The Federal Shutdown Ended – and Someone Forgot to Tell our Rural Markets

Contract activity for the week of November 9 - 15, 2025 in the Virginia Countryside and West Virginia Panhandle area was down 10.9% compared to the same seven-day period last year.

Key Takeaways

• Throughout the 45-day federal government shutdown, the Virginia Countryside and West Virginia Panhandle markets were largely unaffected.
• It’s probably just a coincidence, but as Congress finally voted to end the shutdown and reopen the government, these more rural markets had a pretty slow week for new contract activity.
• Both markets saw a decrease in new contract.

Why It Matters

• Typically, the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is just about the weakest period of time for buyer activity all year, so we expect activity to remain sluggish for the next several weeks
• However, despite the lower contract activity, homes took 11 days less time to sell last week (49 days) than last year (60 days).

The Real Estate Details

• Virginia Countryside was down 7.6%, but is up 3.5% year-to-date.
• West Virginia Panhandle was down 14.4% and is down 5.6% year-to-date.