Home values hold steady in Lynchburg

By Ray Reed

Published: July 24, 2008

Homes are selling slowly in nearly all parts of Virginia, but the Lynchburg area’s prices are holding up stronger than many other regions, according to data from the Virginia Association of Realtors.

The median price of a house sold in Lynchburg in the April-June period was $152,593, the association said Thursday. Half the homes sold during the period cost more than the median price, and the other half sold for less.

This year’s median price is up 2 percent from the April-June quarter of 2007, the association said.

Examined a different way, by average price, the dollar value of Lynchburg homes was off 1 percentage point this year.

Both categories, median and average prices, mean Lynchburg homes held onto their value better than all but five of the 24 Virginia regions the association listed Thursday in its quarterly report on sales.

Homes in the Charlottesville, Richmond and Roanoke areas performed similarly to Lynchburg’s in the association’s report. There were about 20 percent fewer sales this year than last, but prices moved only a couple of percentage points in all four regions.

By contrast, Prince William County in Northern Virginia saw a big jump in the number of home sales. But houses there lost nearly a third of their value, the largest drop of any region when compared to the same quarter of 2007.