Va. housing market gave mixed signals in May

Virginia’s housing market gave off mixed signals in May. Closings were higher than last year, but pending sales were flat, according to Virginia Realtors data released June 25.

In May, 10,715 homes sold in Virginia, up 423 sales or just over 4% from the same month last year.

“While sales activity has outpaced last year four out of five months so far in 2024, this level of sales activity is still below average,” said 2024 Virginia Realtors President Tom Campbell in a statement.

More than half of municipalities in the state had an increase in sales compared with May 2023. The markets with the strongest sales growth were in the Shenandoah and Roanoke valleys and in south Central Virginia.

The Virginia market had 17,712 active listings at the end of May, an increase of nearly 28%  from the same time last year.

There were 14,056 new listings, up 15.8% from May 2023. New listings increased 5.6% between May and April, a typical seasonal increase, according to Virginia Realtors.

Homes in Virginia stayed on the market for a median of seven days in May, one day longer than reported in May 2023.

“The supply of listings remains tight compared to the number of sales and the demand in the market, but there has been some notable improvement to the number of active listings,” Ryan Price, chief economist for Virginia Realtors, said in a statement.

The statewide median sales price in May was $425,000. That’s $15,000 higher than the median price last May, a 3.7% increase.

The statewide housing market had 9,729 pending sales last month, one fewer than May 2023.

Mortgage rates decreased for the fourth consecutive week, in the week ending June 20, according to Freddie Mac data. For that week, the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 6.87%.

“We’re still looking at a ‘sellers’ market’ here in the commonwealth,” Virginia Realtors CEO Terrie Suit said.  “Houses are selling quickly, and in nearly all price brackets, sellers continue getting more money than the asking price.”