Hampton Roads VA Real Estate Blog

Virginia Beach tops the list of 10 best places to buy!

Richmond and Virginia Beach got a big thumbs up from Good Morning America— courtesy of data from Zillow — which named them both as among the top 10 places to buy a home in the country. In fact, Virginia Beach was heralded as the number one place in America to buy. (Richmond is number seven, which ain't bad at all, when you consider the hundreds of cities Zillow looked at.)

What's so great about them? According to Zillow, buyers should "look for communities with a strong job market and stable housing values. Some common threads: cities with military bases, state capitals, and college towns all fare well because they are more 'recession proof.'"

Here's what Zillow is seeing…

In Virginia Beach:

• Median home value: $223,800, down 1 percent from a year ago.
• Property values are up 7 percent compared to five years ago.
• Houses cost an average of $139 per square foot.
• Buyers are paying 2 percent less than the listing price.

In Richmond:

• Median Home Value: $ 207,000, down 7 percent from a year ago.
• Property values are up 5 percent compared to five years ago.
• Houses cost an average of $119 per square foot.
• Buyers are paying 3 percent less than listing price.

By itself it's not the kind of news you'd throw a party over, but at least it's another indicator that things are — slowly but surely — turning around.

Signs of local housing recovery?

First-time home buyers and investors waded into the housing market looking for deals in May, pushing sales of existing homes higher again in South Hampton Roads, according to a report released Monday by the Real Estate Information Network, which is the local multiple listing service.

According to the report, 963 homes sold last month, up 14.5 percent from April but 3.6 percent below the number sold in May 2008. The number of homes sold last month was down by its narrowest margin in more than year, offering a glimmer of hope that the local housing market might be reaching a bottom.

The service also reported the median sale price in May was $219,900, up 2.3 percent from $215,000 in April but (only) down 2.3 percent from $225,000 a year earlier. The median is the point at which half the prices are higher and half are lower.

Home sales at the lower end of the market typically result in homeowners moving up and spurring sales in the higher price ranges, however many of the homes sold in May were already vacant, indicating that they may have been foreclosures or that the owners had already moved elsewhere.

Investors have also returned to the market, hoping to turned foreclosed or distressed properties into rentals. Homes that had been foreclosed on accounted for about 19 percent of the sales last month, according to the multiple listing service.

Virginia Beach was easily the strongest market in South Hampton Roads last month, with 430 sales in May compared with 433 sales a year earlier.

For more information about home sales in YOUR neighborhood, or homes available where you are considering a purchase, contact me, Maggi Davis, at 757-288-5547, or visit my website at www.abuyersrealty.com.

Hope you are having a great summer!

Maggi Davis
Associate Broker
Keller Williams Hilltop
Virginia Beach, VA
maggi@maggidavis.com

Help for military home owners with transfer orders

The Department of Defense has released guidelines for a $555M program to help military homeowners who must sell their homes for a loss after receiving transfer orders.  Under the guidelines, the DOD would reimburse the military family up to 90% of their loss from a home sale, or the DOD could also purchase the home for up to 75% of the original purchase price. 

To be eligible, the homeowner must have received orders to transfer, and have purchased their home before July 1, 2006.  To qualify , the service member must sell their home by December 31, 2009 and submit their application by March 31, 2010.

For more details on the program, visit http://hap.usace.army.mil .

For help selling or buying a home, contact Maggi Davis, Keller Williams Realty, at (757) 288-5547 or visit my website at http://www.abuyersrealty.com .

April / May Real Estate Market Update

For the fourth month in a row there has been an increase in “pending sales” in most of the major cities in Hampton Roads, with Suffolk and Newport News leading the way with 22% and 17% increases respectively.  Pending sales of “detached” homes in all of Hampton Roads has increased a healthy 2% increase in the numbers of sales pending compared to the prior month and the prior year.

Prices have continues a decline, however, but the rate of decline has slowed signficantly.  At the lower price levels (under $300,000) prices have been stable or increasing over a year earlier, but at the higher price ranges (over $300,000) they are still declining.

These “pending sales” are not yet reflected in an increase of “settled sales”, which still trail the same month of 2008 by 20%.  The median sales price, however is “just” 4.78% below April 2008.

The inventory of homes available for purchase is still high, offering good opportunities for home buyers to select from.  There is currently a ten month supply of homes on the market - any thing over six months is considered a “buyer’s market”, so we are still in a buyer’s market.

For more specific information about your own neighborhood real estate sales and statistics, please contact Maggi Davis, Keller Williams Realty, at (757) 288-5547, or e-mail her at maggi@maggidavis.com.  You can search for homes yourself at her web site http://www.abuyersrealty.com.

Pending and settled sales increased in March 2009

(Reprinted from April 13th press release from Real Estate Information Network)

For the second consecutive month, pending and settled sales increased in the Hampton Roads real estate market.  The year-over-year percentage change of pending home sales, often referred to as a leading indicator of the housing market, increased for six of the area’s major cities, with Suffolk leading the way with a 9.8% improvement.  This comes on the heels of an increase last month in pending sales for all property types.  Pending sales of detached homes, specifically, in Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Chesapeake and Suffolk rose cumulatively by 12.92% year-over-year.

Settled sales of residential homes also increased 37.7% from February to March, which follows the typical annual trend where February to March comparisons afford the largest increase in settled sales for any given year.  Year-over-year settled sales of residential homes, however, reflected an 18.6% decrease in activity compared to 2008 even with spot increases in various cities.

Even with the month-to-month positive gains, a first quarter comparison of 2009 to 2008 shows that Hampton Roads is not out of the woods yet.  For the first quarter, the region saw a 25.5% decline in the number of residential settled sales and a 7.8% drop in the median sales price of those homes.

March 2009 Highlights:

Listings
Total active listing count went up for the third consecutive month from 16,451 Feb 09 to 16,715 in March 09, a 1.6% increase.

Sales
Total residential sales were down by 18.6% compared to March 2008.

Inventory
There is currently a 9.77 months of inventory on the market.

(end of reprint)

My personal take on the good news about the increase in pending sales is the same as last month.  Interest rates continue in the 4.5% to 5% range for most buyers, and the $8,000 tax credit program are driving first time buyers into the market in large numbers.  As the “starter homes” that they buy sell and close, the owners of those homes are able to make a “buy up” in the market.  It’s a good trend and, as a real estate professional, I hope it continues throughout the spring and summer!

As always, for the latest information about homes on the market, please visit my website at http://www.abuyersrealty.com.

Maggi Davis