THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 14, 1996 TAG: 9609120256
SECTION: REAL ESTATE WEEKLY PAGE: 18 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: 70 lines
Are more and more property owners selling their homes to the highest bidder? Long & Foster Real Estate officials believe auctions will grow as a marketing method.
The company plans its first Hampton Roads multiple seller auction at 2 p.m. Wednesday, featuring two Chesapeake properties in the 5300 block of Libertyville Road. A second auction will be staged Sept. 28, featuring properties in Williamsburg, Norfolk, Portsmouth and Chesapeake.
Long & Foster began auctioning homes in other areas two years ago. For further information, call auctioneer Steve Johnson at 547-4555.
Mark your calendar: The Hampton Roads Realtors Association will stage its annual Back-to-School Expo from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday at the Holiday Inn-Portsmouth. Fifteen exhibitors will be on hand with products and services.
The expo will also include workshops on legal issues, lead-based paint, real estate online and broker-manager business operations. Speakers will include Dorcas Helfant, former president of the National Association of Realtors; Barbara Wolcott, president of the Virginia Association of Realtors, former Newport News mayor Barry Duvall, and Lee Milteer, a motivational speaker.
The cost is $12.50 for HRRA members, $17.50 for non-members. Phone 397-4613 for further information.
Congrats: Michelle Robertson has joined Rose & Krueth Realty as sales manager for the Peninsula office, where she will head a team of 30 real estate professionals. The address is 11742 Jefferson Ave.
Jim Bryan was the top producer and Joe Ludlam top lister for Long & Foster's Norfolk office for July.
Facts & figures: The National Association of Realtors reports that the median U.S. home price will be $119,000 this year, $3,500 more than 1995. But the news isn't all bad, says Carol Clarke, president of the Virginia Chapter of Certified Residential Specialists. She says most dwellings are affordable despite the price hike because of the growing number of creative mortgage plans.
Hampton Roads experienced $67.3 million in residential building contracts last July, a 10 percent gain over the $61.2 million for July '95, according to the F.W. Dodge Division of The McGraw-Hill Companies. For the year through July, the local contract total was $490.2 million; for the same period last year, $476.2 million.
The average American homeowner holds on to his property 12.6 years before turning it over, says the Chicago Title & Trust Family of Title Insurers, based on 1995 numbers. In 1994, the figure was every 11.8 years. The fastest turnover rates were recorded in Arizona (6.6 years), Nevada (7.1) and North Carolina (7.9).
The Virginia rate was 13.1 years in 1995, up from 11.6 in 1994, says Chicago Title.
Finally, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight reports that during the period ending June 30, housing prices in Virginia increased by 3.6 percent over the end of the second quarter in 1995. In North Carolina, the increase was 6.1 percent.
The HPI statistics show that house prices are rising fastest in the Rocky Mountain states and slowest on the Pacific Coast and in the Middle Atlantic area. MEMO: On the Move reports management changes, awards, seminars and
new services offered by real estate firms, mortgage companies and
builders. Photos will be used as space permits and cannot be returned.
Send the information to Real Estate Weekly, The Virginian-Pilot, 150
W. Brambleton Ave., Norfolk, Va. 23510, or fax it to 446-2531. Please
include a phone number. by CNB