Northern Virginia’s five major jurisdictions saw a collective 22.8 percent decline in overall home sales from 2022 to 2023, but prices in all cases were up from the preceding year.
A total of 25,308 homes went to closing last year across the five major localities, according to a GazetteLeader analysis of data supplied by Bright MLS, the region’s multiple-listing service.
That’s down from 32,784 sales in 2022, as affordability and availability issues kept some prospective buyers from finding their dream homes and had others simply sitting things out.
The year-over-year declines were essentially uniform across the five localities:
• Sales declined 22.6 percent from 14,484 to 11,218 in Fairfax County.
• Sales were off 25 percent from 6,833 to 5,125 in Prince William County.
• Sales dropped 23.1 percent from 6,056 to 4,659 in Loudoun County.
• Sales dipped 20.6 percent from 2,823 to 2,242 in Arlington.
• Sales were off 20.3 percent from 2,588 to 2,064 in Alexandria.
Across Bright MLS’s Mid-Atlantic coverage area as a whole, sales for the year totaled 217,844, a dip of 19 percent from a year before. Fairfax County was second to Philadelphia, whose 14,120 sales were down 18.3 percent.
When it came to sales prices, there also was relative uniformity from 2022 to 2023: Arlington rose 5.8 percent to an average $849,606; Fairfax County stood at $790,367, up 3.8 percent; Loudoun County averaged $776,861, up 3.1 percent; Alexandria stood at $723,791, up 3.1 percent; and Prince William County reported in with $569,304, also up 3.1 percent.
For the Mid-Atlantic as a whole, the average sales price for 2023 was $473,849, an increase of 3.3 percent from a year before.
Figures represent most, but not all, homes on the market, all year-end 2023 figures are preliminary and are subject to revision.
