Roanoke Real Estate
Roanoke Homes: The Cost of Waiting
If you were thinking about buying a house last year, but didn’t, it will very likely cost you more to get the same house this year. Assuming a loan of $250,000, at 3.5 percent interest, your principal and interest payment last year would have been $1122.61. According to the Roanoke Valley MLS statistics, homes in the Roanoke area went up in price by an average of 7.0% between July 2012 and July 2013. During the same time period, mortgage rates went up to about 4.5%. By waiting a year, it will cost an additional $232.77 a month for the same house, if you take into account the increase in home price and the higher mortgage rates. That’s almost $2,800 a year more.
My reason for pointing this out isn’t to discourage you from buying this year. You might be thinking to yourself, “my friend got a 3.5 percent interest rate and now I’m stuck with a 4.5 percent. Maybe now is not the time to buy because I’m paying almost a full point more than my friend paid 12 months ago.”
Well let’s put this in perspective. During the last four decades—1983, 1993, 2003 and 2013—let’s take a look at the monthly payment on a $250,000 mortgage. Take a minute to So even though you might be paying more than your friend paid last year, let’s take a look at what you’d be paying compared to 1983, 1993, 2003.
Source: Keeping Current Matters
From a historical perspective, you’re still doing really well! We don’t have a crystal ball, and can’t tell you exactly where prices and rates will be this time next year. If this trend continues, though, you’re much better off to buy now.
My job is as Director of Technology/Education, and I work with a fabulous group of real estate agents at Prudential Premier REALTORS in Roanoke and Botetourt. Every one of them is qualified and enthusiastic about assisting with a home purchase. Visit our website to search for Roanoke area homes, or call 540-343-5000 in Roanoke or 540-966-3033 in Botetourt. We’d be delighted to help you.
Roanoke VA Homes: Free Homeowner’s Insurance App
by Dolores Farmer Most people know that it’s important to have a “home inventory,” to lessen your chances of a disagreement with your insurance company about replacement of personal property under your homeowner’s insurance policy. If the thought of completing an inventory is daunting, read on.
Easy Home Inventory
What you might not know is that there’s a free app designed to assist you in making that inventory, available for both iPhone and Android. It’s provided by the Insurance Information Institute, and is called “IIIinventory.” The easiest way to locate the App is to navigate to https://www.knowyourstuff.org, and scan the QR Code they provide in the App’s section. It will take you to the download page. You’ll need a free account on the website, because the App syncs the inventory made with your phone to the main website. The app guides you through entering each item, room by room, and you can take photos as you go. 
In Summary
With any luck, you’ll never need the home inventory, but it’s a good thing to do. It’s the type of project that nobody likes to take on, but everyone is happy to have it when they need it.
Roanoke VA homes
Roanoke VA Homes: April Infographic
April 2013 continued to bring improvements to the Roanoke real estate market. The Absorption Rate in March 2012 was 12.11 months but it dropped to 10.27 months in March 2013. Home inventory in the Valley remains high, but overall it is dropping, meaning prices will likely rise if demand remains steady or increases. Average list price in the Valley was $283,040 in March 2013, up from $272,278 in March 2012. Residential homes in and around Roanoke averaged 131 days on the Market in March 2013. There were 3158 homes for sale in and around the Valley as of 4/2/13, according to the Roanoke MLS. For more facts about the Roanoke housing market, see the Infographic.
Botetourt County Homes
by Dolores Farmer Botetourt County real estate is doing well! See the March 2013 market update for some interesting facts about the recent market.
How’s the Market for Botetourt Homes?
One area we looked at for the report is “sales by price range.” The price range with the most sales is $200,000-$250,000, with 8 sales from 1/1/13-2/28/13. This represents a 33% increase from the same time period in 2012. The $400,000 to $500,000 price range is also doing well, with 7 sales, representing a whopping 600% increase over 2012. The over $500,000 range, and $100,000 to $120,000 range have experienced drops over 2012. See the infographic for more details about the home market in Botetourt County.
For more market updates and various real estate charts for the Roanoke Valley, visit Prudential Premier’s Google Plus page. Prudential Premier will be opening a new Botetourt County office at 1638 Roanoke Road in Daleville in April of this year (2013.) Some of the best real estate agents in Botetourt will be working out of the office.
Roanoke Real Estate: Info-graphic
by Dolores Farmer Roanoke real estate is recovering nicely! Click on the info-graphic (below) one time to enlarge it, then click a second time on the “enlarge button” (see photo, above) and it will become the intended size. The info-graphic compares early 2012 to early 2013. Categories include “days to sell,” “number of contracts written,” “list to sales price ratio,” “dollar volume of homes sold,” and “number of homes sold.” It will be updated again as soon as February closes out, and figures can be obtained.
This graphic is also featured on the SWVAhomes.com Facebook page.
Interested in specific properties?
You can view and search homes for sale on Prudential Premier’s website or YouTube Channel.
Roanoke VA Homes: Does Style Matter?
See where your home style ranks when compared to others in Roanoke, VA.
Does the style (Colonial, ranch, split-level) affect the time it takes to sell a Roanoke VA home? Very much so! Contemporary houses were the slowest to sell, on average. From my observations over 25 years in Roanoke real estate, contemporaries are slow to sell. Tudors sold the fastest, which was a surprise to me, but the data supported it. They don’t make up much of our market, so it was a small sample, but the few that sold, sold fast. Of the more common styles of home in Roanoke, split-foyers moved faster than ranches and colonials.
Some of the time differences are not particularly significant; a colonial took an average of 4 days longer to sell than a ranch-style home. However, if you compare a split-level to a contemporary, the difference is measured in months!
See the chart to view all the differences in home styles and time to sell.
If you’re considering selling your Roanoke VA home this Spring
Absorption Rate at Lowest Point in 3 Years
Absorption Rate is often considered the best indicator of the health of a housing market. Simply put, it is figured by dividing the number of homes currently for sale by the average number of sales per month. The resulting figure shows how many months it will take to exhaust the supply of homes on the market. A six-month supply is considered a balanced market. Less than a six month supply of homes generally indicates a “Seller’s Market,” where conditions favor the home seller. Greater than a six month supply means a glut of inventory, which normally favors the buyer.
Roanoke’s Absorption Rate for November 2012 is 11.2 months. Still high, but at its lowest point since February 2009! The chart above goes back to January 2011, and shows the downward trend. A continuing downward trend would mean rising home prices and a better overall local real estate market. All figures are as reported to the Roanoke Valley MLS from 1/1/11-11/30/12.
