DC Housing Market Rebounds from Dip Last February

• March 12th 2018

by Nena Perry-Brown

Last February, DC-area home prices hit a decade-high for the month while DC proper saw prices drop 3 percent. However, the latest monthly report from Bright MLS shows that this February, the housing market in the District rebounded in resounding fashion.

DC area home prices last month rose for the 17th consecutive month, rising 2.6 percent compared to last February for a new 10-year high of $410,000. The regionwide price increase was mirrored in DC proper where the median sold price also went up by 2.6 percent to hit $532,500. The rise in DC prices coincided with a 10 percent increase in closed sales and a 10 percent drop in new listings. 

Meanwhile, regionwide inventory has dropped for the 22nd consecutive month, further exacerbating the supply shortage that has plagued the region for quite some time. Low supply in the area has led to lower sales volume (down 3.6 percent year-over-year) and fewer closed sales (down nearly 2 percent year-over-year). 

At the close of February, there were 13.4 percent fewer active listings regionwide than there were at close of February 2017. Nearly the same drop-off was observed in DC, where there were 13.2 percent fewer active listings year-over-year. Compared to how unpredictable DC's housing market was last year, the market in 2018 may be making up for lost time.

"Inventory continues to go down and sales continue to go up, but prices haven't accelerated because of that yet," Andrew Strauch, Vice President at Bright MLS, told UrbanTurf. "One factor is that buyers are not bidding up houses. Another is interest rates are starting to tick up. A lot of people's decision when they buy a home is affordability, and as interest rates tick up, I don't see prices going down, but I think it's going to continue suppressing appreciation over the next couple of years."

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/dc-housing-market-rebounds-from-dip-last-february/13686.