Buyers Came Back to the DC-Area Market in March. Can the Momentum Last?

• April 10th

by UrbanTurf Staff

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Spring came early to the DC-area housing market in March, with buyers shaking off the winter doldrums and returning to the market.

New pending sales across the region climbed 5.3% compared to a year ago, according to the latest Bright MLS report, while showing activity ticked up 2.8%. DC proper saw one of the largest increases in pending sales, with 11% more listings going under contract this March. Closed sales also posted a healthy gain, rising 5.2% — and compared to February, the market looked dramatically more active across nearly every metric.

The median home price in the region settled at $635,000 in March, a modest 1.6% gain over last year and a notable jump from February's $610,000. Arlington County saw prices surge 7.9% year-over-year to $819,000, while Montgomery County climbed 6.6% to $650,000. DC (+2.3%), Fairfax County (+1.7%) and Prince George’s County (+1.1%) all saw prices rise as well.

One of the issues for the market remains a lack of new inventory coming online. While the number of new listings is up 56% in the region compared to February, they are still down nearly 6% compared to last March — meaning inventory remains constrained even as sellers slowly re-engage. DC, Arlington and Alexandria are all seeing 10% fewer listings hit the market compared to last spring. 

"The Washington D.C. area housing market showed some positive signs in March, however there are still headwinds to the spring homebuying season," the Bright report found. "Mortgage rates have been rising for the past five weeks and the on-going conflict with Iran is creating economic and political uncertainty."

Photo by Oleks Yaroshynskyi. 

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/dc-area_home_sales_rose_in_march_but_rising_rates_cloud_the_spring_outlook/24510.