Published: April 24, 2009

Home sales in Virginia — including the Richmond area — continue to fall along with housing prices, but signs are emerging that the worst could be over, according to a report released yesterday by the Virginia Association of Realtors.

In Virginia, the median price of a house, with half selling for more and half for less, was $223,221, down 14.1 percent from the year-earlier period, according to the Realtors’ report.

However, the price was up 7.8 percent from the October-to-December period of 2008, indicating that prices could have reached bottom, housing experts said.

Statewide sales in the first quarter dropped 7.1 from the previous quarter and 4.7 percent from a year ago.

In perspective, sales are down 61 percent from their peak in the third quarter of 2005.

In the Richmond area, sales fell 18.2 percent from a year ago. The median sales price dropped 11 percent to $198,702, according to the report.

The central Virginia report shows the average number of days a house spends on the market in the Richmond area fell from 81 in January to 72 in March.

Most houses sold in the Richmond area in the first quarter were in the $100,000 to $199,999 price range. The next popular price range was $200,000 to $299,999. Only six houses sold for $1 million or more.

Elsewhere in Virginia, Prince William County and Manassas — with the most foreclosures in the state in 2008 — recorded the sharpest increase in sales, up 75.9 percent in the first quarter from a year ago. Median sale prices there fell 37.2 percent to $167,452 — the largest percentage drop in the state.

Sales in Northern Virginia rose 17.5 percent from a year ago, and median sales prices fell 19.5 percent to $325,400, the highest price in the state.

via Hints of upturn evident in Va. home sales | Richmond Times-Dispatch.