Mr Williamsburg, Revolutionary ideas on real estate!Hampton Roads Virginia

In our area real estate market there are four MLS used by real estate brokers. The primary one for Hampton Roads is REIN ( Real Estate Information Network) It primarily covers the Carrolton,  Chesapeake,Gloucester, Hampton, Isle of Wight, Portsmouth  Mathews, Newport News Norfolk, Poquoson, Smithfield, , Suffolk, Surry,  Va Beach, Yorktown  and York County Virginia

In the Williamsburg/ York / New Kent Area WMLS is the primary MLS, Gloucester has it’s own MLS  and finally Richmond has it’s own CVRMLS.

So when you see sales statistics its important to note what regions are used in the calculations.

Here is a October 2011 Update from REIN:

The residential real estate market in Hampton Roads posted another solid month as it shows signs of stabilizing and returning to more normal levels. However, the impact that distressed homes have on the non-distressed homes inventory continues to slow the recovery of the overall market. The number of under contract homes continued to post year-over-year gains while the number of homes available for sale fell again.

The number of homes listed for sale plunged 16.6% in October 2011 when compared to October 2010. This marks the fourth consecutive month that the number of homes for sale has fallen by more than 10% on a year-over-year basis. Norfolk and Virginia Beach each saw the inventory of homes for sale drop by more than 21%. Chesapeake experienced the smallest decline of 7.2%. As a region, there was a 3% drop in homes for sale on a month-to-month basis from September 2011 to October 2011. October’s 12,514 homes for sales is the lowest number of active listings since December 2009 when there were 12,474 homes for sale.

Residential under contract sales jumped 29.6% last month when compared to October 2010. Newport News under contract sales surged by 76% in October 2011 while Norfolk and Portsmouth each saw their year-over-year percentages climb by 52% and 60% respectively. Of the seven major cities, Virginia Beach showed the lowest year-over-year gains at 11.4%. The number of under contract sales is generally a leading indicator of future settled sales activity over the next month or two as the contracts go to closing. With year-over-year gains this high in magnitude, the real estate market appears poised for solid sales figures as fall ends and winter begins. Settled sales grew by 17% in October 2011 when compared to those homes which settled in October 2010. Norfolk, Hampton and Newport News all experienced gains of 25% or more for the month when compared to the same time last year. Virginia Beach saw the smallest year-over-year growth in the number of settled sales, up 7.4% for the month. However, the median settled sales price of the homes settled last month was down 10.7% when compared to the same time last year. The median settled sales price for homes sold year-to-date is down $20,000 to $195,000 from year-to-date October 2010.

Distressed homes, those houses that are either bank owned or short sales, climbed as a percentage of settled sales in October 2011 to 33.2%. This percentage has been 29% or higher every month since September 2010. The percentage of homes for sale that distressed homes comprise also increased in October 2011 to 24.3%. This measure has been 20% or higher every month since August 2010. Both of these statistics appear to be rising as percentages; however, the underlying number counts for each percentage are decreasing as the real estate market starts its seasonal slowdown.

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