We take a look at what is happening in the Northern Virginia real estate market.
February brought another active month in real estate sales in Northern Virginia. Homes are selling on average above asking price and buyers are waiving contingencies in order to present an attractive offer in a very competitive market.
It is still a sellers market. The low inventory of existing homes for sale is well below the high demand of buyers looking to purchase a home. While Mortgage rates have started to climb a bit from the historic lows we saw in the fall, we don’t anticipate that this will dampen buyer interest.
Last month the Northern Virginia area sold 1,497 homes – a 25.5% increase over the same time last year. Total dollar sales volume was 27.5% higher than February 2020 and 10% higher than January 2021. This is indicative of earlier than normal spring market conditions with 25% more sales closed last month over February 2020.
The only differentiator is the type of home or price point. Single-family homes and townhouse under $1 million in northern Virginia had less than one month of inventory at the end of February. However, as we started to see last month, the supply of condominiums in our market has been growing for the last several months – bringing a more balanced buyer-seller market. In February 2020 there were 382 condos for sale. That number jumped to 861 last month. This is good news for buyers who are ready to jump into the market now but are unable to compete with the low inventory of single family homes.
And this trend continued into the luxury home (over $2 million) and luxury high rise condos (over $1 million) market where we are seeing a little more balance with inventory from 3-7 months.
We continue to watch the market as mortgage rates begin to climb and the traditional spring market time frame arrives.