q1 6.2% in 2025–Q2 Wells Fargo: 6.0% in 2025–Q1 5.9% in 2025–Q2 It seems that mortgage interest rates may very well stay near, at or above 6% for a ..read more

It seems homeowners are staying in their homes much longer now than they did two decades ago... with the median homeowner tenure having risen from 6.5 years in 2006 to 11.9 years today. This analysis of homeowner tenure is thanks to a recent analysis by Redfin... Homeowners Today Stay in Their Homes Twice As Long As They Did in 2005, Driven Largely By Older Americans Aging in Place A few reasons for this increase in homeowner tenure seem to include... [1]  Older Americans staying in their homes longer.  [2]  More recently, the sticky–ness of low fixed mortgage interest ra ..read more

Many homes in many price ranges are still receiving multiple offers.  Thus, a variety of questions may run through your mind if you are making an offer on a popular new listing... [1]  How much is this home worth? [2]  How much am I willing to pay for this house? [3]  Will I win the bidding war? The challenge in answering #3 above is often not in the answer to #1 but in other buyer's answer to #2. It's note quite this black and white, but let's pretend that you and the three other buyers who are making an offer all conclude that the home is worth $350K. You love the ..read more