Home prices in South Hampton Roads fell sharply last month, and sales of existing homes remained sluggish.
Real Estate Information Network Inc. released data Friday that showed the median sale price for existing homes in December was $204,000 , down 5 percent from $214,700 in November and 7.3 percent from $220,000 a year ago. The median is the point at which half the prices are higher and half are lower. Median prices had declined slowly but steadily in Hampton Roads in recent months.
More first-time home buyers were looking last month, said Dorcas Helfant-Browning, chief executive and managing partner of Coldwell Banker Professional, Realtors.
“The stock market didn’t look too great last month,” she said. “That took the upper-end buyers out of the game. And that in itself may be the reason we’re looking at a lower median.”
Zack Gentry, a broker with Wainwright Real Estate in Virginia Beach, said prices have been falling for homes across the spectrum.
“Everything I sold last year was less than the city tax assessment,” he said. “But certainly the properties around $200,000 are in much better position to get sold right now. The higher-end homes are just sitting there.”
The local multiple listing service, based in Virginia Beach, also reported that 634 existing homes and condominiums were sold last month in South Hampton Roads. That’s 10 more than in November, a 1.6 percent increase, but down 21.2 percent from the 805 home sales that closed in December 2007.
“We normally see volume dropping during this season,” Helfant-Browning said. “People are not focusing between Thanksgiving and New Year’s on housing.
“We try to keep our staff focused, because anyone who does call in December is serious.”
Flagging consumer confidence exacerbates the general sluggishness in the housing market right now, Helfant-Browning said.
“People in Hampton Roads can still see what’s going on in the rest of the country,” she said. “I think that we will see a little more action after the inaugural, and after the new president signs an economic recovery bill.”
The data also showed the number of homes on the market last month in Hampton Roads declined 8.5 percent, to 13,014 from 14,230 in November . That figure includes the Peninsula and outlying regions such as Williamsburg and northeastern North Carolina.
The number of active listings has steadily declined in recent months, a common occurrence during fall and winter months as sales activity slows and sellers pull their properties off the market during the holidays.
Even so, the number of homes on the market is up 4.7 percent from a year ago.
The average time on the market for existing homes in all of Hampton Roads was 92 days in December, compared with 81 days at the same point last year.
Josh Brown, (757) 446-2318, josh.brown@pilotonline.com
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Lots of games, Annie
Annie, the Realtor associations play tons of games with numbers. First, often the "sales" numbers include homes that are sold but do not go to closing - which in some cases would be very large percentages. Another thing is they revise the previous months data, erasing all the sales that didn't make it through closing. So great numbers would come out one month, then the next month get revised down secretly, then they would compare the next set of numbers as being a huge improvement over the previous months. Pretty bizzare but the bloggers were pointing to the exact evidence that this was happening. Also, previous poster forgot that many of the sales are speculation, which drives up demand. This is still the case now, people think they are getting a great deal so they speculate prices will go up. Even though there aren't great job prospects for our country in the future.
bubble trouble
The above story in today's business section says the median home sales price in S. Hampton Rds in Dec '08 was $204K. But in today's "Home" section, P. 26, it claims the median sales price for S. Hampton Rds in December '08 was $220K. Yet both stories cite REIN as their source for the data. So-- is this an "error", or playing with the numbers?
From another website that cites REIN's data, here's the Nov. '08 info for Norfolk-- 118 Sold Listings, $174,950 Median Sales Price, 80 Days on Market. Today's "Home" section states Norfolk's Dec. '08 MSP was $177,000. (Bear in mind, these MSP's frequently include the closing costs paid by seller just to get the house sold-- generally 3 to 4% of the final sales price.}
I always get stuck on
I always get stuck on moderation, so everything has to be approved for me. They then wait till the end of the day before approving it. Said it was because I use punctuation and the content filters flag it thinking I'm trying to doctor up foul language to slip it past filters, but that is never the case with me. If you look at papers on the west coast (Seattle, California) they don't bother with this kind of stuff. In the end, it slows down the responses to traffic on the Virginia Pilot site, and potentially hurts their advertising revenue. But they like to keep it squeaky clean. This is why I read selected blogs more than main stream media, they have provided me the truth. The MSM won't figure this out until it's too late for them.
Ethan?
Where are you? :)
Negotiation 101
1) Perceived value is what the buyer and seller, using best judgement, value a property.
2) Actual value is what the buyer and selling contract to exchange goods for.
3) How low can you go? City records are biased because that is how they collect their taxes but it is a start. Mortgage value is biased because they want more equity in a property to add safety to their loans and that is a start.
4)The housing bubble burst because a)bad loans were forced upon the industry which drove prices up because there was not adequate supply of houses b)once supply was satisfied and beyond then the prices no longer were pushed up but started to slide down c)ARM payments and tax rates ratched up the cost of owning a home beyond the means of marginal homeowners there by pushed more houses on the market, as they walked away from or were foreclosed on, which then turned the industry into a buyers market.
5.My advice is to look at values of 5 years ago and start negotiation from there. Historically, property increases slowly in value each year because they do not make more land and the human population keeps increasing and therefore the demand for property keeps on increasing. Bec
Still way too early
Still way to early, look at Credit Suisse's loan reset chart. Lots of Prime and Alt-A loan resets coming that will wipe out more speculators who can't sell their speculative purchases. Prices are still way out of line with incomes in the region. Pilot still has yet to extract PPSF (Price Per Square Foot) figures from the VAR.... These figures are showing real price declines of 30% already in heated markets like San Diego. Before you say, "It's different here" or that we didn't see a run up, remember home prices went up over 100% over 4 or 5 years in Virginia Beach while salaries declined when adjusted for inflation. I've been beating this drum for a long time, and I was right. Prices still have 40% to decline in Hampton Roads, and they will.
Few Approved Buyers At Any Price
Spoke with a Wells Fargo rep yesterday. She said 760 is the benchmark for the best rate and that they are currently in a flurry of new approved first mortgage apps to consolidate for those who still are receiving a paycheck. Unfortunately, continued property over-assessments are robbing the citizenry and the small businesses they used to support, out of business. Continue paying off debt, and stay out of debt. Buyers who are qualified and got out of their own home just in time, are taking advatage of the prettiest homes with the most desperate circumstances. The average homes are just average and inspire little interest. So many first-time and heloc owners never made it past the 5 year mark of ownership and they are COMPLETELY locked out of the market. Housing is now a true commodity again, like peanuts, and in ten years there will be homes sitting vacant and rotting all over Tidewater and nationwide.
Oh Really???
I spoke with a loan officer a couple of days ago about purchasing a home…She warned me that before I bid to keep in mind that Hampton Roads was considered a “Declining Market” by HUD. She suggested I do my own Comps and lower the price from there (she mentioned agents were pricing their listings 20-35% over value).
It’s scary listening to the experts and economist forecasts…most are predicting at least 2 more years of falling prices.
It would have been nice to see how many homes sold in this article were foreclosures. Probably close to half.
but yet, but yet, norfolk increased my assessment again!
Truth, i recieved a letter from the mortgage company in Aug. 08, sorry but we had to readjust the value of your home, it is now worth $124,000 less than previously valued. You have lost $124,000 in equity, but you still are a fine customer, then, Norfolk increases the assement to well above what the mortgage company values it, and I challenged the city and they said i should take the issue to court, and if the court finds in favor of the mortgage co. they ight adjust the assessment. Righttt, like i have the means to go to court, it's time to just walk away and have the city take it for back taxes, cause i certainly can't sell it for what they think...section eight is looking better all the time..