Despite a chilly home-sales report for January, leaders of the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors (NVAR) are upbeat on the market’s prospects going into springtime.
“The buyers and sellers I work with are motivated and adjusting to higher mortgage rates,” said Peter Bixby of Compass, a member of the NVAR board of directors.
In January, a total of 778 properties went to closing in the association’s catchment area, which includes Arlington and Fairfax counties and the cities of Alexandria, Fairfax and Falls Church.
That’s down a third from the 1,172 transactions recorded in January 2022, when the market still had some sizzle – and before the impact of rising interest rates further exacerbating longstanding affordability issues.
Buyers had more to choose from last month, as the number of active listings on the market at the end of January (1,210) was up 42 percent from a year before. That’s due more to homes staying on the market longer than it is to buyers putting their homes on the market, as many remain on the sidelines awaiting developments.
The average sales price of all homes that went to closing in January ($718,773) in Northern Virginia was down 2.3 percent from a year before, but the decline was concentrated in the single-family sector, where the average price dipped 5.7 percent ($1,020,746), Average prices of townhouses and condominiums were up for the month.
Total market volume for January was $568.5 million, down 31 percent from $821.9 million a year before.
While sales for the month were down 34 percent, pending sales – those in the pipeline but not yet having reached the closing table – were down just 24 percent, and transactions that entered the pending-sale category in January were down just 18 percent from a year before.
Those figures “indicate an increase in market activity,” Bixby said. “This growth is a positive sign.”
NVAR president/CEO Ryan McLaughlin said winter doldrums are a fact of life in the Northern Virginia market.
“While sales remained subdued, market activity typically increases with the springtime, and we expect this trend to continue in 2023,” he said.
Figures represent most, but not all, transactions across the market. January 2023 figures are preliminary and are subject to revision.
