A Very Positive Week

Contract activity for August 31 – September 6, 2025, in the Virginia Countryside and West Virginia Panhandle area was up 35.1% compared to the same seven-day period last year.

Key Takeaways

• The West Virginia Panhandle continues to have feast-or-famine weekly contract activity.  Last week was a feast, with a 59.2% increase in the number of newly ratified contracts.
• The Countryside market also had a strong week, with a 14.5% increase.
• The 208 newly ratified contracts last week were sufficient to push total year-to-date contract activity in these more rural markets into the positive category – up 0.5%.
  

Why It Matters

• Mortgage interest rates hit their lowest point of the year last week, and that’s encouraging.  But at roughly 6.5%, they still aren’t quite low enough to bring lots of buyers back to the market.
• While all eyes are on the Federal Reserve to see if they lower the fed funds rate when they meet in 10 days, their actions aren’t likely to have much impact either way on mortgage rates.
• Last week, homes going under contract took an average of 44.7 days to sell, while last year the number was 35.8 days.

The Real Estate Details

• Virginia Countryside was up 14.5%, and is up 4.9% year-to-date.
• West Virginia Panhandle was up 59.2% and is down 3.7% year-to-date.