As we've discussed in the past, land is doing better than it has in a long time. This doesn't mean that the market is perfect by any means. It is still a buyers market and so when putting your land on for sale there is a far better opportunity to sell, but that doesn't mean it will sell quickly....or perhaps at all.

I've been approached by a number of parties who would like to sell their land. I totally understand. This has been a period of time since 2008 when the land sales have been literally crawling. Now we are doing better while at the same time there's plenty on the market. You'll see.

The factors that come into play when someone purchases property can be rather complex and even if you have a great lot that is priced right....if the one or two real buyers who might want such a property have a friend that is in another county, or they want to boat on a specific river, then that property is out. Part of what is going on is just the attributes of the property....acreage, waterfrontage, depth, ability to build reasonably (not too much site work) and perhaps amenities in the community. Then the other part is travel distance, proximity to friends or family or shopping, and other unnoted possible concerns.

What I'm trying to say is that as a Realtor I can price your property correctly per the prevailing market and we can look forward to someone coming and wanting to purchase it, yet there are other factors that may make the difference between a property sitting on the market and a sale. Keep in mind....this isn't simple.

With that preface, here are the numbers and they show greatly increased sales in 2017 over 2016 and 2016 was the best year for land sales since 2008. These numbers are for the four counties of the Northern Neck--Northumberland, Lancaster, Richmond and Westmoreland.

There's no denying that 2017 is a better year for sales. Almost double the number of sales, considerably higher dollars, increase in median sales price. Yes, longer median days on market for 2017, but look at the median days on market for those that are active....there's still a lot of OLD inventory out there and let's hope it's getting priced to sell.

Waterfront land is really an improved segment with more than double the number of sales in 2017 and more than double the dollars. It looks as if in the waterfront category those older properties (meaning having been on the market longer) are selling which is great.  Still plenty of inventory. Still plenty of days on the market for the actives with a median closing in on 500 days. Not a simple market but clearly one that has improved.