As Virginia housing costs rise, the General Assembly offers little relief

Proposals to encourage housing development, affordable homes finding mixed fates in Richmond

By Ian Munro

The Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism at WHRO

The median price of a single-family home in Virginia rose almost 40% between 2019 and 2024, pushing home ownership out of reach for many working-class families.

This year, Virginia legislators have introduced various measures to make home buying more attainable, both by helping buyers and incentivizing more home building. Progress has been slow.

“This problem is growing faster than we’re responding to it,” said Isabel McLain, director of policy and advocacy for the Virginia Housing Alliance.

The median sales price for a Virginia home was $412,000 in 2024, up $117,000 since 2019, according to data from the Virginia Realtors. In January, the median home sold for $341,150 in Hampton Roads, $265,000 in Roanoke, $370,000 in Richmond and $600,000 in Northern Virginia, according to Virginia Realtors’ data.

Virginia has an estimated housing shortage of about 105,000 homes, according to a 2022 study by Up for Growth, a housing advocacy group. The scarcity of housing has driven up home prices and rents to record levels in recent years, according to Pew researchers.

The ability of the typical blue-collar worker household, like that of a carpenter, to purchase a home has declined markedly in most of Virginia’s largest metro areas between 2012 and 2023, according to data from the conservative American Enterprise Institute. In 2023, less than half of such working households in Virginia could afford the median entry-level home – down from almost two-thirds about a decade ago, according to AEI.

Some housing advocates say they are noticing an urgency and new creativity this year toward addressing the housing crisis. But not all new measures have had success in the General Assembly.

“I think over the past five years, the members of the General Assembly have been more, I want to say, assertive and proactive in their approach across the board to housing,” said Christie Marra, director of housing advocacy at the Virginia Poverty Law Center.

Newly constructed homes in Old Trail, Crozet, Virginia. File photo by CHRISTOPHER TYREE // VCIJ

Virginia legislators have sought to make it easier to build more housing and give more tools to localities to address their specific housing issues, she said.

Reforming zoning codes, the development rules set by local governments, are key to increasing the supply of housing. And localities can only do what the state explicitly allows them to do.

One such bill would provide grants to localities to make it easier to build more affordable housing. The bill, HB2149, was introduced by Del. Betsy Carr, D-Richmond, and included $1.5 million in funding.

Carr said the bill acts like a carrot, not a stick, and would have offered grants to localities to loosen zoning laws and make it easier to develop dense housing. The measure failed in a Senate committee, a fate shared by similar bills Carr has brought in previous sessions.

Another bill from Carr to allow localities to change zoning laws and make it easier for tax-exempt nonprofits to develop affordable housing won narrow approval from the House and Senate. It was originally meant for religious groups and called the Faith in Housing for the Commonwealth Act, but was amended to include all tax-exempt nonprofits.

To help localities, Del. David Bulova, D-Fairfax, introduced a bill to amend rules and provide money to a long-ago established, but never funded, urban public-private partnership redevelopment fund. The measure failed to pass.

Rural residents have also felt the pinch of rising home costs.

Prices in many rural parts of the state are also increasing, such as in Prince Edward County where home prices rose 68% to a median sales price of almost $282,000 between 2019 and 2024, according to Virginia Realtors.

A bill from Sen. Jeremy McPike, D-Prince William, to allow suburban and rural communities to establish affordable housing programs and become eligible for relevant grants, passed both chambers with bipartisan support and is now headed for Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s desk.

The Virginia Realtors expect housing prices to rise at a slower pace this year, due mostly to an increase in homes coming on the market, according to Ryan Price, chief economist of the group.

“The higher interest rates, you know, we thought were going to deter some of the price growth but it turned out not to be the case,” he said. “In 2024, we didn’t see any improvement in interest rates and we still had very robust price growth.”  

First-time homebuyers Ellie Jernigan and her husband, Zach, discuss the pros and cons of a home they are touring in Henrico County. File photo by CHRISTOPHER TYREE // VCIJ

To deal with rising prices, Del. Josh Cole, D-Fredericksburg, introduced a bill to establish a grant program for first-time home buyers. The program would reimburse certain first-time buyers up to 5% of their costs up to $10,000. To qualify, a buyer must have income below $100,000 or under the area’s median income. The measure passed the House but stalled in a Senate committee. Cole was hopeful the grant program could be passed in the House budget proposal.

Housing was a key issue for Cole and other lawmakers this year, he said.

“We know there are conversations happening and you can tell by the types of bills that were introduced this session, right from the faith in housing legislation to the [accessory dwelling unit] bills,” Cole said. “We know that housing is getting expensive.”

Bipartisan proposals meant to drive down demand by banning large investment companies from buying single-family homes didn’t make it out of the Senate. Similar bills have been introduced in Texas and Congress. The governor of New York has also called for a similar policy.

Bills are not the only vehicle for reform in the statehouse.

The proposed budget in the House also includes $5 million for a down payment assistance program for those making below 60% of an area’s median income, according to Marra. Those programs can make a key difference for working Virginians trying to get on the property ladder, she said.

“We support anything that is done to help people become first-time homeowners because we know that it is still the primary way to build wealth in this country,” Marra said.

Less than 1% of Virginia’s $31.8 billion general fund fiscal year 2025 budget is allocated for affordable housing development and assistance, according to McLain. To meet the demand for affordable housing, it would cost $1.6 billion each year to build 20,000 units annually over the next decade, according to a 2021 legislative study.

McLain added that the federal government’s current instability hurts the delicate partnerships that help develop housing with federal funding, which might also be cut.

“We are trying to do a lot more with housing,” she said, “but I don’t think we’ve quite gotten to the point where we’re able to put funding behind it that’s needed.” 

Reach Ian Munro at 757-447-4097 and ianmunronews@gmail.com.