Virginia Among 14 Top States in Existing Home Sales

Published by nora | Filed under Buyer / Seller Tips, Real Estate

Virginia was 13th in a list of the 14 states which had a six-digit seasonally adjusted annual sales of existing homes in the third quarter of 2011, according to the most recent report on seasonally adjusted home sales from the National Association of Realtors. Virginia reached an annual sales rate of 106,000 existing homes during the quarter, representing a quarter-over-quarter increase of 1.9 percent and a year-over-year increase of 3.5 percent. The data includes existing single-family homes, apartments, condos and co-ops.

Expectedly, the top states were again those that have been topping foreclosure rate rankings since the start of the housing downturn. The ten states with the highest foreclosure rates in 2011 were Nevada, Arizona, California, Georgia, Utah, Michigan, Florida, Illinois, Colorado and Idaho. The metropolitan areas with the highest foreclosure rates in 2011 were also located in these ten states. These include Las Vegas and Reno in Nevada and Stockton and Sacramento and in California, Atlanta in Georgia, Phoenix and Prescott in Arizona, Cape Coral-Fort Myers in Florida, Boise in Idaho, and Salt Lake City in Utah.

Here are the top-selling states in the existing home market in the third quarter of 2011:

Rank   State	Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate of
	Existing Home Sales
1. California	475,600
2. Texas	426,400
3. Florida	385,600
4. Ohio	232,000
5. New York	226,800
6. Georgia	182,400
7. Illinois	169,200
8. Arizona	163,600
9. Pennsylvania	155,200
10. Massachusetts	144,000
11. North Carolina	129,200
12. Nevada	106,000
13. Virginia	106,000
14. New Jersey	101,400

In Northern Virginia, which is the largest region and the highest-income region in Virginia, total home sales dropped year-over-year from 18,883 in 2010 to 16,703 units in 2011, but the average sale price increased from $468,870 to $483,159. New listings dropped over the year from 28,814 units to 25,333 units. Over the period since 2000, the highest home sales level was reached in 2004 when a total of 33,657 units were sold throughout Northern Virginia.

Northern Virginia has seven of the 25 highest income counties in the U.S., based on a ranking of median household income from 2005 to 2009. Three Northern Virginia cities are included because they exist independently from counties.

Rank   County	Median Household Income
1. City of Falls Church	$113,313
2. Loudoun County	$112,021
3. Fairfax County	$104,259
10. City of Fairfax	$96,232
11. Arlington County	$93,806
15. Stafford County	$90,586
16. Prince William County	$88,358

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