The good news in home sales for 2016 is that Virginia continues to rebound. The following article, courtesy of The Richmond Times-Dispatch, shows how Virginia’s home sales market continues to increase.
Virginia’s housing market ended 2015 with a continued rebound in nearly every region, including central Virginia, according to a report released Thursday by the Virginia Association of Realtors.
The 2015 residential real estate market in Virginia outperformed every year from 2007, and far outperformed 2012, 2013 and 2014 in the peak summer sales season, the association reported.
A total of 109,201 homes were sold in the state in 2015, up nearly 11 percent from 2014.
“2015 home sales in Virginia reflect a sustained rebound from the market decline of the Great Recession,” said Bill White, president of the association and president of Joyner Fine Properties in Richmond.
“Higher median prices and significant growth in the number of transactions illustrate a healthy boost to demand,” White said. “The billions of dollars in sales closed last year have a direct effect on Virginia’s tax revenues.”
Median prices, with half the houses selling for more and half for less, rose in six of seven regions in the fourth quarter from the year-earlier period.
In central Virginia, the median price was $214,925 in the fourth quarter, up from $200,000 in the year-earlier period. A total of 3,879 houses were sold in the region in the fourth quarter, up 6.4 percent from the year-earlier period.
The area includes Richmond, the Tri-Cities and 18 surrounding counties.
A separate analysis by Lacy Williams of Joyner Fine Properties shows rising home sales in Richmond and Chesterfield, Hanover, Henrico, Goochland and Powhatan counties. The analysis shows a total of 12,841 single-family home sales, up 12.4 percent in 2015 from the previous year, and 1,844 condo sales, up 16 percent from the previous year and the highest level since 2006.
“The number of sales has been going up, inventory is very low and prices are rising,” Williams said. “And we expect the trend to continue in 2016. We are suffering a lack of houses for sale in many areas.”
The state’s highest-priced region, Northern Virginia, recorded a 0.8 percent decline in median price to $368,850 in the fourth quarter from a year ago, according to the Virginia Association of Realtors. The number of sales there rose 3.2 percent to 10,176. The Hampton Roads region had the second highest number of sales at 5,814.
Statewide, the median price was $255,000 in the fourth quarter, unchanged from the year-earlier period but up 2.4 percent from the same quarter in 2013 and up 5.8 percent from 2012, according to the report.
A total of 24,282 houses were sold in the state in the fourth quarter, up 3.8 percent from the same quarter a year ago.
Annualized sales — a rolling average sum of homes sold in the preceding 12 months — rose in the fourth quarter for the fifth consecutive quarter, indicating long-term strengthening, according to the report.
The year ended with nearly $35 billion in home sales in Virginia, up $3.51 billion from 2014.