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Sillloc t1_iu59nvy wrote

From what I've seen (not a ton for what it's worth) it looks like the market is beginning to cool and I've seen some houses selling for less than asking instead of 50K over asking.

Is this in line with your perception? Do you expect house prices to fall in the coming months as the Fed continues to hike rates?

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Kindly_Boysenberry_7 OP t1_iu5cmce wrote

My lawyer answer: It depends.

To some extent I'm kidding, but actually not really. What I am seeing is less competition for houses, less activity through new listings in terms of number of showings and activity at open houses. So there is definitely a drop off - in activity, in sales, in offers. All the national data is tracking this too.

However, on the ground I am still seeing move-in ready homes in desirable neighborhoods that are priced correctly selling fast and sometimes with multiple offers and still over asking. However, that seems to be places like the Fan, the Museum District, Near West End, River Road corridor, etc. where there is a very constrained supply and still exceedingly high demand. Above a certain price point ($700,000ish) I am still seeing cash offers, so these people are not sensitive to the interest rate hikes.

Some of this is also being driven by people moving to RVA from high cost-of-living markets who think our prices are cheap, compared to what they are used to.

ETA: Punctuation

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1151am t1_iu69a9q wrote

> My lawyer answer: It depends.

With that kind of answer, you could get a job at BCG/KPMG/Deloitte as a Managing Director making $380k easily!

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Kindly_Boysenberry_7 OP t1_iu6ak6u wrote

Ha! The funny thing is in my previous life I was a Big Firm Lawyer. So I say "my lawyer answer" with more than a little of my tongue planted firmly in my cheek.

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[deleted] t1_iu5xaf5 wrote

[deleted]

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Kindly_Boysenberry_7 OP t1_iu6a1go wrote

I wouldn't say the waive inspection/sells on Day 1/no appraisal stuff has completely gone away. In the last few weeks I've had clients compete on an $850,000 City listing, they waived appraisal - although not inspection - and offered a not-insignificant-amount over list, and did not get it. The seller started showings on Friday, evaluated offers on Saturday, and made a decision by Saturday night. There were at least several other offers and the agent told me someone was trying to fly in from California to see it in time to write. So houses that are completely "done," in premiere locations are still commanding multiple offers with waiving all contingencies.

The good news for buyers: If you are willing to buy something that's not perfect, might need a bit of TLC, the buyer definitely has more bargaining power. But it's not 100% a buyers market by any means. The average Days on Market ("DOM") in the Central Virginia MLS has gone from 6 DOM in July 2022 to 8 DOM in September 2022.

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gowhatyourself t1_iu90qyy wrote

Also an agent. Outside of the city (an important perspective to have considering how unaffordable most of the city is for your average buyer) things are cooling off considerably depending on the area you're looking. I've seen A LOT of properties sitting for more than a week or two that would have been snatched up quickly just a few months ago. The rate hikes and price increases have eaten into everyones buying power a ton and the market is beginning to reflect that.

There are still hot spots here and there though. Short Pump is still sought after. Atlee and VCC are really starting to see a spike in demand. Some parts of Chesterfield are still pretty hot but down there it's very school district dependent.

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ifweweresharks t1_iu9hd4p wrote

Vcc spike is a relief. Selling in the spring and am starting to worry it won’t go for enough to cover the new (build) house.

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gowhatyourself t1_iu9qtfu wrote

We live in the VCC area and I sometimes pull comps for our home. It's been nuts because I have very pessimistically priced out my own home in a sort of worst case scenario and it still comes up higher than I feel it should.

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bozatwork t1_iu9gsrm wrote

Nationally we've had 8 consecutive months of sales decline.

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