A Market on Steroids: The DC-Area Housing Market Went Into Overdrive in March

• April 14th 2021

by UrbanTurf Staff

For months, the DC-area housing market has been operating like it was already spring, with high prices, high competition and swift sales.

Now that the spring market has arrived, it looks to be one of the best on record. 

The March report on the DC-area housing market from MarketStats by ShowingTime out today reveals a market that is robust everywhere you look -- except when it comes to the supply of homes for sale.

Closed home sales were 18 percent higher in the first quarter of 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, with almost 2,000 more sales regionally. The condo and co-op market saw the highest sales volume in a decade, up 61% compared to March 2019. The sales numbers will likely be even better next month, as pending sales in March were up 32% year-over-year. 

The enormous sales volume materialized despite historic home prices for the region. The median sales price of $516,000 was the highest ever for the month of March. In Prince George's County, prices were up $35,000 year-over-year, and in Alexandria, single-family home prices eclipsed the $1 million level for the first time. 

The two metrics above begin to illustrate the competitive nature of the current market, as do a number of other statistics from March.

The median price of $516,000 for homes sold in March was $16,000 higher than the median list price of homes for sale. For the first time ever, the sales price to original list price ratio rose above 100% in March. Inventory remained below a month's supply, which means that if no new homes came on the market at the current sales pace, there would be no homes for sale in just a few weeks. The Bright|T3 Home Demand Index found that 60% of area zip codes registered high demand in March compared to 40% in April. 

"Prices, inventory, days on market, it's all variations on themes that we have seen for months and they are all good," real estate economist Dr. Elliot Eisenberg told UrbanTurf. "It's an unprecedented market. I haven't seen one like it in 25 years."

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/a-market-on-steroids-the-dc-area-housing-market-went-into-overdrive-in-marc/18131.