Page's housing market remains strong, despite slowing trend

By Randy Arrington

LURAY, July 18 — For the most part, the current housing market in Page County could be characterized as steady and leveling off along with inflation and interest rates hikes. While some modest declines have been seen in some areas, the overall numbers for 2023 are close to those for 2022, when comparing the first six months. And even with slight declines, the local housing market is still riding the residuals of a roughly 70 percent rise in both average price and overall sales during the last five-plus years.

Despite the rapid construction at Luray Landing — seven townhomes sold so far in 2023 by D.R. Horton — and the addition of new single-family homes at Fairview Estates and other subdivisions across the county, home sales for the first half of the year were down 3.4 percent compared to 2022. However, the difference is marginal — from 121 sales at this point a year ago, to 117 in the first six months of 2023. Some neighboring counties reportedly saw home sales drop by 20 percent or more in the same comparison.

Dial the clock back to 2018 and only 163 homes were sold in Page County the entire year. The biggest jump in home sales in the county came between 2019 and 2020, when the figure went from 191 to 233 — an increase of 22 percent — as millions across the country sought to escape urban areas in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sales price is split when making current six-month comparisons, with the average up 2.5 percent and the median sale price down 3.4 percent. In the first half of 2022, the average sale price for a home in Page County was $289,529, compared to $296,770 over the first six months of 2023 — a new historic high. However, the median sale price fell from $265,000 to $255,900.

Once again looking back at 2018, the average selling price of a home in Page was $173,272, while the median price stood at only $159, 900.

The number of homes sales in the county over $250,000 for the first six months fell by just over 6 percent compared to last year, from 68 to 64. That’s still pretty good compared to only 26 such sales in all of 2018, and only 44 over 12 months in 2019.

The average number of days on the market for local home sales has risen 47 percent, from just 32 days in the first half of 2022, to 47 days in the first six months of 2023. The median number of days on the market rose from eight to 10.

The biggest drop in this category came between 2020 and 2021, when the average “days on market” for a home sale in Page County went from 96 down to 36. In 2018, the average seller had to wait 143 days before a contract was signed.

While the local housing market is showing trends of slowing down from its feverish pace of recent years, it continues to set records for average sale price and remains steady in most other categories. Supply is slowly catching up as demand remains relatively active, which bodes well for a steady market over the foreseeable future. Final stats for 2023 will likely be close to, but come in slightly below, those for 2022. (See annual comparisons below.)

~ Current data for this article was taken from Bright MLS, the primary Multiple Listing System for Page County, and provided by Bill Dudley & Associates Real Estate Inc. in Luray, Va.

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Annual 12-month comparisons

for home sales in Page County, Va.

Homes Sold

276 — 2022

270 — 2021

233 — 2020

191 — 2019

163 — 2018

Average Sale Price

$294,543 — 2022

$267,531 — 2021