Riding the Market Roller Coaster in the West Virginia Panhandle

Contract activity for August 24 - 30, 2025, in the Virginia Countryside and West Virginia Panhandle area was up just 1.6% compared to the same seven-day period last year.

Key Takeaways

• The West Virginia Panhandle continues some pretty wild weekly swings.  Last week, contract activity was off 11.4% compared to this time last year.  The previous week saw a 48.6% increase, the week before that was up 8.2%, and one week before that, contract activity was down 15.2%
• The Countryside market has been more consistent, with 5 consecutive increases in contracts.  The last weekly drop was in mid-July, with a modest 2% drop.

  Why It Matters

• Much like the immediate DC metro area, the overall real estate market in these more rural areas is kinda stuck in neutral, with contract activity year-to-date down just 0.4%.  Could be worse . . . could be better!
• Those big weekly percentage changes we see are, in large measure, reflective of the size of the market, with typically fewer than 100 contracts each week in each of the two areas; a handful of contracts up or down makes a big percentage difference.
• As inventory continues to rise in the face of tepid contract activity, homes are taking longer to sell.  We’ve seen this all summer.  Last week, homes going under contract took an average of 45.2 days to sell, while last year the number was 40.9 days.

The Real Estate Details

• Virginia Countryside was up 18.1%, and is up 4.7% year-to-date.
• West Virginia Panhandle was down 11.4% and is down 5.1% year-to-date.