The high fever has to break eventually – right? – but for now, there seems no upper limit on sales price of single-family homes in Arlington.
The average price of the 74 single-family properties that went to closing in April rose 8 percent year-over-year to $1.455 million even as other segments of the market declined.
Figures were reported by by MarketStats by ShowingTime based on listing activity from Bright MLS.
Fifty-three of the 74 detached homes going to closing countywide in April crossed the seven-figure mark, with five of them fetching $2.5 million or more.
Other segments, however, fared not so well for sellers:
• In the attached segment (townhouses, townhouses and condominiums), the average sales price of $508,860 was down 8.8 percent from $558,215.
• And in the condo-only segment, the average sales price of $442,967 was down 13.5 percent from $512,303.
Add it all up and the median average sales price across all sectors for April was $837,632, up 2.1 percent from $820,596.
(Single-family homes represented 35 percent of all transactions countywide in April compared to 33 percent in April 2022, slightly inflating the final average sales figure compared to a year before.)
Total market volume for the month was $176.8 million, down 26.6 percent from $240.8 million a year before, which was smack in the middle of the frenzied market that was springtime 2022.
Homes that went to closing in April spent an average of 32 days on the market between listing and ratified sales contract, up from 19 a year before, and garnered 99.4 percent of listing price, down from 101.8 percent a year ago.
But low inventory is keeping prices up, and apparently the desire to buy into single-family neighborhoods is causing bidding wars from prospective purchasers.
Total countywide inventory at the end of April was 275 homes, off 15.4 percent from a year ago. But new listings that came on the market in April (242) represented a decline of more than 40 percent from the same point in 2022, when sellers was moving quickly to prep homes and get them sold before the expected market softening arrived.
During April 2023, conventional mortgages represented the method of transacting sales in 130 cases, followed by cash (52) and VA-backed loans (20).
Where is the market heading? Total pending sales at the end of the month were down 15 percent while new pending sales coming through the transom during April were down 21 percent as inventory challenges continue to plague the marketplace.
Figures represent most, but not all, sales across the region. April 2023 figures are preliminary and are subject to revision.
