Pent-up demand coupled with limited supply kept the average sales price of single-family homes on the rise in Arlington in February, according to new data.
The average price of the 57 detached homes that sold in the county last month was $1,354,642, up 3.3 percent from a year before and the highest in Northern Virginia.
The 12.3-percent drop-off in sales in the single-family sector for the month compared to a 36.9-percent drop in the townhouse/condominium segments, according to figures reported March 10 by MarketStats by ShowingTime based on listing activity from Bright MLS.
Add the sectors up, and total sales across Arlington stood at 139 for the month, down just under 30 percent from 198 a year before.
The overall downturn should be no surprise; the market was still hot last February, with the full impact of rising interest rates yet to kick in. It wasn’t until late March and early April that buyers began to get skittish.
Sellers these days no longer are getting buyers lining up to hand them money, with the average sales price standing at 98.2 percent of listing price. That’s down from 99.9 percent a year before, but still high for a February, traditionally one of the local market’s slower months.
Inventory at the end of February was up, with 247 homes available compared to 219 a year before, but that largely was due to homes lingering on the market longer. In fact, the number of new listings coming to market during the month was down nearly 40 percent from a year ago, suggesting sellers might once again be in the driver’s seat, at least briefly, as the spring home-buying market begins to pick up.
Of homes that sold during the month, conventional mortgages were the method of transacting sales in 87 cases, followed by cash (31) and VA-backed loans (16).
Total market volume for the month in Arlington was $114 million, down from $154.7 million a year before.
The expected decision by Arlington County Board members to throw open the gates to development in single-family neighborhoods – the Missing Middle policy – shortly could cause unexpected twists and turns in the local market. Ample single-family lots are likely to be snapped up by those who suddenly will have the ability to place as many as six houses on them.
Figures represent most, but not all, sales during the period. All February 2023 figures are preliminary and are subject to revision.
