Market Update July 2008

If you haven't read the newspaper or don't own a television set, then you probably aren't aware of the real estate market conditions. We hear the words, "distressed, slumping, soft, or a heavy buyers market" more often then we would like. While myself and many of my fellow Realtors in the Hampton Roads area would love to see a more balanced market, our area is still holding it's head above water compared to many Ohio, Florida, and California market places.
I was recently invited to a seminar on "The Hampton Roads Housing Crisis" presented by an Old Dominion economic professor, specializing in analyzing and forecasting local market conditions. I came away with fresh optimism for the near future. He focused specifically on the "Sub-prime mortgage effect" in Hampton Roads. A sub-prime loan by definition is loans made to people with criteria that do NOT fit within the standard underwriting guidelines. There are many reasons that someone may be in a sub prime loan – certain situations with your credit, employment etc. The professor presented data on the number of these loans given in our area, the number that have gone south, and the number of sub-prime loans still out there and when they should mature. Bottom line--the percentage of sub-prime loans in Hampton Roads is much smaller than other Mid-Atlantic cities, such as Jacksonville, FL, Charlotte, NC, and Northern Va. Most of all of these loans should mature by the end of 2009. This should limit the number of short sales and foreclosures in the area.

Currently in South Hampton Roads there are 10,462 properties on the market. This includes attached and detached properties.
The number of closed sales between 1/01/08-7/09/08 is 6,646
Compared to: 1/01/07-7/09/07 is 9001
1/01/06-7/09/06 is 10,175
1/01/05-7/09/05 is 10,682