We are happy to announce that Nancy Chandler Associates, top real estate agency for Norfolk, Virginia Beach and all of Hampton Roads, was voted one of the best Real Estate Services in Norfolk by readers of The Virginian-Pilot. NCA took the Bronze Awards for Norfolk and Chesapeake for the 2010 poll. We can’t thank you enough for your votes and your support. We love the Hampton Roads region and for nearly forty years have devoted ourselves to helping new and established residents find affordable housing that suits their needs. Going into mid-2010 and 2011, and beyond, we will continue to help you succeed in buying homes in Norfolk and Virginia Beach, while assisting you with real estate needs like guidance for loans and tax credits, rental information, and other concerns.
We are pleased to announced the launch of the Nancy Chandler Associates new and improved website!
Take a look at the new NancyChandler.com today an try out our customized home searches. We’ve built up the resource sections, too, so you can get information on buying and selling a home, home loans for Virginia, and moving tips.
A trip through the housing market leaves some house hunters wondering if they’ve arrived in a bygone world via time machine.
They set down in a land where stretches of green cut-pile fibers carpet the hills of architectural step-ups and step-down that whisper, “Feelin’ groovy,” while fields of paper flowers climb walls. The sun’s rays fade under heavily clad windows, and every color and fixture tells a story – one that prospective buyers have likely already heard, and possibly already lived.
It takes stepping back into “modern life” of any era to truly appreciate its quirky offerings and haphazard trajectory. Even the request of a client to “Beam me up” can’t shake most seasoned real estate agents, who say they’ve heard and seen it all.
Sometimes navigating the time-space jump takes a little engineering on the sellers’ part; sometimes, vision from the buyer, agents say. In the end, the right price is a sure sign of return to Earth.
Read more from Nora Firestone and the Virginian-Pilot.
The Virginian-Pilot reported on February 3 that many Norfolk homeowners and businesses will see a slight decrease in real taxes on July 1. (Click here to read the entire article.) For those who qualify, assessments for house owners will lessen by three percent, while those who own business property in the area will enjoy a five percent decrease. Meanwhile, Virginia Beach homeowners may expect a decrease as well, as much as 6.5 percent.
With real estate taxes poised to fall come summer, it’s a good time to consider buying a home in Norfolk and Virginia Beach. Nancy Chandler Associates is here to assist you in finding the right home in your desired location. If you have questions or concerns about property taxes and assessments, condo fees, and closing costs, we are on your side and will work to ensure the fairest price for the home you want.
Contact us today at 888.622.7356 or use our web form to speak with a representative. We will get back to you quickly and get you started on the hunt for your new home!
Nancy Chandler Associates is happy to have assisted The Virginian-Pilot in this recent article on Virginia Beach real estate.
Hampton Roads home sales up 28 percent over last October
By Josh Brown
The Virginian-Pilot
© November 17, 2009
First-time buyers rushing to take advantage of the now-extended federal tax credit continued to drive home sales in Hampton Roads in October, according to a report released Monday.
Last month, sales volume was up 2.3 percent over September and 28.1 percent over October 2008, according to Real Estate Information Network Inc. The Virginia Beach-based multiple listing service reported 1,107 homes in the region sold in October, compared with 864 a year ago.
October’s was the biggest year-over-year gain for 2009, and it was the fifth month of such increases since home-sales volume turned positive in June. The rebound in home sales stands in stark contrast to the homes market a year ago, when sales were plummeting amid deteriorating economic conditions.
The federal tax credit for first-time homebuyers has buoyed sales across the country. Congress recently extended the $8,000 tax credit, originally scheduled to expire this month, through April and expanded the credit to include $6,500 for home-owners who have lived in their home for at least five years and want to buy a replacement primary residence.
“The tax credit, no question about it, has had a positive impact on the market,” said Ron Pearman, regional vice president for Long & Foster Real Estate. O f a sampling of homes that closed last month with Long & Foster, 70 percent were first-time buyers, Pearman said.
Other local brokers said Monday that the tax credit has accounted for as much as half of their recent sales.
