Home sales across the Mid-Atlantic region for the first three months of 2024 were down 4.5 percent from a year before, according to new data, with Fairfax County running second to Philadelphia in the rankings.
A total of 42,385 properties went to closing across the broad region, according to figures reported April 10 by Bright MLS, the area’s multiple-listing service.
That’s down from 44,397 transactions for the same period a year before.
The figures represent a catchment area that includes about 70 counties and independent cities, including the District of Columbia, Delaware and portions of Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
As it typically does, Philadelphia County (Pa.) led all comers with 2,832 sales. That figure was down 5.4 percent from a year before but still healthy enough to easily outpace Fairfax County, which usually is second on the list and with 2,061 (down 7.7%) was this time out.
(For a period in the early pandemic era, those places were swapped, with Fairfax County coming out on top. But normalcy has since returned.)
A total of 16 jurisdictions recorded more than 1,000 sales during the three-month period, compared to 17 for the first quarter of 2023. Prince William County dropped off, falling from 1,063 sales last year to 978 this year.
Among those in the 1,000-sales club for the first quarter:
• The District of Columbia.
• In Virginia: Fairfax County.
• In Maryland: Prince George’s, Montgomery, Baltimore and Anne Arundel counties and the city of Baltimore.
• Philadelphia, Montgomery, Delaware, York and Bucks counties.
• Delaware: Sussex and New Castle counties.
• New Jersey: Burlington and Camden counties.
Of those 16 jurisdictions, all recorded year-over-year declines except York County (Pa.), which saw an increase of 0.3 percent.
