Should I wait for a better market before selling?
That is the owner's decision, and no public source can say whether the Southwest Virginia land market will be better later: the published reports describe past sales. What can be known today is already on paper: a listing agreement's end date, what does and does not trigger rollback taxes on land use property, and federal holding-period rules whose effect on a particular sale is a tax professional's call.
The market reports describe sales already made, in their own careful terms
Before weighing a better market, read what the people who publish market numbers say those numbers can do. None of them claims to see ahead.
This analysis reflects historical Virginia agricultural land markets and does not forecast future market values.
Virginia Cooperative Extension, Agricultural Land Sales in Virginia, 2023
The same report calls its statistics only indicators of past general conditions. Its title year is 2023, and it was published March 25, 2025.
The numbers reported here are preliminary and based on current entries into multiple listing services.
Virginia REALTORS, Virginia Home Sales Report, July 2026
The Virginia Department of Taxation's assessment/sales ratio study is written with the same care: what it says a county's ratio may indicate allows more than one reading, and it measures sales already made, not where any county is headed.
So there is no published forecast for this market to wait on, and this page offers none. What each public source does cover is set out in where to find real market data for Southwest Virginia. The rest of this page turns to the costs and clocks of waiting that are already written down.
A listing agreement runs to a written date, not to a better market
The first clock is the one an owner signs. Under Va. Code 54.1-2137 C 1, brokerage agreements must be in writing and have a definite termination date, and an agreement that does not state one terminates 90 days after its date.
That rule cuts both ways for an owner thinking about waiting. A listing agreement is never an open-ended bet on the market: it carries a termination date, written into it or supplied by the statute. And an owner who lists hoping conditions improve partway through is working against a date set at signing, which is worth reading before the agreement is signed rather than after.
Nor does waiting have to mean waiting without a number. A free valuation is an opinion of value with no listing agreement attached, so it can come before the decision rather than after it.
Holding land in use value taxation: the calendar is not what triggers rollback
For farm and forest ground taxed on its use under a local land use taxation ordinance, the question behind waiting is often whether a sale now or later sets off roll-back taxes. Under Va. Code 58.1-3237, the trigger is an event, not a date.
Which events attach rollback taxes, and the conditions under which a change in ownership does not, are set out in full in what triggers rollback taxes.
So a year of holding changes nothing by the calendar alone; what matters is what happens on the land during that year. How far back the tax reaches depends on whether the locality has adopted a sliding scale ordinance, and how the amount is figured is worked through in the land use program explained. For a particular parcel, the commissioner of the revenue holds the record.
A farm brings more to the decision than taxes: what conveys, whether to sell it whole or in parts, and the owner's own timeline. Those are on the page about selling a farm in Southwest Virginia.
Federal holding periods run on the calendar; what they mean for one sale is a tax professional's call
Two federal tax rules really do turn on dates. Here is what each one says, and nothing about what it means for a given sale.
The first is the holding period. The IRS says that generally, an asset held more than one year before it is disposed of produces a long-term capital gain or loss, and one held one year or less produces a short-term one. The IRS points to Publication 544 for exceptions, including property acquired by gift or from a decedent. Land that came through an estate is one of those cases, and basis in it is its own subject in stepped-up basis on inherited land.
The second is the test for the home sale exclusion. IRS Publication 523, the 2025 edition for 2025 returns, says the ownership requirement is met by owning the home for at least 24 months out of the last 5 years leading up to the date of sale, and the residence requirement by owning it and using it as a residence for at least 24 months of the previous 5 years.
Neither rule says anything about the market. Whether a particular sale falls on the right side of either line, and what that is worth in tax, depends on facts no web page sees. How capital gains apply to land at all is taken up in whether you pay capital gains when you sell land.
Deciding whether to sell land now or hold it?
Send the parcel and what is giving you pause, and go over with Lowell what is already on paper: an opinion of value, listing terms, and which offices answer the tax questions. No cost, no obligation.
Got it. Thank you.
We'll be in touch shortly with an honest read.
Questions this raises
Does the home sale exclusion look at how a house was used, or only how long it was owned?
Both. IRS Publication 523, the 2025 edition, sets an ownership requirement, met by owning the home at least 24 months out of the last 5 years leading up to the date of sale, and a residence requirement, met by owning and using it as a residence at least 24 months of the previous 5 years. How those tests apply to a particular sale, and any exception to them, is a question for a CPA or a tax attorney.
Can the Virginia Tax sales ratio study tell me whether my county's market is rising?
No. Virginia Tax says a low median ratio may indicate an increasing market and a ratio close to or above 100% may indicate a recent reassessment or a declining market. Both are possibilities, reassessment cycles run from annually to every 6 years, and the study measures sales that already happened.
Do the Virginia REALTORS monthly numbers change after they are published?
They can. Virginia REALTORS says its numbers are preliminary, based on current entries into multiple listing services, and may be adjusted slightly over time to reflect increased reporting. It sources them from multiple listing services across Virginia and describes them as deemed reliable but not guaranteed.
Where this page's facts come from
Every rule, office and figure above traces to one of these. Rules change; check the office before you act on one.
- Agricultural Land Sales in Virginia, 2023 (AAEC-324) Virginia Cooperative Extension
- Virginia Home Sales Report, July 2026 (PDF) Virginia REALTORS
- 2025 Assessment/Sales Ratio Study Virginia Department of Taxation
- Va. Code 54.1-2137, brokerage agreements and their termination date Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code 58.1-3237, roll-back taxes (subsections A to D and G) Virginia General Assembly
- Topic no. 409, capital gains and losses Internal Revenue Service
- Publication 523 (2025), Selling Your Home Internal Revenue Service