Median home prices rose 9% in Va. since 2021
The cost of buying a home in Virginia increased nearly 9% in the past year, according to a March 21 report from Virginia Realtors. The statewide median sales price in February was $350,000, or $28,550 higher than it was in February 2021. That’s an 8.9% increase and the sharpest gain since June 2021. Not only […]
Report: Va. data center projects totaled $6.8B in 2021
Data centers are a primary driver of economic growth in Virginia, comprising $6.8 billion or 62% of all major economic investments announced last year by the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, according to a new report released Thursday by the Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC). While the total for 2021 represen[...]
Richmond pares down Diamond District developer pool
Story updated, March 24 at 11:45 a.m. The city of Richmond announced Wednesday that six competing development teams have been chosen out of 15 applicants to continue in the competition to redevelop the Diamond District area near the Richmond Flying Squirrels’ stadium. The city requested applications late last year for the [...]
Smithfield Foods donates $2M to Ukraine relief efforts
Virginia-based Smithfield Foods Inc. announced a $2 million donation to relief efforts in Ukraine Monday. The nation’s largest pork processor and hog producer donated $250,000 each to the Global Red Cross Network, Mercy Chefs, Save the Children and World Central Kitchen. “Like the rest of the world, we are humbled an[...]
Rising interest rates not enough to deter homebuyers
Even the Federal Reserve hiking interest rates likely won’t be enough to cool down the hot real estate market in Virginia, experts say. In an attempt to slow the highest inflation rates in 40 years, Fed officials voted on March 16 to raise the benchmark federal funds rate by a quarter percentage point to a […]
College sports wagering bill wasn’t good bet
RICHMOND, Va. — Six Virginia men’s and women’s basketball teams made it into March Madness, but state law prevents fans and bettors from placing wagers on their favorite in-state college teams. Lawmakers attempted to change that law this session. Sen. Monty Mason, D-Williamsburg, introduced Senate Bill 576 that would a[...]
Fed still likely to raise rates, despite Russia-Ukraine conflict
Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President and CEO Thomas Barkin said Thursday that he hopes to bring interest rates up to pre-pandemic levels “relatively quickly,” while noting that it’s hard to predict the future effect of the geopolitical conflict between Russia and Ukraine on the nation’s economy. Spe[...]
GOP lawmakers push to protect workers who decline COVID vaccines
RICHMOND, Va. – Lawmakers narrowly passed a bill this month that would allow people fired for refusing a COVID-19 vaccine to receive unemployment benefits if no other misconduct took place. The measure advanced from the House of Delegates on a 51-48 party line vote and was assigned to a Senate committee on Feb. 10. The [&helli[...]
DHG to merge with BKD, forming top 10 accounting firm
The fifth-largest accounting firm operating in Virginia, Dixon Hughes Goodman LLP, is merging with Springfield, Missouri-based BKD CPAs & Advisors to form a combined top 10 accounting firm with $1.4 billion in revenue, the two firms announced Thursday. The “merger of equals” will be effective June 1, a company sp[...]
Dan Snyder owns Va.’s most expensive house
Virginia’s most expensive mansion now belongs to one of the most famous men in the commonwealth. River View, once part of George Washington’s Mount Vernon, in Alexandria, was sold on Oct. 29, 2021, for $48 million, according to TTR Sotheby’s International Realty. The agency brokered the sale of the 7-bedroom ho[...]
$714M Wythe medical glove plant is solo venture now
Developers broke ground in January on the $714 million medical glove manufacturing complex planned for Wythe County’s Progress Park. Only now it may be a solo project, not a joint venture. In October 2021, then-Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam announced that Alexandria-based Blue Star NBR LLC was building manufacturing facilities t[...]
HII names new president and CEO
Christopher D. Kastner will become president and CEO of Newport News-based Huntington Ingalls Industries, the nation’s largest military shipbuilder, on March 1. Mike Petters, who has served as the Fortune 500 company’s president and CEO since Northrop Grumman Corp. spun off its shipbuilding division in 2011, will bec[...]