Buyers seem to have perked up and are out looking for homes across Virginia, but are facing a dearth of properties coming to market, according to new data
The Virginia Realtors’ “flash survey” of member activity and sentiment, released March 3, compiles the opinions and experiences of 529 members of the trade organization, including 379 who were engaged in at least one home transaction during the preceding month.
The survey was open Feb. 21-28.
Good news for the market: The Buyer Activity index rose from 39 (on a 0-to-100 scorecard) in January to 56 in February, its highest rate since May 2022. There have now been three consecutive months of increases following eight straight months of declines.
A total of 35 percent of Realtors responding to the survey gauged buyer activity in their markets as “high” or “very high,” compared to 22 percent gauging it “low” or “very low.”
The typical property received 2.2 offers before a contract, still just a third of where things had stood a year ago, but up from 1.3 offers on average in January. More than four in 10 properties received a contract at or above listing price.
The biggest challenge facing the Virginia market at the moment is getting homeowners eager to put their properties on the market.
The Seller Activity Index for the month stood at 15 on the 0-to-100 scorecard, a decline from 19 a month before. And only 4 percent of respondents gauged the market activity among sellers as “high” or “very high,” while 74 percent reported it as “low” or “very low.”
Gazing into the future, the index for where the overall market will stand in three months rose to 61, up from 52 a month before, with 39 percent of respondents expecting high levels of activity in the May-June time frame.
As to where prices are headed? There is no consensus: 37 percent of respondents predicted a rise, 30 percent a decline and 31 percent expect no change.
The monthly survey is not scientific, but is large enough to give an indication of market conditions throughout the commonwealth, Virginia Realtors says.
For more details, see the Website at www.virginiarealtors.org.
