Northern Virginia represented 30.1 percent of total home sales across the commonwealth during the first three months of the year, down slightly from 30.8 percent during the first quarter of 2023.
That’s according to the Virginia Realtors trade group, which reported Northern Virginia as having 6,187 sales out of a statewide 20,526 during the January-February-March period.
In 2023, it was 6,551 sales out of 21,286.
In Northern Virginia, year-over-year home sales were off 5.6 percent during the first quarter, owing to both affordability and availability concerns. Statewide, the drop was a less pronounced 3.6 percent.
For its reporting purposes, Virginia Realtors carves the commonwealth into eight geographic areas. In its parlance, “Northern Virginia” includes not only the inner and outer suburbs of Washington, D.C., plus west to the West Virginia line and south to the northern reaches of the Fredericksburg area.
The first-quarter data seem to confirm recent trends that people now are more inclined to move to less urban areas of the commonwealth. While Northern Virginia, Hampton Roads (-4.3%) and the broader Richmond area (-5.9%) saw year-over-year declines in the first quarter, the Shenandoah Valley (+8.2%), Eastern Virginia (+3%), Southside Virginia (+2.4%) and West-Central Virginia (+0.3%) posted increases.
The only reporting area that didn’t follow the trend was the mostly rural southwesternmost part of the state, which saw a decline of 3.1 percent.
Figures represent most, but not all, homes on the market. All first-quarter-2024 figures are preliminary and are subject to revision.
