THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 4, 1996 TAG: 9607040676
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MYLENE MANGALINDAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 38 lines
Looks like local Realtors were busy this spring.
Pending home sales jumped 12.4 percent in Hampton Roads to 10,089 through May. That's 1,120 more houses than were sold in the first five months of 1995.
``Things look pretty good right now, economically speaking,'' said Lisa Noon, a spokeswoman for the Virginia Association of Realtors. ``Certainly when the economy's going well, home sales are, too.''
Pending sales are the best indicator of local home sales. They refer to sales under contract that have not closed.
And activity has been hot, say local real estate professionals. Many people are shopping around for homes and the number of days houses are on the market has fallen, Noon said.
Statewide it takes 89 days on average to sell a house. In South Hampton Roads it takes 68 days. On the Peninsula, it's a little longer: Houses usually sell after 92 days on the market. In Williamsburg, the average length of time is 123 days.
In South Hampton Roads, 7,676 houses have been sold in 1996 compared to the 6,528 sold in the same period in 1995. That's a 17.6 percent increase.
House sales on the Peninsula are on par with their selling levels in 1995. Through May 1996, 2,413 houses were pending sale. In the first five months of 1995, that number was 2,441.
``The economy overall is good,'' said Barbara Wolcott, president of the Virginia Association of Realtors. ``The consumer confidence in the market is excellent. Interest rates have stabilized. They're still very, very affordable. We haven't seen the rapid rising and falling that we saw a year ago.''
``Now that the base closures are over, it looks like people are looking at the long range,'' said Wolcott, who works at Prudential Decker Realty in Virginia Beach. ``They have confidence that people will retain their jobs. They think the economy will be stable and property values will rise.'' by CNB