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

The Hampton Roads residential real estate market continues to show signs of improvement. April 2012 was categorized by a year-over-year drop in active listings, as well as increases in homes under contract and residential settled sales.

Residential active listings in April 2012 were down 17.8% when compared to the same time last year. All seven of the major cities (Chesapeake, Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk, and Virginia Beach) experienced double digit percentage dips in the number of homes for sale. Norfolk and Portsmouth saw the largest drops at 23% and 22% respectively. The months supply of inventory was directly affected by this reduction in active listings, resulting in a new 7.66 months supply of inventory, down from 9.93 months in April 2011. Active inventory for residential new construction has experienced a 16.8% decrease since 2010, and a 23.7% decrease since 2010.

The number of residential under contract sales grew 23% this April when compared to April 2011. Six of the area’s major cities saw an increase in year-over-year under contract sales of at least 15%. Norfolk and Suffolk experienced the largest upturn with 41% and 29%. Of the region’s major cities, Portsmouth was the only city to not realize a year-over-year increase, but instead declined 3%.

Residential settled sales for April 2012 increased 4% when compared to the same time last year. Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Chesapeake and Suffolk all saw an improvement in their year-over-year numbers, with Suffolk and Chesapeake experiencing the largest increases of 23% and 17% respectively. Portsmouth, Newport News, and Hampton all underwent year-over-year drops in the number of settled sales, with Hampton falling 17% when compared to last year. Unit sales of residential new construction has shown an increase of 12.4% over 2011, and 16.7% over 2010. Comparing this information to the decrease in active new construction units for sale, indicates a shrinking inventory of new construction units and increased interest in new construction by ready buyers.

The residential median sales price for April 2012 was $198,950, an increase of almost 4% when compared to April 2011 when the median sales price was $192,000.

Distressed homes, those that are bank owned or short sales, displayed minor signs of progress in the region’s real estate market. In April 2012, distressed homes comprised 31% of the residential settled sales. This marks the lowest percentage of distressed homes in the residential settled sales makeup in Contact: Nancy May, Manager of Communications Phone: (757) 531-7960 E-mail: nancym@reininc.com eight months, since they accounted for 29% in August 2011. The percentage of active residential listings that distressed homes comprised in April 2012 was 25%, a percentage that has been relatively flat over the past six months ranging from 24% to 26%.

Filed under: hampton roads, real estate |