The Virginian-Pilot
©
Home sales in South Hampton Roads jumped in October compared with year-ago levels while home prices continued to fall, according to a report released Friday.
The Real Estate Information Network reported that 866 existing homes were sold last month, down 8.2 percent from September but up 12.6 percent from October 2010. It was the fourth consecutive month of year-over-year sales volume increases.
Distressed sales in all of Hampton Roads still played a major factor in the market last month, accounting for 33 percent of October's sales. Those sales include foreclosures and sales by homeowners whose homes are worth less than the balance of their mortgage.
The Virginia Beach-based multiple listing service also reported that the median price was $181,000 in October, down 10.6 percent from a year earlier.
Meanwhile, the number of homes for sale across the region continued to fall. Last month, 12,514 homes were on the market, down 2.9 percent from September and 16.6 percent from a year ago. The inventory is the lowest it's been since January 2010.
At the current sales pace, it would take a little less than nine months to sell the backlog of homes on the market. Six months of inventory is considered normal.
Josh Brown, (757) 446-2318, josh.brown@pilotonline.com
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House Assessments...
My kids are preparing to buy their first homes. I have noticed as I look on-line for real estate is the assessed value of these homes. Those homes that are now affordable for them were assessed way out-of-line w/ average salaries in this area. No wonder people owe more than their home is worth.
To me, this underscores the excessively, almost criminal, high assessments that local governments have placed on real estate. It appears Norfolk has good bargains for first-time buyers, while VB is still over-valued, especially in certain zip codes. Which brings the discussion to the importance of schools.
As young adults with regular jobs, their affordability rate is limited, but they can now buy a home in HR with monthly payments less than rent.
Business Lobby says the solution is ...???
Hey, let's build more light rail and have local, state, and federal taxpayers subsidize it!! That'll fix that old bad economy and spark them thar house sales!!! You betcha!
What we need is some more of that bond debt stuff to fund them thar "public-private partnership" thingies to build us some more of them fake "TownCenters", gateways, convention centers, speotsplexes, and en-ter-taimunt fa-silly-ititees.
If'n we get us some more of them TIF thingies, that'll fix the problem - oh, and we need that "Patriot's Cross", "3rd Crossing" thing too - that'll make all kinds of new money flow into the local economy; get us some of them good pay-in jobs too!
The Hampton Roads Partnership and their minions are clueless.
Words fail
Knowlege is power, but ignorance is bliss. I take it nobody is subsidizing your McMansion. You're paying your property taxes and mortgage interest with after-tax dollars, right? And state and Federal gasoline taxes haven't been essentially unchanged for nearly twenty years.
My what?
"Knowlege is power, but ignorance is bliss."
You must be very blissful is you believe that "...state and Federal gasoline taxes haven't been essentially unchanged for nearly twenty years."
The RATE may stay the same - but the AMOUNT of taxes has skyrocketed in the past 20 years.
What was the PRICE PER GALLON of gas 20 years ago?
In 1991 the average price per gallon for regular unleaded was $1.14.
The National Average price for a gallon of gasoline is $ 3.424 as of November 7, 2011.
The TAXES collected on gas are the PRICE times the percentage RATE of the tax.
In the past 20 years the state and Federal Government has enjoyed MASSIVE increases in the amount of tax money collected from gas.
Except that's not true
"The TAXES collected on gas are the PRICE times the percentage RATE of the tax."
Wrong. It's a flat cents-per-gallon rate. Take a look at the pump next time -- it's printed right there on the pump. The cents per gallon doesn't vary with the price of gasoline. Next?