Housing Sales, Average Price Climb Again For 2nd Consecutive Month Great Trend: Will It Last?
Fairfax, Virginia – March 13, 2013 – (RealEstateRama) — With the Northern Virginia area showing a second month of increased home sales compared to last year at this time, the first quarter of 2013 is gaining moderate traction.
The question on everyone’s mind here in Northern Virginia is: What about the fiscal headwinds? How will that affect us?
Since the federal government began cutting back two years ago — with foreign wars winding down and politicians at a spending impasse — a regional slowdown has followed. Home to a heavy concentration of federal contract workers, Northern Virginia could experience cuts from sequestration more deeply, that is if there is no political will to end them.
In February, Northern Virginia housing statistics are good with the expectation of continued improvement:
February homes sales, which totaled 1,103, rose 5.25 percent compared to the 1,048 that sold one year ago.
The Year-To-Date (YTD) median price is $429,000, up 12.6 percent since this period last year, when it was $455,353.
“2013 now has two straight months of housing increases in the books,” said Jon Wolford, Chairman of the Board of the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors®. “This reflects on the confidence level of prospective buyers here and on the diversity of our local economy.
“Some buyers have lowered their price points because of federal budget actions,” he said. “Yet, high affordability offered by record-low mortgage rates is still prompting first-time buyers and current homeowners to pursue a home purchase.”
The lean numbers are NVAR active listings, the number of homes for sale. In February in Northern Virginia, there was only a 1.84 month’s supply of homes. This decline of 36 percent from last year, when there was about a three-month supply of homes, marks the Achilles’ heel of the market.
February 2013 NVAR statistics can be found here:
http://nvar.com/images/market-statistics/monthly-sales/2013-02-northern-virginia-statistics.pdf
The 2013 YTD data from Real Estate Business Intelligence are found at the link below. Please note that calculating the YTD number of closings is an ongoing process. This explains why the number of sold listings reported by NVAR around the 10th of each month may be lower than the RBIntel YTD numbers, which capture only the sold listings that were reported right at the end of each month.
http://nvar.com/images/documents/misc/2013-03-12-rbistats.pdf
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The Northern Virginia Association of REALTORS® serves as The Voice For Real Estate in Northern Virginia and provides a variety of services to its members including educational opportunities, professional standards enforcement, market statistics, legislative reviews, issues lobbying, multiple listing and lockbox services, and more.
The purpose of NVAR is to enhance the ability and opportunity of its members to conduct their business successfully, to promote member professional competency, to maintain members’ adherence to the REALTOR® Code of Ethics and to promote the preservation of the right to own, transfer and use real property.
NVAR has grown to about 10,000 REALTORS® who carry out an $11 billion real estate industry in a community of more than 2 million residents.
Visit NVAR online at www.nvar.com, www.realtorschool.com, and www.realtorshop.com.
Contact the Northern Virginia Association of REALTORS® at 703.207.3200.
The NVAR headquarters is located at 8407 Pennell Street, Fairfax, VA 22031, with a satellite service center in Herndon.
Contacts:
Jill M. Landsman, Vice President, Communications & Media Relations
703.207.3226 or jlandsman (at) nvar (dot) com
Ann Gutkin, Manager, Communications & Media Relations
703.207.3216 or agutkin (at) nvar (dot) com
