Home sales in North Carolina during October posted strong growth from a year ago, while sales slowed across Virginia and Massachusetts for the second consecutive month, according to Realtor associations in those states.
North Carolina existing-home sales posted double-digit growth in October, with two regions (Brunswick County and Haywood County) showing an increase of more than four times the average for the state, according to statistics compiled by the North Carolina Association of Realtors.
Realtors reported 11,172 home sales in October, an increase of 11 percent over sales posted in October 2004.
More than 110,800 units have been sold on a year-to-date basis, an increase of 15 percent from year-to-date sales posted during the first 10 months of 2004.
Mountain and coastal regions lead the state in positive growth with Brunswick County (64 percent), Haywood County (47 percent), Goldsboro (41 percent), and Jacksonville (40 percent) posting the strongest year-to-date increase in total sales dollars. Carteret County and Wilmington saw the largest year-to-date price appreciation at 36 percent and 22 percent, respectively.
The average sales price of a North Carolina home in October was $215,762, up 10 percent from $195,383 posted a year ago.
Supply and demand in Virginia’s home sales market is beginning to even out, with a second month showing a slight decrease in sales over the same period last year, according to the Virginia Association of Realtors.
In October, 10,435 sales closed, an 8.1 percent decrease from October 2004’s 11,358.
The areas showing greatest increases in closed transactions included the Charlottesville Area, Harrisonburg-Rockingham County, Martinsville-Henry County, the Chesapeake Bay & Rivers area, the Northern Neck, and Southwest Virginia.
Year-to-date, closed transactions remained 2.8 percent ahead of last year, with 117,467 sales closed, compared with 114,174 for the same period last year.
“There is a definite trend toward a better balancing of the market between home buyers and sellers, not only in Virginia but nationwide,” said VAR President Kit Hale of Roanoke.
Virginia’s median existing-home price for October was $199,800, an increase of 23.7 percent from $161,525 a year ago. The median is a typical market price where half of the homes sold for more and half sold for less.
In October, the average market time for Virginia home sales was 87 days.
In Massachusetts, sales of detached single-family homes totaled 3,863 in October, down 9.1 percent from 4,249 sales posted in October 2004, the Massachusetts Association of Realtors reported. The October 2005 figure was down 14.5 percent from September’s 4,516 sales.
Sales of condominiums were up 14.8 percent from a year ago, with Realtors reporting 1,777 closings in October compared with 1,548 in October 2004. The October 2005 figure fell 17 percent from September’s 2,140 sales.
The median price of a single-family home in the Bay State in October was $349,000, up 1.2 percent from $344,900 a year ago but down from September’s price of $359,900. The median condo price rose 7.5 percent during the same period, from $252,500 in October 2004 to $271,350 in October 2005, and was up 0.5 percent from September.
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