The Virginian-Pilot
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Sales of foreclosures and other distressed properties stoked the South Hampton Roads housing market last month, according to a report released Friday.
Nearly 1 of every 3 homes sold in August - 29 percent - were in foreclosure or sold for less than what the homeowner owed last month, reported Real Estate Information Network Inc. That's up from 25 percent a year ago.
The Virginia Beach-based multiple listing service reported 1,080 existing homes sold last month, up 2.5 percent from July and 18.6 percent from August 2010.
"A lot of investors have been buying up these (foreclosures), fixing them up and putting them back on the market," said Rick Sterling, an associate broker with Exit Realty Professionals in Virginia Beach.
As sales of foreclosures remained high, median prices continued to slide.
The median price for an existing home last month was $199,900, down 7 percent from August 2010, the multiple listing service reported. It's the ninth consecutive month of year-over-year price declines.
Real estate experts and economists have blamed the price declines in part on the flood of foreclosed homes on the market.
"We're seeing median sales prices trending downward, but I'm not sure that's because the prices are actually coming down - but that more lower-priced homes are selling," Sterling said.
Investors in foreclosed homes are trying to keep prices low, he suggested.
"If they can keep the price under $200,000 with all the bells and whistles that younger buyers these days are wanting, they'll move really quickly," he said. "When you get above $235,000, it slows down significantly."
The inventory of homes on the market eased slightly in August. The service reported that 13,373 homes were for sale in all of Hampton Roads, down 4.5 percent from July and 15.2 percent from a year earlier.
Last year, the housing market swelled with sellers hoping to unload their properties while federal homebuyer tax credits were still available.
"That is good news," said Vinod Agarwal, an economist at Old Dominion University. "At least it seems the sales market is going in the right direction."
Year-to-date, the sales volume is up compared with the first nine months of last year.
Agarwal said that is in large part because of the number of foreclosures that have been sold.
But, he added: "We still have a way to go."
Josh Brown, (757) 446-2318, josh.brown@pilotonline.com
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High Military Salaries/Property Taxes
Expensive houses do to many high salaried military officers assigned here at the many military headquarters commands. Property taxes are now out pacing most home values. Most with median incomes move to Texas, Arizona and Nevada where you can get a house for half the price.
Are there that many military
Are there that many military officers? Enough to buy all of the $600K+ homes on the market?
I've never seen so many people leaving the region as now. The poor economy is definitely shaking things up!
Mortgage Bankers cash in
Up economy, major crash to recession and the only one's still making money are the mortgage bankers who engineered this whole fraud. We have a long way to go to the bottom and the ones who created the no doc loans, ARM's and sold this Triple AAA rated trash to pension funds, 401k's, and other investors should have gone to jail years ago.
The Pilot
recently reported that the Hampton Roads metro area had the worst salary to housing cost ratio in the nation.
For the past twenty years there have been more people leaving this region that moving here. Hampton Roads has a net outbound migration pattern.
This is because private sector jobs around here pay well below the national average. Most people just can't have a good quality of life here on low wages and high housing costs.
Population?
The population of Hampton Roads is growing not shrinking. Also house prices going down is a terrible thing. The prices did grow too fast for too long, but now this is hurting everybody.
natural increase
The population of this region is growing at only 6%. The growth is due to what's called "natural increase". Natural increase is due to more births than deaths. There are still more people leaving this region than moving here.
I've had the largest number
I've had the largest number of friends move away recently. Some had good jobs but got much much better jobs that pay more, have brighter future (sharing of the wealth from employer) and lower cost of living on top of the better jobs.
Others moved in search of employment.
I honestly don't see a bright future for Hampton Roads.
so
why do we think homes bought cheaper because of forecloser is a GOOD thing, how about the person who got foreclosed on? Houses overpriced eventually getting foreclosed on is not a good thing, somebody lost out here, not the banks or developers. This is weak news.
We are buying!
We have been in the market for over a year to buy a place. One that we looked at last year and really liked was originally on the market at $475K back in Apr 2010. Move forward to this year and we signed a contract on the exact same place last month for $295K.
Major reduction and worked to our advantage....so deals are out there. Take advantage of them if you are able to.
...Happy Buyer...
What are the specs? Whats
What are the specs? Whats the price per square foot, and how much land?