Hampton Roads housing market appears to stabilize

The Hampton Roads housing market appears to be stabilizing, according to a new report from the Real Estate Information Network Inc. (REIN).

“We expect 2023 to be similar to pre-pandemic years where inventory increases in the spring and summer, and as long as buyers have inventory to choose from, they’re going to shop for homes,” REIN Board of Directors President Jon McAchran said in a statement.

Active residential property listings in Hampton Roads rose 25.15% year-over-year in February, from 2,501 to 3,130 listings. Pending sales dropped 19.92% from February 2022 — from 2,570 to 2,058 sales — and settled sales dropped 22.65%, from 2,177 to 1,684 settled sales.

“It’s fairly typical that interest rates back in February of last year as compared to February this year have changed drastically, nearly in many cases double,” said Barry Nachman with Century 21 Nachman Realty and secretary of REIN’s board of directors. “So you’re going to definitely see a fallout effect of people still paying higher pricing … and then much higher payments with interest rates, so there’s a little bit of pullback anytime that happens.”

Compared with last year, the median sales price for the region rose almost 8%, from $290,500 to $313,650, despite rising mortgage rates. The region’s median sales price in February is a 3.5% increase from January.

“With interest rates rising, less people will qualify, but it’ll stabilize our marketplace. But here’s the positive: Our sales prices are still up,” Nachman said.

Residential listings spent a median of 20 days on the market, a decrease of seven days from January. February was the first month since March 2022 that median days on the market decreased.

Residential new construction sold in REIN’s Multiple Listing Service dropped from 244 sales in February 2022 to 228 sales in February 2023.

Compared with January, the region’s active residential listings in February dropped 4.16%, or by 136 listings. Pending sales rose 5.92% from January, with 2,058 pending sales in February. Settled sales rose 12.10% from January, to 1,684 settled sales.

“January was a little more normalized for January. To have a big increase in February, when we’ve had such a housing shortage, is somewhat of an anomaly,” Nachman said. “But it’s a good thing because it’s giving buyers an opportunity to find a home, where last February it was a lot more difficult as well as February before and all the months throughout.”