Hampton Roads housing market remains competitive

It’s still a sellers’ market in the Hampton Roads region, causing residential home prices to hit all-time highs month after month this year.

In June alone, the median sale price (MSP) for homes sold reached $375,000, according to a market summary from Real Estate Information Network, which is the multiple listing service that covers the region from Williamsburg east through Virginia Beach and south across the North Carolina border.

That price is up from $368,900 the previous month and up 4.2% from the MSP of $360,000 in June 2024, according to REIN.

The reason? Not enough properties in the pipeline to meet demand, says Crisney Brooks, the Williamsburg Area Association of Realtors board president and a Realtor at Coldwell Banker Traditions. She advises first-time buyers that getting a sold sign on a property can take time.

“More building is going on, which is good, but even on the resale market, it just isn’t enough,” she says. “It boils down to what price people are willing to pay.”

The supply and demand imbalance will continue to cause prices to climb, but the rate may slow as more inventory hits the market than has been available in past years, says Ryan Price, Virginia Realtors’ chief economist.

Home buyers already are starting to get more choices. Active residential listings during June rose to 5,437. That’s up from 5,276 in May, and up 24% year-over-year from 4,380 in June 2024, according to REIN.

Properties are also staying on the market a bit longer. Median days on market for June was 18, compared to 16 in June 2024, according to REIN.

“It’s a more reasonable market,” says Barbara Wolcott, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices RW Towne Realty and REIN’s board president.

“You’re not getting multiple offers the day it comes on the market. That’s pretty much in the rearview mirror.”

Pending sales in June were down slightly month-over-month — 2,468 compared with 2,582 in May. Still, that was a 15% increase year-over-year from 2,145 in June 2024. Meanwhile, settled sales were up — 2,541 in June compared with 2,445 in May. The number of settled sales in June was an 8% increase year-over-year from the 2,355 reported in June 2024.

Buyers hoping for lower mortgage rates if the Federal Reserve cuts interest rates may be out of luck as lenders consider other factors as well, Price says.

“The reality is these 6% rates are going to be here for a while, but they could drift downward a bit towards the end of the year,” he says.

Affordable property is available, especially in Hampton and Newport News. These houses tend to be older, and many people resist buying there if a commute includes the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel, says Wolcott.

New houses are being built, and 260 listed with REIN sold last June compared to 224 the previous month. Developers are having to go into more rural parts of the region to find land that’s available and cheaper, but they can offer more amenities and lower price points, she says.

“What I see going on right now in the Suffolk area reminds me of what happened to Chesapeake, where it was mainly farmland,” says Wolcott. “Now development has really picked up [in Suffolk] and some of the outlying parts of Chesapeake.”

Brooks says she sees the same trend in New Kent County and upper James City County, which have some of the last land available for development between Richmond and Hampton Roads’ southern side. Both have attracted major national developers such as D.R. Horton.

“New Kent has certainly taken off,” Brooks says. “I feel like it’s going to be quite bustling over the next 10 years.”