Three key challenges remain for the real-estate market in the Washington region to spring to life during the springtime.
Inventory, inventory, inventory.
The spring “will be challenging for buyers as new listings have been slow to come to the Washington, D.C. metro area market, and mortgage rates remain elevated,” said Lisa Sturtevant, chief economist for Bright MLS, the region’s multiple-listing service.
“Even in the counties where supply is higher than last year, gains are modest,” Sturtevant said in parsing both March sales data and looking forward.
To close the first quarter of the year, active listings across the region stood at 5,609. While up (4%) from a year before, it is still low compared to historic norms. New listings coming onto the overall market in March were down 11.4 percent from a year earlier, with even larger declines in Arlington and Fairfax counties.
“New listings outpaced new pending sales in March, which is what led to growing month-end inventory,” Sturtevant wrote in her monthly market wrap.
Figures represent data for the District of Columbia; Arlington, Fairfax and Loudoun counties and the cities of Alexandria, Fairfax and Falls Church in Virginia; and Montgomery, Prince George’s and Frederick counties in Maryland. Year-over-year sales were down in every jurisdiction except the relatively small cities of Fairfax and Falls Church, whose modest number of sales do not always follow broader regional patterns.
While there are fewer homes on the market, buyer enthusiasm seems to be modest, but building.
There were 115,819 home showings across the region in March, down 11.8 percent from a year before. But that decline was less than the 12.3-percent drop for the entire first quarter.
Sellers are cashing in: The median sold price across the region for the month was $599,990. It was an all-time record for any March in the region and up 10.1 percent from a year before – the fastest pace of home-price growth in 25 months.
Median prices were up in every jurisdiction across the region except the District of Columbia, which was flat.
Half the homes sold in March across the region spent less than a month between listing and ratified sales contract, a positive sign.
Figures represent most, but not all, homes on the market. March 2024 figures are preliminary and are subject to revision. For more information, see the Website at brightmls.com/research.
