Low inventory in Virginia real estate remains

PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — For the month of October, the numbers were downright spooky for residential real estate across the Commonwealth.

According to the latest report from Virginia Realtors, 7,764 homes were sold in Virginia last month — a 12% decrease from October of last year. Low inventory remains a problem.

Rather than moving on up to the east side, homeowners who bought homes when interest rates were low are staying put. Ryan Price is the chief economist for Virginia REALTORS and said that inventory conditions have remained tight for five to six years.

“It’s been getting tighter and tighter,” Price said. “And we’ve noticed recently in the data that the number of active listings, you know, continues to get smaller. But the pace of shrinking the inventory has gotten smaller. And so, it’s kind of slowed down.”

Because of low inventory, sellers of the few homes on the market, are enjoying a 7% price increase, and some sellers are even offering closing assistance.

Thanksgiving, followed by Christmas, New Year, and then the Superbowl — the perfect storm may not head out to sea until February.

“There’s typically you know, there’s a lot of seasonality in the housing market,” Price said. “Typically, we do see a slowdown around the holiday season and then it picks back up shortly thereafter.”

Price said February and March are usually when the spring market starts to pick up.

“So the sales are looking to be relatively slow for the coming months,” Price said. “You know, combination of the low inventory that’s out there, just not a lot of homes to choose from. Couple that with the interest rate environment that we’re in right now where, you know, a lot of folks are either pushing pause or they’re kind of waiting to see what rates are going to do.”