Douglas Hoven on What $750,000 Buys in Hampton Roads Versus Northern Virginia

Two Virginia housing markets, 200 miles apart, closed out August 2026 on very different numbers.

In Northern Virginia, the median sold price was $750,000, according to the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors. In Hampton Roads, the median sales price was $388,950, according to the Real Estate Information Network (REIN). That is a gap of more than $361,000 for the typical home.

Douglas Hoven, a REALTOR® with The Ron Sawyer Team at RE/MAX Prime, fields the comparison from buyers every month. Some are federal workers weighing a hybrid schedule. Some are military families who have lived in both regions. Others are Northern Virginia homeowners doing the math on what their equity would buy farther down I-64.

“People assume it’s a lifestyle question,” Doug Hoven says. “It’s a math question first. Once you run the numbers side by side, the conversation changes fast.”

The monthly payment gap

Mortgage rates make the difference sharper. Freddie Mac reported the 30-year fixed rate averaged 7.03% as of September 24, 2026, up from 6.30% a year earlier.

At that rate, with 20% down, principal and interest on a $750,000 Northern Virginia home comes to roughly $4,004 a month. The same terms on a $388,950 Hampton Roads home come to roughly $2,076. That is about $1,928 a month, or more than $23,000 a year, before taxes and insurance.

The down payment tells the same story. Twenty percent of the Northern Virginia median is $150,000. In Hampton Roads it is about $77,800.

“For a lot of families, that $23,000 a year is the difference between one income covering the house and needing two,” Hoven says. “That’s not a small lifestyle upgrade. That’s breathing room.”

Where each market is moving

The two regions are also heading in different directions on price. Northern Virginia’s median slipped 1.3% year over year in August, while active listings jumped 19.6% to 3,025, according to NVAR. Closed sales fell 8% to 1,324.

Hampton Roads went the other way. REIN reported the regional median rose from $370,000 a year earlier, an increase of about 5.1%. Active listings climbed 7.2% to 6,120, and pending sales were up 10.46% over last August.

Douglas Hoven Jr. reads that as two different kinds of opportunity. “Northern Virginia buyers are getting more choice, especially in condos and townhomes. Hampton Roads buyers are getting a little more time to decide. But prices here are still climbing, so the entry point isn’t going to wait around.”

What the price difference actually buys

REIN data shows homes priced between $300,000 and $399,999 made up about 27% of all settled sales in Hampton Roads in August, more than one in every four closings. That band is the heart of the market, and it is where Hoven says relocating buyers are most often surprised.

“Someone moving down from Fairfax will walk into a single-family home here with a yard and a garage at a price that would get them a condo up north,” he says. “Then I have to remind them to budget for flood zones and insurance, because this is coastal Virginia and that part is real.”

He is equally direct about the tradeoffs. Commutes to Washington are long, salaries in parts of Hampton Roads run lower, and the local economy leans heavily on the military, shipbuilding and the Port of Virginia. For a buyer who needs to be in an office in Arlington five days a week, the math may not work.

Who the move makes sense for

In Doug Hoven’s experience, the buyers who come out ahead share a few traits. They work remotely or hybrid. They are military or federal employees with orders or roles based in the region. Or they are Northern Virginia owners who have built equity and want to lower their monthly costs, sometimes heading toward retirement.

His advice for all of them starts in the same place: run the payment, not the price. Compare taxes, insurance and commute costs line by line, then visit the specific neighborhoods rather than the region as a whole.

“Hampton Roads isn’t one market, it’s a dozen,” Hoven says. “Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Norfolk, Suffolk, they all behave differently. The comparison to Northern Virginia only helps you once you know which part of Hampton Roads you’re actually comparing.”

Doug Hoven Jr. is a REALTOR® with The Ron Sawyer Team at RE/MAX Prime, licensed in Virginia and North Carolina. Reach him at (757) 434-0915, douglashoven.com, or TheRonSawyerTeam.com.

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