VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) – According to Virginia Beach realtors, there’s a small number of homes for sale available in the resort city.
Rusty Hullet, owner of Viking Titles & Escrow, said while there are around 2,400 homes for sale, many of those are already under contract.
In reality, there are only about 377 homes available and for sale in Virginia Beach, and last month’s Virginia Realtors report supports that.
According to the report, home sales in the state are down more than 20% from May of last year, but why?
Hullet told 10 On Your Side that it’s because of a lack of inventory coming from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Back then people would refinance their house instead of selling, so a huge portion of the market that is normally there during the buying season went away,” he said. “People just refinanced because their rates were so low.”
He said interests rates are high but it’s not affecting sales like it used to.
The lack of inventory has raised housing prices, and along with it, competition amongst home buyers.
“I’ve seen some really high prices people come in really competitive after they’ve written like three or four offers and didn’t get them,” Hullet said. “They kind of come to a realization that they’ve got to pay over.”
But it’s not only homes for sale that have been hit with this problem.
“Our rental market has the same problem,” Hullet said. “During COVID, there wasn’t a lot of new construction going on so that affected our inventory as well. Therefore everything’s at a premium now.”
For people who can’t find a home for sale in Virginia Beach, Hullet recommends trying your luck in one of the other seven cities.
