Archive for the 'Virginia' Category

Data released by the Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc. showed that home sales in Fredericksburg, Virginia reached a 3-year record high in June. And repo properties helped boost home sales in the area.

Last month, 472 homes were sold in the area, with repo properties accounting for 55.5 percent of the total sales. But the good news was tempered with the fact that the glut of foreclosure sales is pressuring property prices way below levels of the previous years.

The median home sales price in Fredericksburg in June was $205,000, representing a drop of 26 percent from the same month last year. Last month’s median price is within the $190,000 to about $215,000 range of median home sale prices since December last year. And the median price range was comparable to 2003 levels.

Meanwhile, last month’s total home sales volume of $114 million was the best figures since July 2007. This helped trim the property inventory in the area to 2,456 homes by the end of June, the lowest level since January 2006.

Based on the sales pace in June, industry experts estimate that it would take about 5 and a half months to sell all homes on the market. Housing economists consider the trend as a healthy balance between demand and supply.

The June supply of homes was the lowest since December 2005. In January 2008, supply of homes was pegged to reach 20.6 months. In the real estate history, June is usually the best month for property sales.

Meanwhile, many industry experts warned that the actual figures of home inventory are larger than what was reported. They pointed out that many homeowners who want to sell their properties are not placing them on repo properties listings because of depressed prices. Additionally, banks are also contributing to the problem by delaying foreclosures and not selling them on the market.

According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, an estimated 36 percent of mortgage applications across the country last month were government-guaranteed loans, the highest figures since November 1990.

Last month, majority of repo properties in Fredericksburg spent about 3.5 months on the market before they were sold at an average discount of 9.3 percent from the list price.

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Approximately 136 forclosures houses in 29 neighborhoods across Virginia will be acquired and rehabilitated using the $17.5 million funding provided to the state by the federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program.

The NSP was designed to mitigate the effects of large numbers of forclosures houses on neighborhoods.

In a forum held in Richmond to launch the NSP program, Virginia Governor Timothy Kaine announced that $15 million will be used to buy about 136 forclosures houses at discounted prices in 29 communities and $2.5 million will go to the Shenandoah Valley counties of Frederick, Warren and Shenandoah.

Kaine added that the rehabilitated forclosures houses will be sold to lower-income families.

The forum was attended by over 200 Virginian homeowners who listened to discussions on housing and mortgage by homebuilders, realtors, mortgage brokers, local officials and housing advocates.

Federal and state officials also attended the forum, including U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Jim Webb, Representatives Jim Moran, Frank Wolf and Gerry Connolly and state legislators from Northern Virginia.

Michael S. Barr, financial institutions assistant secretary of the U.S. Treasury Department, also spoke at the forum.

Kaine further explained that the NSP funding will build upon the efforts of the Virginia Foreclosure Prevention Task Force, launched by Kaine in 2007 to address the foreclosure problem across the state. Statewide, there are currently about 16,000 vacant forclosures houses.

From the $17.5 million NSP funding allotted to Virginia, $2 million will be given to Richmond; $2 million to Portsmouth; $2 million to Hampton; $1,794,375 to Norfolk; $1.5 million to the Virginia unit of Habitat for Humanity; $1,162,670 to the partnership of People Incorporated and Russell County; $1 million to Fairfax County; $971,444 to Suffolk; $936,955 Alexandria; $859,330 to the partnership of People Incorporated and Bristol City; and $700,000 to Newport News.

The rest of the money, $2.5 million, will go to the Northern Shenandoah Valley Regional Commission, which will use the money to rehabilitate forclosures houses in Stephens City, the Sensey Corridor, Pendleton and the Central and Northwest Front Royal.

Governor Kaine has also enumerated the achievements of the Foreclosure Prevention Task Force he launched in 2007. Kaine’s task force has conducted individual counseling sessions for over 900 homeowners, held training sessions for 341 foreclosure prevention counselors, launched the task force’s web site and helped in the passage of a bill that provided more time for borrowers to work out affordable payment schemes with their lenders to prevent their homes from becoming forclosures houses.