FEATURES – September/October 2008

Taking The Long View

The Hampton Roads real estate market take a dip, not a dive.

By Karen Haywood Queen

You've seen the ads for short sales and foreclosures. Your neighbor's house sold for $400,000 in 2005, but you'll be lucky to get $370,000 for your much nicer home-and that won't pay off the mortgage balance. Perhaps you're juggling two house payments while waiting for one home to sell or facing an interest rate and/or mortgage payment soon to double. If so, it's a bad real estate market. But if you're a buyer, it's a great real estate market. And if you compare the Hampton Roads market to the nation as whole, we're not doing so badly. If you can take the long view-looking back to the '80s or ahead to better times-this market isn't so bad either. As in politics, all real estate is local.

Yes, the housing bubble has long since burst. Yes, it's a tough time to be a home seller in Hampton Roads. But while other parts of the country and the state have seen a roller coaster ride of wild highs and lows, Hampton Roads' housing market has been a more sedate ride. Looking ahead to 2009, the analysts predict a return to normalcy-circa the 1999 and 2000 market.

For the full version of this article, see the September issue of Hampton Roads Magazine-available wherever magazines are sold.

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