Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, November 10, 1995 TAG: 9511100073
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Short
The National Association of Realtors reported Thursday that the median price of existing single-family homes was $116,200 in the third quarter - meaning half sold for more and half for less. That represents a gain of 4.3 percent from a year earlier, when the median was $111,400.
Thirty-year, fixed-rate mortgages averaged 7.37 percent this week, the lowest in nearly two years.
The rate was down from 7.44 percent last week, according to a national survey released Thursday by the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp.
``Under these affordability conditions, if a home is priced right, it will not stay on the market very long,'' said Realtors President Edmund G. Woods Jr. ``In some areas, multiple offers and bidding wars are not uncommon.''
The trade group reported that 102,600 houses in Virginia were sold in the July-through-September quarter, up 1 percent over the year-earlier quarter.
In another report, the government said 65 percent of American families owned homes in the third quarter, up nearly a million from the end of last year, when the ownership rate was 64.2 percent.
John Tuccillo, the Realtor group's chief economist, said entry-level purchases surged in much of the country.
by CNB