Once again, the housing market was strong in September, with more homes being sold and fewer listings available, according to information from the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors.
Amy Ritsko-Warren, manager of communications and media relations for NVAR, said that home sales were up 21 percent in September, compared with the same month a year ago.
“Volume keeps rising in terms of the number of houses sold, but the number of listings available is lower, which makes prices rise,” she said.
In total, 1,972 single-family homes were sold in September, compared with 1,938 homes in September of 2003. The number of listings available in September was 2,817, down over 7 percent from the same time last year, which offered 3,102 listings. The average sale price was $440,150, up 22 percent from the same time last year, which was $363,376, according to NVAR statistics.
No information is available yet for October, but Ritsko-Warren assumes the numbers will one again indicate a strong market.
“ALL MARKETS are hot across the board,” she said of Northern Virginia. “This is really one market. Occasionally, there will be a buyer who wants to look in only one area, like Fairfax City or Alexandria, but typically, people are looking to live in Northern Virginia in general.”
Gail Belt, a Realtor with Coldwell Banker, specializes in Vienna, Oakton, McLean and Great Falls.
“September was busy, it was a very active month,” she said. “We have several situations where properties sold at or above list price, but it’s not necessarily the frenzy from last spring.”
The market is still very healthy, Belt said, but she said it is starting to “stabilize.”
“I’m not sure you can attribute that to any one thing. It’s a combination of interest rates from last spring being so low, and the fact that there’s not a great many sellers, but a great many buyers are looking,” she said.
Sales are slowing, she said, and homeowners who are selling should not be discouraged if their home doesn’t sell in the first few days.
“A lot of the pent-up demand for homes has been satisfied,” she said. “There’s a little more balance. People aren’t feeling the pressure to act on a house immediately.”
More homes may be on the market because their owners were waiting to see who won the recent presidential election, but Belt doesn’t think the outcome will have a great effect on the market.
“It feels like we can get on with our lives now,” she said. “I don’t see any drastic changes in the market now the election’s over.”
“If you look at the broad picture, we’ve seen a great many peaks and valleys in the market, but I’ve never seen it go all the way back to where it was before,” she said.
“I had a $990,000 listing sold in two weeks,” said Sonni Lieberman of Weichert Realtors in Fairfax. “Everyone is trying to get into homes before the January rush.”
Lieberman agreed that the market is strong, driven by people relocating to Northern Virginia for the job market.
“There’s a lot of traffic coming in and the interest rates are lower now than they’ve been in a long time,” she said. “There are strong economic indicators, the job market here is extremely strong, but the biggest problem is transportation and congestion.”
However, low supply for high demand causing prices to rise is a big factor for first time buyers.
“PRICES ARE CHALLENGING for new homeowners and government workers who don’t stay in one place too long,” she said. “But with financing, we have lots of options, including a three-year interest-only mortgage, where the buyer only pays the interest on the house until it’s time to move somewhere else. “
Carol Greco of Long & Foster said September was a “$3 million month for me, and we had a strong October too.”
“Most of our listings are selling in a week or two, so it’s still a very strong market,” she said.
Those selling their homes are “making a lot more than if they had put the house up for Jan. 1 of this year,” she said.
The healthy market isn’t confined to one area, Greco said. “I work in Loudoun, Fairfax County, Arlington and Alexandria and they all seem to be doing great,” she said.
She said it’s important to remind home sellers “not to be hysterical if the house doesn’t sell in two days. The hot market of last spring isn’t here now, but it’s still good.”
A house that is cosmetically perfect, on a perfect lot, may still sell immediately, so it’s important to make any repairs and improvements before putting a house on the market, she said.
“Right now, people need to be reasonable,” she said. “Buyers can’t be looking for a steal and sellers have to realize they probably won’t sell their house in a day.”