Typical seasonal market cooling coupled with a modest year-over-year decline in inventory held back total sales across Arlington in October, while prices generally were flat compared to a year before.
A total of 149 properties went to closing countywide for the month, according to figures reported by MarketStats by ShowingTime based on listing activity from Bright MLS.
That was down about 18 percent from a year before, in line with recent market performance, and was down from 171 sales in September, marking the typical slowing as summer gives way to autumn.
The average sales price for all transactions during the month stood at $864,982, up 6.1 percent from a month before – but that increase largely was fueled by a higher percentage of single-family homes in the overall sales mix. The 61 single-family properties that sold represented 41 percent of total transactions; a year before, the total had been 37 percent.
Sales prices in the single-family sector averaged out to $1,355,750 for the month, up just under 1 percent from a year before.
Sales prices also trended higher in the attached (townhouse/rowhouse/condominium) sector, rising 3.4 percent to $524,791, and were effectively unchanged at $475,458 in the condo-only sector.
A total of 49 properties changed hands for more than $1 million, including three for $2.5 million or more.
Add up the sales and prices, and total market volume for October was $128.8 million, down 14.2 percent from a year ago.
Homes that went to closing for the month spent an average of 21 days on the market, down from 31 a year before, and garnered 99.5 percent of listing price, up from 97 percent. Conventional mortgages represented the method of financing in 93 cases, followed by cash (44) and VA-backed loans (seven).
By the looks of it, the inventory crunch is easing, with total active listings down 11 percent from a year before to 358, compared to year-over-year drops of 30-plus percent a few months ago. But listings already were constricted toward the end of 2022, so the comparison with a few months back are not really valid.
Where is the market headed? The number of pending sales in the pipeline in the October report was down about 5 percent from a year before, seeming to telegraph a typical cool, but not frozen, autumn-into-winter market.
Figures represent most, but not all, homes on the market. All October 2023 figures are preliminary and are subject to revision.
