The house at 29 Rio Vista Lane sold Dec. 19 at $4.5 million. (Images courtesy CVRMLS)
The year in high-end home sales ended on a high note with a pair of $4 million deals that topped area residential real estate transactions in December.
Leading the list for the month was 29 Rio Vista Lane, which sold Dec. 19 at $4.5 million. A day earlier, the house at 4716 Charmian Road closed for nearly $4.3 million, likewise selling at list price and making the list of the 10 priciest sales of 2024.
Both homes were listed by Long & Foster’s Margaret Wade, who also had December’s No. 3 sale, 11 Ampthill Road, which sold Dec. 17 at $2.6 million.
Margaret Wade
The string of sales capped a busy year for Wade, who also had two of the five priciest sales in October, the same month she listed each of the homes that sold in December.
That those three sales all closed in December – and across three consecutive days: Dec. 17, 18 and 19 – was not intentional, Wade said.
“It was pure coincidence,” she said, laughing. “It just worked out with the schedule of what the sellers wanted. Not any plan, by any means.”
The buyers of the three homes were not identified. The Rio Vista and Charmian homes were bought with LLCs, and the Ampthill sale was yet not reflected on city property records available online this week.
The Rio Vista home had been owned by Ronald and Linda Hochstein. Totaling 5,900 square feet, the house near the Country Club of Virginia totals 4 bedrooms and 6½ bathrooms on a 2-acre lot that fronts the Kanawha Canal.
The property was assessed by the city at $2.4 million. Whit Kern with Providence Hill Real Estate represented the mystery buyer.
The house at 4716 Charmian Road sold at its list price.
Totaling 8,300 square feet, the Charmian house in Westmoreland Place was sold for Daniel and Kathryn LeBey, who had owned it since 2017. Updated and renovated, the house has six bedrooms and seven bathrooms, and the 0.7-acre property was assessed by the city at $2.6 million. Anne Chewning with The Steele Group | Sotheby’s International Realty represented the buyer.
The house at 11 Ampthill sold above its Oct. 28 list price of $2.3 million. It was put under contract a week later. Totaling 4,800 square feet, the 5-bedroom, 5½-bath house had been owned by the late Bowlman Bowles Jr. and Nancy Bowles.
The house at 11 Ampthill Road was December’s third-priciest sale.
The 0.6-acre property was assessed by the city at $1.7 million, and Steele Group’s Maria Brent represented the buyer. An adjacent parcel at 9 Ampthill Road also was sold by Wade in a separate deal totaling just under $1 million.
Wade attributed her hot streak over the past several months to her client network and low inventory in Richmond’s high-end home market.
“There’s just such a huge lack of inventory in the Near West End that it’s great to be a listing agent and to be able to help people maximize their profit and get top dollar for their homes,” Wade said. “They were all really beautiful properties. I just feel very fortunate and grateful to know people with such beautiful homes that put their trust in me.”
Rounding out the top five sales for December were, according to the Central Virginia Regional Multiple Listing Service:
3201 Grove Ave., Museum District, Richmond – $2 million. Listing agents: Marianne Donahue and Ellie Boyd, Long & Foster; buyer’s agent: Joseph Lawson, Long & Foster.
12414 Bluffton Ridge Court, The Blufftons, Goochland – $1.9 million. Listing agents: Scott Ruth and Scott Shaheen, Shaheen, Ruth, Martin & Fonville Real Estate; buyer’s agent: Holly Shaheen, SRMF.