Easing Into the Final Couple of Weeks of 2025

Contract activity for the week of December 14 - 20 in the Virginia Countryside and West Virginia Panhandle area was down 10.2% compared to the same seven-day period last year.

Key Takeaways

• This is the seventh weekly decline in the last eight weeks. Yet as always, the overall numbers don’t tell the full story.
• On a weekly basis, the Countryside and WV Panhandle markets have varied considerably, and as often as not, when one area is down the other is up.
• That was the case last week, with the Countryside market posting an increase in the number of newly ratified contracts, while the Panhandle was down.

Why It Matters

• Given everything that has happened globally, nationally and especially regionally, the market has shown truly remarkable resilience. It could have been – and one could argue should have been – a very rough year.
• Overall, total new contract activity is only down 1.7%.
• On average, homes took 16 days longer to sell last week (67 days) than last year (51 days).

The Real Estate Details

• Virginia Countryside was up 12.9%, and is up 2.4% year-to-date.
• West Virginia Panhandle was down 29.3% and is down 5.6% year-to-date.