The median home-sales price across the Washington metropolitan area for the first quarter of 2023 was up year-over-year, according to new data.
The region’s median single-family sales price of $557,200 for the January-February-March period, newly reported by the National Association of Realtors, rose 0.8 percent from $550,100 during the same period in 2022.
That compares to a 0.2-percent decrease nationally, where the first-quarter-of-2022 median sales price for single-family homes stood at $371,200.
That national year-over-year decline took back some of the gains registered in the fourth quarter of 2022, when year-over-year sales prices were up 4 percent.
The decline during the first quarter was largely centered in the pricey western areas of the country:
• The median sales price of homes in the Northeast was $394,100, down 0.1 percent.
• The median sales price in the Midwest was $264,100, up 2.9 percent.
• The median sales price in the South was $346,000, up 1.4 percent.
• The median sales price in the West was $559,300, down 5.3 percent.
Comparing the D.C. region’s first-quarter totals to its immediate predecessors, the median sales price had been $550,100 in the fourth quarter of 2022, $581,300 in the third quarter and $626,700 in the superheated second quarter, as buyers were rushing to beat interest-rate spikes and sellers were trying to time the top of the market.
Parsing the national data, National Association of Realtors’ chief economist Lawrence Yun noted that high-priced locales in the West saw prices drop by at least 10 percent from a year before.
“Home prices are also lower in cities that previously experienced rapid price gains,” Yun said. “For example, home prices grew an astonishing 67 percent in three years in Boise City and Austin through 2022. The latest price reductions in these areas have improved housing affordability and led to some buyers returning, given the sustained, rapid job creation in their respective markets.”
Conversely, prices rose by at least 10 percent from the previous year in more modestly prices metro areas, like Milwaukee, Dayton and Oklahoma City.
Overall, prices are being propped up by a dearth of supply – off 40 percent from pre-COVID norms – as homeowners opt to sit tight and enjoy rock-bottom interest rates they secured before rates begin to increase at the start of 2022.
As a result, “price declines could be short-lived,” Yun said, pointing to a return of multiple offers on properties.
Despite declines in each case, four metro areas still recorded median sales prices of more than $1 million for the quarter: San Jose ($1,618,400, down 13.7%); Anaheim ($1,195,500, down 5.1%); San Francisco ($1,192,600, down 14.5%); and Honolulu ($1,029,000, down 8.8%). The most expensive market to see a year-over-year increase was #10 Naples, Fla., which posted a 4.3-percent increase to $777,000.
At the other end of the spectrum, Joplin, Mo., had the lowest median sales price for the quarter at $173,400 (up 2.8%), followed by Syracuse, N.Y., at $176,300 (up 1.7%).
Among areas of Virginia outside the D.C. region, median sales prices for the fourth quarter were $362,300 in Richmond (up 2.2%); $313,200 in Hampton Roads (up 8%); $266,700 in Roanoke (up 6.8%); and $255,700 in Blacksburg (down 1.3%).
Figures for the first quarter of 2023 are preliminary and are subject to revision.
