The story below is a preview from our September/October 2016 issue. For the full story Subscribe today, view our FREE interactive digital edition or download our FREE iOS app!
Pick a measurement tool, apply it to the Roanoke real estate market, and things look pretty good, with the recovery from 2008 not only complete, but, at least in some contexts, also now being built upon.
Take the year-to-date sales figures from Roanoke Valley Multiple Listing Services. The first six months of 2016 are crushing those for the most-recent four-year year-to-dates in terms of volume sold, number of residences sold and, to a lesser extent, average home price. In fact, the total sales figure through June—$475.5 million—has the Roanoke market poised for its first billion-dollar year since 2007. And at 2,409 units sold through June, there’s also the possibility of hitting the 5,000-unit threshold for the first time since 2007.
Or inspect the Health of Housing Markets quarterly report from Nationwide for Q2 2016, which finds the Roanoke MSA showing the national fourth-largest increase among 400 U.S. metros in Leading Index of Health Housing Markets (LIHHM) indicators for Q1 2016 data.
Less encouraging is data from a June Washington Post analysis of data from Black Knight Financial Services, showing that yes, 24018 showed a 27 percent increase in average home worth (now $249,426) from 2004 to 2015, while 24017 showed a mere 8 percent gain ($154,788).
Other selected Roanoke MSA figures over the 2004-2015 period:
• 24175 (southern Botetourt County/Troutville): 36 percent ($217,568).
• 24015 (Raleigh Court/Grandin): 30 percent ($191,294).
• 24127 (New Castle): 29 percent ($182,247).
• 24179 (Vinton): 28 percent ($187,777).
• 24153 (Salem): 27 percent (218,471).
• 24014 (South Roanoke): 25 percent ($277,601).
The Post piece makes the point that the recovery has been “deeply uneven,” with the average increase over the period being 14 percent, while the most expensive neighborhoods have averaged 21 percent. Virginia as a whole stands precisely at the 14 percent average.
Statewide figures from the Virginia Association of REALTORS show second-quarter 2016 sales figures at 8.6 percent higher than the same period in 2015, and nearly 20 percent higher than the same period in 2014. Our area of the state shows a 6 percent increase in Q2 ‘16 over Q2 ‘15.
And perhaps most encouraging for those putting a home on the market: The average number of days on the market in Q2 in Virginia stood at 63, the lowest such figure in at least three years.
