Real estate sales slowed further in final months of 2007; fewer high-end properties changing hands
By James P. Gannon
The gradual and steady decline of home and property sales that characterized 2007 continued in the final three months of the year in Rappahannock County.
County land-transfer records show that a total of 27 real estate sales were recorded in the final quarter of the year, down from 37 such deals in the last three months of 2006.
These transfers included properties sold through a real estate agent and those that were unlisted with a broker, and thus are broader in scope than statistics reported by Realtors’ multiple-listing services. They include both land sales and sales of parcels with homes.
After a relatively busy October, recorded sales slumped deeply in November and December, when signs of stress in the market showed up in the form of three foreclosure sales in the county–an unusually high number for one month.
Seventeen properties changed hands in October, double the number a year-earlier, but the market chilled in November with only six sales and December with only four, compared to 15 and 14 in those months of 2006.
Fewer high-priced properties are being sold in the current slow market. In 2006, five properties exceeding $900,000 each were recorded as sold in the final three months, but only two such properties transferred in the last quarter of 2007. Only seven of the 27 properties sold in the latest quarter went at prices over $500,000.
Three foreclosure sales were completed in December, involving two homes in Chester Gap and one near Sperryville. Three more foreclosure sales–one each in Viewtown, Chester Gap and Sperryville–were advertised with Trustee’s Sale notices in the Jan. 24 issue of The Rappahannock News; those sales were scheduled for late January and early February.
A common characteristic of the foreclosure sales is that all involved default on fairly recent mortgage loans–those made in 2005 and 2006 when the real estate market was relatively strong and lenders were offering extremely easy terms–often no money down, no income verification, or interest-only payments–usually tied to adjustable rate mortgages that featured low payments for the first year or two, then adjusting higher thereafter.
These are the types of loans that are going into default nationally, triggering a rising national foreclosure rate and huge losses for mortgage lenders, banks and investors who bought bundles of high-risk mortgages worldwide.
For all of 2007, a total of 120 sales of real estate, including both raw land and parcels with homes, were recorded, down about 30% from the total of 172 sales in 2006. Last year, sales peaked in the spring quarter with 65 transactions, then slowed sharply for the rest of the year and trended downward slowly during 2007.
-- James P. GannonComments
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