So here are a few helpful hints that are your responsibility: (1) check the system to ensure there is cold conditioned air coming out of your registers, (2) ensure your condensation line is clean and free of debris and (3) adjust your dampers to the summer time setting.

Taking just a few minutes at the beginning of the season to check your system will allow you to stay cool and enjoy the spring and summer months!

Nestled behind a 14-acre forested preservation area, King’s Pointe is just minutes from I-664 and the Peninsula and all the shopping, dining, entertainment and attractions of Western Branch, one of the most vibrant and livable sections of Chesapeake.

Currently starting in the mid-$100′s, The Hanover floor plan offers single level living with two bedrooms and two baths, a spacious laundry room and an open floor plan, perfect for entertaining. Visit www.dragas.com to get more information and to see how you can change your status from renter to homeowner at King’s Pointe!

Home sales rose in South Hampton Roads last month and prices ticked up, according to a report released Monday.

The Real Estate Information Network, a Virginia Beach-based multiple-listing service, reported that 1,037 existing homes sold last month, up 8.9 percent from March and up 13.6 percent from April 2011.

Meanwhile, the median price was $189,900 in April, up 5.5 percent from March and 2.6 percent higher than a year earlier, the listing service reported.

The report was more good news for a local housing market struggling to gain solid footing. April marked the second consecutive month of year-over-year increases in median existing home prices. The median is the point at which half of all sales were for higher prices and half lower. Until March, year-over-year median prices had not risen in South Hampton Roads since November 2010.

For the complete article, click here. 

Recent reports show that the local housing market in Hampton Roads is stabilizing. There isn’t time to wait any longer to change your status from renter to homeowner. Dragas Communities throughout Chesapeake, Virginia offer well built new condominiums at an affordable price, probably less than you are paying in rent! Visit dragas.com to see how close your dream of homeownership can be.

Great news from Virginia Association of Realtors’ website:

The latest Fiserv Case-Shiller Home Price Index found that homes (on average, nationwide) are the most affordable they’ve been in 40 years.

Fiserv bases this on the fact that the median home mortgage payment is only 12 percent of the median home income. (This is based on data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency.)

Granted, this is about as broad a brush as you can paint with, so it’s only good for giving an overall picture of the US housing market. But it’s a good picture, and it reinforces something that most of us already know: If you can, it’s a very good time to buy.

But wait, there’s more. Fiserv also found that “After years of large declines, the housing market is showing signs of stabilization.” Specifically, of the 384 metro areas it tracks…

18 percent showed home prices unchanged or increasing since Q4 2010

32 percent saw prices declining less than two percent

Based on this, Fiserv predicts “a further modest decline of 0.8 percent by the end of 2012,” but that prices are “expected to rise at annualized rate of 3.9 percent over the next five years.”

Click here to read it straight from Fiserv.

Visit dragas.com to see our affordable new communities throughout Chesapeake, Virginia. Our well designed condominiums are perfect for first-time home buyers, or anyone looking for the convenience and amenities of condominium living. Isn’t this the time to change your status from renter to homeowner? Find out how at dragas.com.

For complete details on our moving promotion as well as out other incredible incentives visit any of our sales offices, or complete an on-line interest form for more information.

Absolutely. For those who work on this side of the water, King’s Pointe can mean the difference between spending time in traffic or spending it relaxing in your own new home in a beautiful new Chesapeake condominium community filled with trees, ponds and an upscale pool and clubhouse.

Looking for luxury? Our bright, spacious two-story quads give you the style you want and the room you need—and all for an affordable price. Interested in something a bit smaller? Our charming, garden-style flats offer open, airy floor plans with a fresh and modern appeal.

Nestled behind a 14-acre forested preservation area, King’s Pointe is just minutes from I-664 and the Peninsula and all the shopping, dining, entertainment and attractions of Western Branch, one of the most vibrant and livable sections of Chesapeake.

• Open, airy floor plans of over 1,300 square feet; one with office
• Two master suites with walk-in closets
• Spacious kitchen with pantry
• Private neighborhood pool & cabana
• Just across from the OakBrooke Business & Technology Center

Visit us on-line at dragas.com or at our Oakbrooke Crossing sales office, open 11am-6pm daily and Sunday noon-6pm. With new condominiums built by The Dragas Companies starting in the $180′s, this is the time to change your status from renter to homeowner!

Prices in many real-estate markets may be close to bottoming out. We hope. So the old adage about buying low may be something to consider if you have a kid who will soon be heading off to college. The idea is to buy a condo for the kid to live in while attending school. That way, you’ll avoid paying through the nose for a dorm room or apartment with no hope of any profit. And if you buy a condo that has some extra space, you can rent it out to your kid’s friends and offset some of the ownership cost.

For the complete article, click here. Bill Bischoff of Smart Money breaks down some of the financial advantages of buying a condo instead of going the dorm route, including deducting college condo ownership expenses, passive loss rules may postpone tax losses and favorable tax rules when you sell.

Hampton Roads has several competitive colleges and universities right in our own back yard. The Dragas Companies can offer you an affordable option for your college-bound offspring in any of our condominium communities throughout Chesapeake. Visit dragas.com to learn more.

The annoucement of Nick’s promotion will appear in this weekend’s Virginian Pilot Home section on Saturday as well as Sunday’s Business section. Virginia Business Magazine has already posted it on their website.

Congrats, Nick!