Year-over-year average sales prices were up in the single-family category but down elsewhere as Arlington’s home sales in March started the spring season softly.
A total of 197 properties went to closing for the month, down 32 percent from the 290 transactions of March 2022, according to figures reported April 11 by MarketStats by ShowingTime based on listing activity from Bright MLS, as analyzed by the GazetteLeader.
The downturn was not a surprise: The market began cooling with the onset of higher mortgage-interest rates last spring, and a combination of lack of inventory and affordability issues has kept sales down.
The falloff in sales was less pronounced on the single-family side of the equation, where the 71 transactions compared to 84 a year ago, a decline of 15.5 percent. In the attached side of the equation – townhouses, townhouses and condominiums – sales were down from 206 to 126, a dip of 39 percent.
The average sales price of all properties that went to closing for the month stood at $844,318, up 6 percent from a year before. Part of that increase was due to the larger percentage of single-family properties in the overall sales mix.
Among the three legs of the homes-market stool:
• The average price of single-family property that sold in Arlington was $1,365,411, up 4.1 percent from $1,311,944.
• The average price of an attached property (including condominiums) was $550,686, down 6.1 percent from $586,392.
• The average price of a condominium was $509,391, down 2.3 percent from $521,102.
A total of 59 properties changed hands for $1 million or more, including three for $2.5 million and up.
Total sales volume for the month stood at just under $168 million, down 25 percent from $225 million a year ago.
Homes that went to closing in March spent an average of 29 days on the market between listing and ratified sales contract, up from 20 a year before, and garnered 98,9 percent of listing price, down from 101.3 percent.
Conventional mortgages represented the method of transacting sales in 119 cases, followed by cash (52) and VA-backed loans (14).
Inventory remains tight, with just 296 properties on the market at the end of the month. That’s down, slightly, from the 304 homes in March 2023, a period when offerings were being snapped up by buyers trying to beat further interest-rate hikes.
And homeowners with rock-bottom mortgage-interest rates are unlikely to give them up – the 280 properties that came onto the market during the month represented a decline of nearly 40 percent from the 465 of a year before.
Where is the market headed? Pending sales remain about 25 percent below figures from a year before, and should translate into a similar decline in closed sales in the coming month or two.
After that, the disparity should narrow, largely because Arlington’s market started to cool last year around mid-spring.
Figures represent most, but not all, transactions the market. All March 2023 figures are preliminary and are subject to revision.
