A little more than four in 10 Virginia Realtors expect average home prices to be higher in autumn than currently, with smaller but not insubstantial percentages expecting prices either to remain stable or drop in their communities.
That’s one takeaway from the monthly “flash survey” of sentiment released by the Virginia Realtors trade group. A total of 569 members of the organization participated between June 27 and July 3, including 430 that had participated in a transaction in the preceding month.
While 42 percent of respondents said they expected home prices to be higher in three months, 22 percent expected drops and 31 percent predicted that their market would move along relatively unchanged.
As for the here and now:
• Twenty percent of respondents said current buyer activity was “high” or “very high” in their localities, while 32 percent pegged it “low” or “very low.” That equates to 44 on the 0-to-100 Buyer Activity Survey, down from 51 a month before. For comparison purposes, the score peaked at 85 during the feeding frenzy of early 2022, but by later that year had descended below 30 as many prospective buyers gave up trying to compete in a market with rising prices and interest rates and the lack of inventory.
• Only 7 percent of respondents said current seller activity in their area was “high” or “very high,” while 53 percent said it was “low” or “very low.” That equals 27 on the 0-to-100 scale, up slightly from 26 a month before and continuing a slow but steady improvement from the start of the year, when the figure stood in the mid-teens.
• Sellers who found a buyer in June had received an average of 2.4 offers on their homes, the lowest figure since January.
• Less than a quarter (23%) of buyers were first-timers, the lowest rate of the year and more confirmation that it is a tough market for those without the ability to roll over funds from a previous sale to aid in the purchase of a new home.
While not a scientific survey, Virginia Realtors says the monthly query has a large enough response size to give a good indication of market conditions and sentiment.
