Heney Realtors is holding a Holiday Home Decorating Contest! We're looking for homes in the Barre, Berlin, Montpelier, and Northfield areas that are showing their Holiday Spirit!

Send us a picture of your outdoor decorations on our Facebook page or email it to Heney@HeneyRealtors.com by December 19th, 2014. 

Our group of judges will be choosing the top 3 decorated homes and award them each with local prizes. 

For those of you who have your homes for sale, this is a great opportunity for you! Get your home noticed this Holiday season with great lights and lawn ornaments! Because really, what draws your attention more...?

No lights...OR... LIGHTS???

We're excited about this contest and hope you are too! Have fun and good luck!

Dodge Farm has 5 lots for sale. Sweeping mountain views. Excellent location. Close to Montpelier, Barre, Berlin, I89. Great schools. $15,000 incentive available to first lot purchased in 2014.

Building your Central Vermont Dream Home starts with the land. You have to find the right location: Is it convenient to work? Family and friends? What are the neighboring properties like? Is it in the school district you want? Then you have to like the lay of the land: Are you looking for something flat so you can garden? Or covered in maple trees so you can sugar? Once you find a location and topography you like you start to look into the basics: road, electric, water, septic, build site. Ideally some or all of those are in place.

Breathtaking views of the Worcester Mountain Range. Build your Central Vermont Dream House and enjoy.

If you are building a house in Central Vermont consider starting with a choice piece of land:  The Dodge Farm lots in Berlin. The location is beautiful with sweeping mountain views. It is also convenient- just minutes to I89, Montpelier and Barre. The school district is considered very desirable. The lots are clear and level to gently sloping. The road in is well built with good drainage. There is underground power for each lot. The land has been perc tested and septic permits approved. There are proposed site plans. Essentially, much of the heavy lifting has been done. You can concentrate on the layout and finishes of your dream home rather than where to put the road and culverts.

Central Vermont Land for sale. Build ready. Berlin, VT. Great location. Beautiful views. Septic design permitted. Site plan available. Great Road. Underground electric.

We shared with you the numbers calculated for the housing indicator: number of sales per town for 2013 in the last post. Take a look at the results of other housing indicators of the central Vermont real estate market in 2013.

Average Sale Price

Average sale price is perhaps the most talked about housing indicator. The chart below illustrates the volatility of this indicator over the last 5 years. For example the U-32 towns (Berlin, Calais, East Montpelier, Middlesex and Worcester) showed phenomenal growth in average sale price in 2013 over 2012. This more than compensated for the drop in average sale price which dropped sharply from 2011 to 2012. Montpelier continued to show solid appreciation with an 8.3% increase in average sale price to $239,930. Barre Town, a leader in growth in total number of sales showed a lesser increase in its average sale price. This followed a substantial $29,500 decrease in average sale price from 2011 to 2012. Waterbury's average sale price of $305,777 was one of the highest in Washington County. The average sale price of a Washington County home was $233,096 for 2013.

AVERAGE SALE PRICE BY TOWN

Days on Market

Day on the market (DOM) is a dynamic number that indicates the number of days a property has been on the market until it goes under contract. The escrow period (between accepted offer and closing) is not part of this calculation. DOM is viewed as a loose indictor of the health of the market. Information for this one is only available for properties listed and sold through realtors. This information is not available for sales by unrepresented sellers. In addition, DOM only considers the time that a property was listed with the final listing broker and does not reflect that a seller or another broker may have previously had the property on the market. In smaller towns with fewer total sales, a few properties that take longer to sell will have an undue impact on this number.    

                                                                                             2013 AVERAGE DAYS ON MARKET

In 2012 the typical DOM was 5 to 6 months on the market and for 2013 dropped 4 to 5 months. This is a sign that the market has shifted from a "Buyer's Market" dynamic to a more balanced dynamic.

Check out what's on the market now: FOR SALE

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How is the Central Vermont real estate market?

This is a frequently asked question and a good one too;  the health of the housing market is an economic indicator that impacts buyers, sellers, and everyone in between.

We took a look at some key indicators of  real estate in Central Vermont for 2013 using data compiled from some major sources and compared these 2013 indicators to the previous four years. One major source we utilized is the multiple listing service (MLS), where the majority of Vermont real estate sales transacted by licensed brokers are recorded. In addition to MLS, we utilized the Vermont real estate sales online database which gathers information from the Vermont Department of Taxes to create a comprehensive list of all real estate sales that may or may not be recorded in the MLS. From the statistics gathered, it is exciting to report that growth and improvement summarize Central Vermont real estate market in 2013.

The key indicators that we looked at are the number of sales of single family residences, average sale price, and number of days a property was on the market. The towns focused on while looking at these indicators are:  Montpelier, Barre, U32 (Berlin, Calais, East Montpelier, Middlesex and Worcester), and Northfield

The information presented below will specifically be about the number of sales of single family residences in Washington County, categorized by town.

In 2013 home sales increased in every major community as compared with the number of home sales in 2012. 2013 also produced the highest number of Central Vermont Real Estate home sales for any year in the last five years.

NUMBER OF SALES BY TOWN

As you will note above, Barre Town posted a strong increase year after year and the U-32 towns  posted an amazing 88% jump after four years of consistent numbers. Waterbury posted around 57 residential sales.

Numbers don't lie. Considering the overall increase of number of sales in 2013 and the kickoff of activity we've experienced in the new year, we expect 2014 to be another year of steady growth for Central Vermont real estate.

Check out what is on the market now at our new and improved website heneyrealtors.com and don't forget to visit our Facebook page!