No surprise to those who have been paying attention: Fairfax’s first-quarter home sales were the lowest in the past five years, as lack of inventory and affordability issues provide a double-whammy to the market.
A total of 2,206 properties went to closing during the first three months of the year – 552 in January, 694 in February and 960 in March – according to a GazetteLeader analysis of data by MarketStats by ShowingTime based on listing activity from Bright MLS.
While down substantially from the 2,795 sales during the same period in 2022 and 3,510 in 2021, those comparisons are probably less helpful in divining the overall health of the market than going back to pre-COVID days might be.
For the first quarter of 2020, home sales had stood at 2,965, while for the first quarter of 2019, they were 2,763.
(While COVID arrived in the local area in mid-March of 2020, it was unlikely to have impacted the sales total for the quarter, since homes going to closing in March had seen contracts written in January and February.)
The local market continues to battle headwinds on a number of fronts:
• Many sellers are content to sit on low-interest-rate mortgages, keeping inventory from growing too significantly and, as a result maintaining price levels.
• Those high (and in many cases growing) average prices are hampering the ability of buyers to find and finance homes, particularly with increases in interest rates compared to a year before.
Figures represent most, but not all, homes on the market. All March 2023 figures are preliminary and are subject to revision.
