Home truths

The summer of 2024 brought better news for prospective homebuyers in Hampton Roads, with median home prices in the region starting to decrease and the number of homes for sale at a near four-year high.

The coastal region of Virginia has seen the same strains on the market as the rest of the country — higher interest rates and more demand than supply on the market — but trends for homebuyers in Hampton Roads bear better news. According to the region’s multiple listings service, the Real Estate Information Network, the median home-selling price in Hampton Roads reached an all-time high at $360,000 in June before falling slightly to $355,500 in July. Those figures still sat well below the June national average of $426,900 and the state’s average of $431,380.

“There is a bit of a competitive advantage there,” says Ryan Price, chief economist for Virginia Realtors, pointing to continued job growth in Hampton Roads paired with its relative affordability.

The market is especially strong in the “outer ring” of Hampton Roads, places like Suffolk and Smithfield, he adds, pointing to single-family-home permit volume for those communities.

The more populous areas in Hampton Roads also are attracting homebuyers. A Redfin survey of 2023 data showed 43% of mortgages in the region for that year went to buyers under age 35, ranking Hampton Roads eighth among the nation’s metro areas in that measure.

But data suggest the ongoing building in the region isn’t keeping up with demand, Price adds. The slower pace began with the housing crisis of 2008, he says, and has yet to catch up.

“There’s certainly an opportunity, but I think that really the key is going to be if the housing is going to be available,” he says.

First time buyers, including municipal workers, are still struggling to purchase houses in the region, several Hampton Roads mayors noted in an April panel discussion on affordable housing.

Still, Hampton Roads has some new developments on the way, including Home Associates of Virginia’s Ashburn Meadows development in Chesapeake, which is still in the planning stages. That project will add 398 housing units, 204 attached townhomes and 194 single-family homes, along with a self-storage facility and 2.5 acres reserved for commercial space.

HAV President Rob Prodan says the group plans to break ground on Ashburn Meadows in Great Bridge by the end of summer 2025, with the first homes expected to be move-in ready by the end of 2026, when he hopes conditions are better for homebuyers.

“Right now, the market is a little bit challenging with the uncertainty in politics and interest rates being as high as they are,” Prodan says. Along with the sharp interest rate increase, supply chain disruption caused by the pandemic raised construction costs 50% to 60%.

“And that’s not going away,” he says. “So, it’s going to take a little bit of time for things to settle out.”

Ashburn Meadows’ townhomes will begin in the middle to upper $400,000s, with single-family units costing up to the $800,000 range — prices that gave some residents pause at a public hearing before Chesapeake City Council approved the project in February.

Chesapeake Homes, meanwhile, will be building 1,400 housing units over the next decade at Lake Thrasher Landing in southeastern Chesapeake, replacing a landfill. That includes 265 condos, 365 townhomes and 472 apartments, a project that received unanimous approval from City Council in April, after the developers made some adjustments recommended by the city’s planning commission, which voted to deny the project.

Operations at the landfill will end by the middle of 2025, when construction can begin.