SOURCE: Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors

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Overall home sales, median sales prices and the average number of homes in the local market inventory all declined in 2011, according to a year-end real estate report from the Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors.

In 2011, there were 2,300 homes sold in the region, down 1.5 percent from 2010, but up slightly from 2009 levels, according to the report. The median sales price was $245,000, down 3.9 percent from last year.

Foreclosures were up 10.4 percent, 328 last year compared with 297 in 2010, and short sales were also up from 76 in 2010 to 112 in 2011.

“Fortunately, in the interest of pricing stabilization, short sale transactions only represented 3.3 percent of the market, while traditional sales or those transactions not involving a foreclosure or a short sale, accounted for 80.9 percent of [the market],” the report states.

Denise Ramey is president-elect of CAAR and a Realtor with Roy Wheeler Realty Co. in Charlottesville.

“As far as sellers go, I think many sellers have decided that it’s not worth it if they can’t get what they want,” Ramey said. “Two years ago, we still saw that sellers were looking at what their neighbors sold their homes for in 2008.”

Today, people are being more realistic, she said. Albemarle County and Charlottesville led the region in home sales, followed by Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa and Nelson.

On the foreclosure front, Ramey also said the Charlottesville region continues to fare better than Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads, which lead the state in the number of what industry insiders refer to as “distressed properties.”

Jim Duncan is a partner in Charlottesville-based Nest Realty and has 11 years of local realty experience. He also runs Realcentralva.com, a local real estate blog.

“I think we still have a decline built into the market,” Duncan said. “I don’t think anybody can say with confidence if we’ve hit bottom or not. I’d like to think that the decline is moderating.”

Duncan also expressed some concern over the number of short sales and optimism that they would decline. He said short sales can drag on for months and drag the market down while the bank, the seller and potential buyers negotiate a deal. Foreclosures are usually less protracted.

Anthony McGhee, a Ruckersville-based Realtor with 25 years of experience, runs the realty firm Assist 2 Sell. He said that “shadow inventory” of homes that are destined for short sales or foreclosure but haven’t officially hit the market also affects the overall numbers. However, numbers often don’t reflect the true state of affairs, especially when it comes to real estate.

“The real estate market moves like a battleship — it doesn’t move quickly,” McGhee said. “We’re obviously still in a slow market, but it’s not falling off a cliff.”

His advice? “I tell people, ‘If you don’t have to sell in this market, don’t.’ I don’t think you see the [housing] inventory down because it’s being snatched up through demand — it’s because there are people sitting on their houses.”

Ramey agreed. “When we compared the first half of 2011 to 2010, the numbers were very concerning,” she said. That was due primarily to the federal government’s $8,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers.

For 2011, “I was very, very pleased with the overall year-end numbers when you look at the fact that we didn’t have any kind of government intervention,” Ramey said.

In 2012, all three agreed that it’ll remain a buyer’s market. Ramey predicts cautious optimism on the part of buyers.

“We are seeing buyers get back into the market and make the commitment to make a purchase decision,” she said. “I think that we expect that trend to continue … I think the indicators are good, with inventory levels being stable.”

At the close of 2011, inventory was down to the lowest level since year-end 2006. CAAR said 4,802 new listings were added in 2011, versus 5,512 in 2010, a decrease of nearly 13 percent.

She also had a word of advice for sellers.

“It doesn’t matter what you paid for your home … what matters is what the market is saying your home is worth,” Ramey said. “Buyers come to the table a lot more prepared.”

McGhee reiterated that buyers will likely retain the upper hand.

“We’re still in a buyer’s market, obviously,” he said. “I think we’re going to look back and say this was one of the best times ever to buy a house.”