James City home prices flirt with $500K
Good morning! Home sales were down but prices up in two of the Historic Triangle's localities last month. Realtors say it's taking longer to sell homes.
Home prices continue to rise in the Historic Triangle, even though sales went down last month in Williamsburg and James City County.
Only York County saw an increase in home sales in July from the previous year, up by 19%, according to the Virginia Realtors’ monthly report.
James City County’s sales dropped by 4%, according to the report, but its median home price approached half a million dollars, at $492,500.
Williamsburg’s median sales price was the highest, at $650,000, while its home sales dropped by 59%. But the city has such a low volume of sales – 7 in July – that numbers tend to fluctuate dramatically.
York County had the lowest median home sales price in July, at $440,162. There were 102 home sales in the county last month, up 19% from July of 2024.
Home prices in the region are still above the statewide average of $435,000, according to the Realtors’ figures.
“Home prices are still rising, but there are some early signs that some local markets are nearing a pivot as active listings surge,” said the group’s Chief Economist Ryan Price. “In the months ahead, price growth will likely be modest, and in some local markets, we could even see prices edge down.”
There was a surge in new listings last month, much of which occurred in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads. In total, there were 13,898 listings that came onto the market across the commonwealth in July, an increase of nearly 12%.
The Realtors report said homes are staying on the market longer in Virginia, with a statewide median of 15 days on the market in July 2025. This is five days longer than a year ago, and more than double the amount of time homes stayed on the market two years ago, the group said.
The increase in supply is likely keeping homes on the market longer, though 15 days is still relatively fast compared to historical averages the group said.
A look at how Williamsburg Library director asked architect to support new construction against “vocal minority”
When supporters of a new Williamsburg library went to city council to push the idea on Aug. 11, the executive director of the Williamsburg Regional Library had some supporting evidence to offer council.
As the cost for the proposed library inches toward $30 million, and the two counties that are part of the system say they will not share the cost, some residents are asking the city spend less money by renovating the existing library rather than building new.
Sandy Towers, the library system’s executive director, told council she had an email conversation with the architect who originally studied upgrading the library in 2018, and he assured her a renovation would cost more than building new without resolving the 52-year-old building’s issues.
Williamsburg Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the library to see the emails, and the library promptly provided them within an hour of our request – a dramatic difference from the days it normally takes government bodies to respond.
In her original July 29 email to Gregory Lukmire of RRMM Lukmire Architects, Towers asked if he “would be willing to write a few sentences citing reasons reconstruction is preferable in this case rather than renovation.”
The architectural firm prepared a case for a new library project in 2018 based on meetings with various stakeholders who wanted to design a library for the 21st century.
Lukmire responded on Aug. 6 that a renovation would not result in a more useful space and would require “more complicated construction and will be the same cost, or more likely more costly than new construction.”
In a follow-up email to Lukmire that same day, Towers explained some city residents were concerned about the debt the city has taken on to build a new fire station, police station, and the new regional sports center.
Towers explained that James City County and York County, the other members of the regional library system, have said they will not help cover the cost.
She said there is “a vocal minority who are promoting the renovation option, and as you and all the evidence suggest – that is not the best long-term solution.”
We are including the email trail below, along with the 2018 study by the architects.
W&M Business School Namesake Dies
The namesake of William & Mary’s school of business, Raymond A. Mason, died Friday at 88.
Mason, who graduated from William & Mary in 1959, founded the Mason investment firm in Newport News in 1962. The firm merged to become Legg Mason, based in Baltimore, and was managing $830 billion in assets when Mason retired in 2008.
“A forward-thinking leader, Mr. Mason championed the creation of a top-ranked business school at William & Mary,” said university President Katherine A. Rowe. “In 2005, William & Mary named that school in his honor, establishing the first named school at the university. “
Passings
Pamela Jane Hyde Persutti, 90, Aug. 19.