State of the Hampton Roads Region and Housing Trends 2015

Published on Oct 09, 2015
State of the Hampton Roads Region and Housing Trends 2015
State of the Hampton Roads Region and Housing Trends 2015

On Tuesday, I attended the annual LEAD Hampton Roads “State of the Region” breakfast at the Marriott in Downtown Norfolk. At the breakfast, a team of ODU economists discussed our local economy and what we can expect in the year ahead.

The economists spoke for a bit about residential housing. Here’s what they had to say:

  • There’s a continued decline of REO (bank owned) sales and short sales.
  • The median sales price of existing residential homes increased to $203,000 in 2015 from $193,205 in 2014.

However, monthly rent for a three-bedroom apartment has increased dramatically since 2007. Why? The ODU economists believe too many people are forced to rent rather than buy because they can’t qualify for a mortgage. That has created a large pool of renters, which has driven up the prices.