Published: January 27, 2009
Fewer homes were sold in the Richmond area last year than any year in the past decade, according to a report released yesterday by the Virginia Association of Realtors.
In all, 9,287 houses were sold in this area, lower than the 9,526 for all of 1998.
Sales here tumbled 22.8 percent in 2008 from the previous year, according to the housing report.
The average price fell 14.3 percent in the fourth quarter to $250,181 from the same period a year ago — below where it was in 2005.
The Richmond area is defined as the city, the counties of Hanover, Henrico, Goochland and Powhatan and portions of the counties of Chesterfield, Charles City, King William and New Kent.
The Central Virginia Regional Multiple Listing Service, which covers a larger area of 16 localities, reported that the number of homes sold dropped 23 percent and that the average price for the year was $264,467, down 3 percent.
Virginia
Sales of homes in Virginia fell 13.6 percent last year from 2007 to the lowest total in more than a decade.
The statewide median price, with half the houses selling for more and half for less, was $244,493, down 1.2 percent.
Nationally, sales of previously owned homes fell more than 13 percent in 2008 from a year earlier, the lowest total since 1997, according to a report released yesterday from the National Association of Realtors.
The nationwide median sales price was $175,400, down 15.3 percent from $207,000 a year earlier.
Although unemployment claims nationwide are rising and consumer confidence is bad, Virginia, unlike the nation, continues to add jobs, McClain said.
These factors help keep housing more afloat than in other states, he said.
The state added a net 13,100 jobs in 2008, based on data through November, he said. Also, unemployment in Virginia was nearly 2 percentage points below the national average in November, he said.
Virginia has not escaped the rising wave of foreclosures. But the state fared better than the nation, with 1.5 percent of all homes in Virginia facing foreclosure last year, compared with 1.8 percent nationwide, according to the housing report.
The greatest concentration of foreclosures — 80 percent — was in Northern Virginia, McClain said.
via Richmond-area home sales at 10-year low | Richmond Times-Dispatch.