“It’s given a shot in the arm to help revitalize the housing industry,” said Peter Shaw, a business and economics professor at Tidewater Community College. “The question is, when you remove that tax credit, what state will the market be in? Sooner or later the industry has to stand on its own feet.”
Despite increased sales activity, home prices have continued to fall. Real Estate Information Network reported that the median price for existing homes in October was $208,000, down 3.3 percent from a year ago. The median is the point at which half the prices are higher and half are lower.
Part of that decline in median price can be attributed to the swell in sales of foreclosures, which accounted for 19 percent of the closings last month, according to the multiple listing service. That’s compared with 9 percent a year ago.
The other part of the decline in median price could be tied to the tax credit itself, which has encouraged home sales primarily at the lower-priced ranges of the market.
Web Chandler, president and principal broker at Nancy Chandler Associates, said the extension of the tax credit will remove the sense of urgency for first- time buyers in the next few months.
“During the holiday season there is always a traditional slow down in the sales market,” he said.
The report also showed that the number of homes on the market last month in Hampton Roads fell slightly. In October, there were 13,776 homes on the market, compared with 14,029 in September. Meanwhile, the average time on the market for existing homes in Hampton Roads also fell slightly to 83 days last month, compared with 85 days at the same point last year.
The inventory and market time figures include the Peninsula and outlying regions such as Williamsburg and northeastern North Carolina.
Several brokers said it will be a while before the overall market inventory is brought back down to a reasonable level. The looming fear for them is the jobless rate, which was 6.7 percent in September, up from 4.3 percent a year earlier.
“The wild card in all of this is the unemployment rate,” Shaw said. “If the unemployment rate keeps rising going into the winter and the spring months, I really don’t see any great strides in the housing market.”
Josh Brown, (757) 446-2318, josh.brown@pilotonline.com
WASHINGTON — Nearly one in three borrowers who applied for a mortgage last year was denied as lenders kept their standards tight as the mortgage crisis accelerated, the government reported Wednesday.
In its annual look at mortgage practices among lending institutions, Federal Reserve said the denial rate for all home loans was about 32 percent last year — about the same as in 2007, but up from 29 percent in 2006. The denial rates for blacks and Hispanics were more than twice as high as the rate for white borrowers.
The report highlights massive changes in the lending industry after the housing market bust. Overall loan applications were down by a third from a year earlier, and were half the level in 2006.
Loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration soared to 21 percent of all loans made last year from less than 5 percent in both 2005 and 2006.
Read more from The Associated Press.
NEW YORK, Sept 23 (Reuters) – U.S. mortgage applications jumped last week to their highest since late May as interest rates tumbled below 5 percent, data from an industry group showed on Wednesday.
The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage applications USMGM=ECI, which includes both purchase and refinance loans, for the week ended Sept 18 increased 12.8 percent to 668.5, the highest level since the week ended May 22.
Read the entire article at Reuters.com.
The market for homebuyers is improving, especially in the Hampton Roads area. If you’re looking to buy a home for sale in Chesapeake or Virginia Beach, Nancy Chandler Associates is the Virginia real estate agency for you. Call us today at 888.622.7356 and talk to one of our experienced Realtors to learn how you can find the home of your dreams right here in Virginia.
In the interest of providing immediate information on homes for sale in Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake, and the Upper Peninsula, we at Nancy Chandler are happy to provide specially categorized Twitter feeds featuring available properties in these respective areas. If you are looking for a new house in a particular area of Hampton Roads, there’s no need to wade through an RSS of irrelevant information. Follow the feed you want and get the information you need before you buy.
Please follow these Twitter accounts to stay updated on properties for sale:
@BuyVBHomes – for Virginia Beach
@BuyNorfolkHomes – for Norfolk homes for sale
@BuyChesapeake – for Chesapeake and Suffolk
@PeninsulaHomes – for Hampton, Newport News, and Williamsburg
As always, you can follow our main Twitter at @NancyChandler for updates on buying a home in Hampton Roads, financing and to contact us.
