THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 30, 1994 TAG: 9407290455
SECTION: REAL ESTATE WEEKLY PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Heidi Glick
LENGTH: Long : 124 lines
Growing up in rural Virginia Beach, Mary Dail, 33, took space for granted.
For many years, only 10 or so houses dotted the Lago Mar subdivision where she lived with her family on more than an acre of land. Dail and her friends often rode horses in the area, and everyone in the neighborhood knew each other.
In April, Dail moved into a townhouse-style condominium near the Oceanfront with her husband, Alex. The change in lifestyle, she says, was dramatic.
``It's strange for me,'' Dail says. ``You have to get used to being closer to people.''
Other adjustments, she says, include paying $120 in condo fees every month and doing without a big lawn or a driveway. Also, she walks to a cluster mailbox down the street instead of a personal one at the end of the yard.
Alex Dail, an airline pilot, bought the two-bedroom condo six years ago for $79,500. Back then, he wanted to own property but couldn't afford a detached home, he says.
Though the Dails are now building a house, the two say they enjoy condo life.
``It's good right now,'' says Mary Dail, who sings in an area Top 40 band. ``It's comforting to know that there are people real close. . . . It's not so isolated that something could happen and no one would know.''
For many South Hampton Roads residents, the condominium style of homeownership is ideal. They own their individual units, but the common property - including sidewalks, hallways, landscaping - is held jointly with others in the complex.
Thus, most residents don't have to worry about mowing the lawn, trimming shrubs or painting the outside of the unit. The condo management handles such tasks for them.
Also, many complexes have special amenities like a pool, tennis courts, exercise rooms and 24-hour security - all of which is controlled by a condominium owners association. Residents pay a monthly fee to cover the association's expenses, including property maintenance and repairs.
Typical fees range from $85 to $120 a month, for condos with few amenities, to between $300 and $400 a month for condos in complexes with many amenities.
In Hampton Roads, condominiums range from duplexes to high-rises with scores of units. It's the form of ownership, not the type of property, that distinguishes condos from other housing.
Though condos are concentrated in Virginia Beach and older sections of Norfolk, they appear throughout the region.
``There's a tremendous range of choices available,'' says Harry R. Purkey Jr., a Virginia Beach attorney who specializes in condominium law. ``You can buy a high-rise in Harbour Place in downtown Norfolk, a brownstone in Ghent or a traditional townhouse-type in Virginia Beach and Chesapeake.''
Hampton Roads condos range from $50,000 to more than $300,000, Purkey says, but they typically cost about $70,000 to $80,000. A typical two-bedroom condo contains 800 to 1,000 square feet.
``You pay less money for the same amount of living space because it's multi-family,'' he says. Condos are a sound option, as a result, for buyers who can't afford a house but still want to own something rather than rent.
Across the region, the state of the market for condos has been looking brighter - especially in the last two years, Purkey says. ``The market is really starting to come back.''
Through mid-July, 487 two-bedroom condos have sold in South Hampton Roads, up from 333 two-bedroom units during the same period last year, reported the Tidewater Association of Realtors.
So far this year, two-bedroom units have sold for an average of about $80,000 after 70 days on the market, the Realtors group says. For the same period last year, two-bedroom units sold for an average of $76,077 after 79 days on the market.
``It looks like the condo market is healthy,'' says Darlene Lamb, president of the Tidewater Association of Realtors. ``The market time is good. . . . A typical residential home usually stays on the market about 86-90 days.''
The mid-1980s were a booming period for condos, with many of them built in Hampton Roads then, Purkey says. Statewide, the Virginia Real Estate Board received 197 applications in 1984 for new condo projects of three or more units.
However, when the economy started to deteriorate in the late 1980s, demand for condos dropped. By 1992, applications for new condo projects sunk to 26, the real estate board says.
Part of that, Purkey says, can be blamed on the economy and on an oversupply of condo units by the early 1990s.
In 1993, the number of applications for new condo projects rose to 27, the first increase in a decade. Emily Wingfield, property registration administrator for the state real estate board, expects this year's total to be about the same as last year's.
``I think (the condo market) is going to be steady,'' says Tim Gifford, president of Coldwell Banker Gifford Realty Inc. in Norfolk. ``It's not going to be like it was in the '70s and '80s. I think you'll see a gradual increase, but it's not going to zoom up like we've seen in the past.''
Gifford's company manages about 20 condominium associations throughout Hampton Roads, most in Virginia Beach.
``There's always going to be a percentage of people buying condominiums,'' Gifford says. ``Particularly people just starting out on the lower end, and then you've got empty nesters - people are retired, the kids are gone.''
And then there are people in between, like Bettye Evans, who along with her husband, Harry, owns Century 21-Executive Real Estate in Virginia Beach.
About 17 years ago, she moved from a 3,000-square-foot traditional house into a 1,700-square-foot unit at The Oceans Condominium high-rise in Virginia Beach.
Her reasons: She had a daughter in college and a son in junior high. Neither she nor her husband had the time or desire to do yardwork.
Today, the couple pays a $400 monthly fee, which covers use of a pool, tennis courts, exercise room, library and more.
Buying a condo ``had been in the back of my mind quite some time,'' Bettye Evans says. Her husband ``didn't want to go. Now, he wouldn't live anywhere else.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color staff photo by Richard Dunston
Bettye Evans and her husband live in The Oceans Condominium, a
224-unit complex in Virginia Beach. The couple pays a $400 monthly
fee that covers use of a pool, tennis courts and more.
Color staff photo by Peter Sundberg
Mary and Alex Dail own a two-bedroom townhouse-style condo in
Virginia Beach. ``It's comforting to know that there are people real
close,'' Mary Dail says.
Photo by Peter Sunberg
Alex Dail, with wife Mary, bought his Virginia Beach condo six years
ago for $79,500. Back then, he says, he couldn't afford a detached
house but still wanted to own property.
by CNB