Chesapeake Real Estate market is interesting for everyone considering moving into the Hampton Road region. First off, with roughly two hundred thousand inhabitants, Chesapeake is the third largest city in Virginia as well as a local centre of business and industry. Then, it serves also as a bedroom community for Norfolk and (mainly) Virginia Beach, making the city’s real estate agencies a good starting point for all people willing to work in any of the three cities. And last, but not least, according to the US Census Bureau, Chesapeake real estate offers are generally about 10-15% more affordable than the state’s average. For example, a median price of a property in Chesapeake is roughly 30% lower than median real estate prices in Virginia Beach.

Trends’ overview

Surprisingly enough, Chesapeake real estate market suffered only a minor disruptions during the general market slowdown experienced in 2005 and 2006. The number of sales in the Hampton Road area rose from 3,000 in January, 2006 to 10,000 in November, 2006. Of course, the mechanisms which caused the U.S. real estate market to stall, worked also in the Chesapeake. In response to steadily growing real estate prices, Buyers started to withdraw from the market, waiting for the prices to go down. At the same time sellers were still trying to sell their houses for as much as they could.

However, despite the decreasing number of buyers, Chesapeake real estate market has not been put to a complete stall. First off, the recent inflow of new citizens – the population increased rapidly from 199,000 in 2000 to around 214 thousand in 2006 – caused the increase of real estate trading volume. What is more, Chesapeake real estate properties are more and more often chosen as affordable alternatives to Virginia Beach houses. This deepens problems in Virginia Beach, but improves the situation on the Chesapeake real estate market.

Buyer’s or seller’s market?

Chesapeake Real Estate market is still the buyer’s market. However, the statistics show that the number of sales is going up and the prices have recently stopped rising and begun a slow fall. According to local Realtors, the local market, after a rapid growth period, is entering now into the correction phase. While the prices are expected to fall down a bit, it is predicted that the number of sales will go up in 2007 and continue to rise in 2008. Unfortunately, the predicted growth is going to face two major obstacles. First, the number of new houses is dwindling and the number of newly-built houses will be lower in 2007 than in 2006. Another problem is the increasing real estate taxes. Despite the tax cuts by the Chesapeake City Council (from $1.09 per $100 to $1.04 per $100), the actual amount of the real estate tax has grown for the last two years by a few hundred dollars.

Regardless of those problems, Chesapeake real estate market is still one of more promising markets in Virginia. Its potential and long-term growth perspectives, along with relatively high volume of sales, makes Chesapeake an extremely promising place for all real estate buyers. piccadilly grand