Happy New Year!

Contract activity for January 1 -3, 2026 in the Virginia Countryside and West Virginia Panhandle area was down 10.5% compared to the same three-day period last year.

Key Takeaways

• My commentary tonight will be as brief as the time period covered in this report.
• We’ve reset the clock to 2026, and are making this report short so by this time next week we’ll be back on the Sunday-Saturday contract window.
• Three days doesn’t make a trend and we draw no conclusions about these numbers. One need look no further than the fact that the Countryside was up 40% while the Panhandle was down 43% - that doesn’t reflect the market. It’s the simple fact that small contract numbers make big percentage swings.

Why It Matters

• These numbers don’t matter!

The Real Estate Details

• Virginia Countryside was up 40.0%.
• West Virginia Panhandle was down 43.5%.