November 2011: Contrasting Powhatan vs. Goochland County

Powhatan and Goochland County are interesting and a relevant part of the Richmond-area real estate market, as they are adjacent Western counties (Goochland is North of Powhatan) where local suburbanites often flock to when they are looking for larger lots and/or significant acreage, but still within a reasonable commute to employment, shopping and dining centers. Often, Goochland will get migrations from Henrico County and Richmond City, while Powhatan will get more transplants from Chesterfield. Goochland has the Westcreek business park with many significant corporations located there, including Capital One, and is also home to portions of the highly prestigious River Road corridor and the Hermitage Country Club. Powhatan on the other hand, has slightly less luxury homes but a broader depth of homes at all price ranges and generally is more upscale than say Amelia County(to the South).

The attached charts will really tell the tale of the November 2011 market in these areas. As always, if you have questions about this blog or want to know more, then simply call me at 804-307-2589, email me at dawright@ziprealty.com or visit my webpage at http://www.thewrightchoicerichmondrealty.com!

The Real Estate Battle of the River in Richmond: North vs. South (ie. Henrico vs. Chesterfield)

So, while Interstate 288 has somewhat changed the old Richmond dynamic of North of the River vs. South of the River (where many old time Richmonders from the West End wouldn't dare enter Chesterfield and/or had no need to for that matter and vice versa), I thought that I would examine the current market and how the 2 major suburban counties of the Richmond Metro area play out against each other. I plan on revisiting this topic at least 1 month per quarter, as 50% of the entire area's sales are typically within Chesterfield County.

A couple of observations from examining October's MLS data for these 2 counties:
1. Its easier to sell in Henrico in the $225k-700k range (46 DOM vs. 72/73 for Chesterfield), but easier to sell in Chesterfield in the $700-$1MM and 0-$100k ranges.
2. The inventory for both counties is about even until you hit $150k and then Chesterfield has about 50% more properties until you hit the $700k price point where they even back out again.
3. Selling homes even in this market in both counties in the $300-700k range is looking quite positive, much more so than I would have expected, with sold price averages over list price in Henrico from $300-1MM.

All in all, if you're a luxury seller in Henrico or Chesterfield, your odds of selling are actually pretty good, unless you have an ultra luxury home (over $1mm) and then its going to be really tough sledding.

Contact me if you'd like to take a deeper dive on any of the local Richmond-area metrics!

Real Buyers in Richmond? Q3's Latest Metrics

See this latest chart during the 3rd quarter of Real Buyers (a.k.a. closed sales) in the Greater Richmond Metro Area. You can see from the chart that the greatest number of sales were in the $150-225k price band. Contrary to many news reports, you can see that we're actually selling quite a few houses in the area. In fact, I'm running into Highest and Best on about 50% of my transactions right now - a nice October bump in business! Will it hold, we'll find out next month, but I'm optimistic given the historic low interest rate environment!

Once October closes, then I'll be charting Henrico vs. Chesterfield in the battle of North vs. South of the River for that individual month!

P.S. - Trick or treat, can you believe that I actually closed a $400,000 cash sale today on a horse farm out in Montpelier? I'm still trying to figure that one out, but it'll serve as quite a tasty Halloween treat!

Q3 - Richmond Marketing Report

Its been quite a while since my last post, mostly because its been a very busy and exceptional year for me as I've established my team (see the photo of The Wright Choice Richmond Realty Group to the left) and dived much deeper into REO listings.

That being said, I do plan on being a regular contributor going forward and thanks to Ralph Maggiore and Mary Anne Beauty for pushing me to continue to contribute!



I attended a Luxury Home Marketing class put on by Laurie Moore-Moore of the Institute for Luxury Home Marketing in September at the Keller Williams Midlothian office. As part of that class, they discussed various report possibilities to understand the market at various price level bands. So, I've decided to implement this into my blog - I will be providing a quarterly report for the entire market and then additional monthly reports on various micro segments. The photo to the right is a chart showing the expireds versus the current listings in the area.

Any way, this shows the challenges our market is currently facing, especially in the higher price bands.

Thanks so much for keeping in touch and I look forward to tomorrow's post with another of the charts showing the Richmond-Area market real estate data for Q3. Next week, we'll have various charts showing Chesterfield vs Henrico October realty data.