Why Battleground-State Housing Might Help Romney

Virginia (13 electoral votes)

The Old Dominion State's housing market appears to have bottomed out early this year, but Virginia Realtors Association President-Elect Mary Dykstra doesn't think many voters have noticed.

"I see the numbers and things are getting better, but I don't think it's a hot topic [among Virginians]," she says. "I think people have gotten accustomed to housing just not being so great."

The latest figures show that Virginia's median home prices hit $247,950 in August -- a 3% gain over the past year and a 21% rebound from the $204,950 bottom they reached in January.

Median prices are still down 16% from their June 2007 peak of $295,000, though.

Dykstra adds that voters where she lives in Southeast Virginia -- near regulation-wary coal country and the hard-hit furniture-manufacturing center of Martinsville -- are more worried about jobs than housing.

"What I hear from my own clients is a general cynicism that the whole country seems to share: 'Nobody in office is going to make my house worth more,'" Dykstra says.

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