Coronavirus Creates Shift In Home-Buying Trends In Fredericksburg

FREDERICKSBURG, VA — April saw fewer-than-normal home sales in the Fredericksburg area below the price of $300,000, due primarily to the coronavirus crisis having a disproportionate impact on lower-income buyers, according to analysis by Long & Foster Real Estate.

April data showed an upward trend in median sales prices because of the small number of sales of below-$300,000 homes. The crisis' impact on people in the lower-income bracket forced them to delay or cancel potential real estate transactions, Long & Foster said in a news release Wednesday.

In April 2019, properties below $300,000 made up 40.1 percent of the market in the Fredericksburg region. But this April, only 29.5 percent of homes sold were in that price range.

The number of homes sold increased across parts of the region, with both Caroline County and the city of Fredericksburg seeing an 18-percent rise. The number of houses for sale declined across the region, with Culpeper County having the sharpest decrease of 39 percent, followed by Stafford County with a 35-percent fall, according to Long & Foster.

Though the amount of entry-level homes is still lacking in many areas, single-family homes are still performing much better than townhouses or condos. Larry “Boomer” Foster, president of Long & Foster, speculates this is due to people wanting to be more socially distant and wanting to get out of densely populated areas.

The company does not believe there will be the same number of home foreclosures as there were during the recession that started in 2008, Foster said in a statement Wednesday.