DATE: Tuesday, July 1, 1997                 TAG: 9707010294

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D2   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS 

                                            LENGTH:   31 lines

HAMPTON ROADS HOME SALES SLUGGISH IN MAY

New home sales shot up 7.1 percent in May, rebounding from a big loss just a month earlier. Virginia registered gains along with most of the country, but Hampton Roads' sales sagged.

The Commerce Department said Monday that sales of single-family homes totaled a seasonally adjusted 825,000 annual rate, up from a revised 770,000 a month earlier. The initial April estimate was 772,000.

New home sales had hit 838,000 in March. After sales fell 8.1 percent in April 1997, analysts had expected a much smaller rebound, predicting sales will be relatively stable during the remainder of the year.

The news was not as good in Hampton Roads where reported sales were sluggish.

In the South Hampton Roads area, including Franklin, pending sales were down in May 14.3 percent from the same time last year, according to a Virginia Association of Realtors' survey. On the Peninsula, pending sales were down 6.43 percent. In May, 1,445 homes were reported under contract in South Hampton Roads and 393 were pending on the Peninsula.

Around the country, the National Association of Realtors attributed the advance to homeowners desire to trade up to bigger homes.

The median price of a new home was $139,000, up from $136,400 a year earlier but down from $150,000 in April. In Hampton Roads, the average price for a single-family home in May was $115,013, up from last year's average of $102,859.

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu