After lagging Alexandria for two months, Arlington is back on top in the latest Bright MLS T3 Home-Demand Index, released Sept. 12.
Even so, the data suggest home-buyer interest in the Arlington market declined slightly from July to August.
The index uses a variety of data points and a proprietary formula to settle on a monthly score for buyer interest all the way down to the ZIP-code level. It is a forward-looking counterpart to rear-view-mirror monthly sales data.
The open-ended scorecard gauges buyer-interest conditions as High with any total above 130; Moderate from 110-129; Steady from 90-109; and Slow from 70-89. Any score less than 70 suggests the market of available homes is limited.
Arlington scored 126 based on August figures, down from 129 in July and from 139 in June but still good enough to lead the regional pack during a late-summer period when both sellers and buyers seemed to be taking a breather.
Alexandria dropped from 135 to 104, falling into third place behind the city of Falls Church at 117 (unchanged).
Regionally, the overall score of 75 for August was down from 84 a month before and 101 a year ago.
“The latest decrease in the index was likely the result of the cumulative impact of higher mortgage rates and an ongoing shortage of homes for sale, both of which contributed to the lower index reading in August,” Bright MLS analysts said.
“The index for luxury condos decreased the most, falling 19 percent to 109, but was still higher than any other segment despite the decrease over the month,” they noted.
For the year to date, home-buyer activity regionally peaked in April.
Among other localities in the August data: Prince George’s County tallied 83, Fairfax County 79, Loudoun County 72, the District of Columbia 71 Fairfax city 70, Montgomery County 65 and Frederick County 55.
Among individual ZIP codes in Arlington, five remained in High territory: 22206 (260), 22213 (147), 22204 (139) 22209 (133) and 22202 (130). The 22203 (123) and 22201 (120) ZIPs sere in Moderate territory; 22205 (101) was Steady; and 22207 (82) was slow.
For full data all the way to the ZIP-code level across the region, see the Website at homedemandindex.com.
