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

November 2012

Promising real estate trends in Hampton Roads continued through October 2012, with double digit percentage increases in sales and homes under contract compared to October 2011

October 2012 saw a 13.8% year-over-year increase in closed sales. This marks the eighth time this year that settled sales have increased year-over-year. Suffolk and Portsmouth experienced the largest gains of 42.3% and 25.6% respectively. Of the seven major cities (Chesapeake, Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk, and Virginia Beach) Norfolk and Newport News were the only two not to experience year-over-year increases and saw declines of 9.9% and 5.9%.

The number of homes under contract  was up 26.1% in October 2012 when compared to the same time last year. This is the highest year-over-year increase the market has experienced since January 2012 when the number of pending sales grew 32.9%. Suffolk and Virginia Beach experienced the largest year-over-year increases at 100% and 29.8% respectively. Hampton and Newport News were the only major cities not to experience an increase, with declines of 12.3% and 1.4% year-over-year.

The number of homes listed for sale continue to decline and were down 12.1% overall when compared to October 2011.

This drop in the number of active listings in the market has led to a significant drop in month’s supply of inventory – now at 6.79 months as compared to 8.44 months in October 2011. A six months supply is considered a balanced market. In the supply and demand equation, this lowering of inventory bodes well for the median sales price, which was $199,000 in October 2012, up 5.4% from $188,780 in October 2011.

Banked owned homes or short sales continue to have an impact on the region. Although the number of distressed active listings has dropped , they still account for 26.8% of all residential active listings in October 2012, vs. 24.3% in October 2011. This may suggest that buyers are purchasing more non-distressed listings. Distressed home sales accounted for  28.3% of all residential sales in October 2012. Though this is up 2.9% from September this year, distressed  sales are down 4.8% from October 2011.

These statistics are from the real estate information network (REIN) the MLS for the Hampton Roads region covering the areas of Virginia from Williamsburg east to Virginia Beach and south to the North Carolina border. This includes homes, condos, townhomes or land for sale in Carrolton,  Chesapeake,Gloucester, Hampton, Isle of Wight, Portsmouth  Mathews, Newport News Norfolk, Poquoson, Smithfield, , Suffolk, Surry,  Va Beach, Yorktown  and York County Virginia and James City County/ Williamsburg

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