While the job market continues to show signs of improvement, housing sales activity remained slow in the region with 277 homes sold during the third quarter of 2023, 135 fewer sales than a year ago, reflecting a 33 percent drop.

Those are some of the key takeaways from the recently released Chesapeake Bay & Rivers Association of Realtors’ Home Sales Report for the fiscal quarter.

Approximately 6,700 jobs were added in Virginia between July and August, the report states, with the statewide unemployment rate at 3.1 percent for August, down from 3.3 percent a year ago. In the Chesapeake Bay & Rivers region (which includes Gloucester, Mathews and Middlesex counties, the Buena Vista District of King and Queen County and the Town of West Point), the unemployment rate was 2.7 percent, down from 2.9 percent a year ago.

While sales activity has been sluggish, home prices continue to climb. The median sales price in the Chesapeake Bay & Rivers footprint in the third quarter...