Home | Newsletter | Advertise
loading...

DC's March Home Sales Surge Represents Return to Normalcy

  • April 11th 2011

by Mark Wellborn

DC's March Home Sales Surge Represents Return to Normalcy: Figure 1

Pending home sales jumped 34.3 percent in the DC area between February and March, according to data released today by RealEstate Business Intelligence (RBI), the research arm of Metropolitan Regional Information Systems (MRIS).

Specifically, 5,432 homes went under contract in the area last month compared to 4,044 in February. The area that MRIS analyzes includes DC, Montgomery County, Prince George’s County, Alexandria City, Arlington County, Fairfax County, Fairfax City, and Falls Church City.

While the increased sales activity is positive news for the region, RBI analyst Jonathan Miller sees the sales surge as a return to the seasonality of the market, not a second coming of the housing boom.

“I would describe this as a signal of a more normal, seasonal market,” Miller told UrbanTurf. “Compared with what we have seen in recent years, this data is representative of a market that is far less manic.”

DC's March Home Sales Surge Represents Return to Normalcy: Figure 2
Courtesy of MRIS. Click to enlarge.

Nevertheless, Miller was not surprised by the pending sales numbers (homes that went under contract), which were the highest for March since 2006. He noted that much of the housing data from indexes like Case-Shiller are representative of the market several months ago.

As for where the local market is heading, Miller was cautious with his predictions.

“Nobody really knows,” he said. “The success of any local housing market will depend on what happens with mortgage financing, the availability of credit and unemployment.”

Here are a few other highlights of the report:

  • Median home sales price rose 3.2 percent in the DC area between March 2010 and March 2011.
  • New listings represented 49.5 percent of the active inventory for the region in March.
  • The highest subsequent total number of contracts signed in a month during the last few years was 6,150, reached last April during the final month of the federal homebuyers’ tax credit program.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/dc_home_sales_surge_in_march_represents_return_to_normalcy/3307.

DC Real Estate Guides

Short guides to navigating the DC-area real estate market

We've collected all our helpful guides for buying, selling and renting in and around Washington, DC in one place. Start browsing below!

First-Timer Primers

Intro guides for first-time home buyers

Red Flags Revealed During a Home Inspection Top 5 Tax Breaks For Homeowners Tax Relief for DC Homeowners
Condo Fee Tutorial What is a Rent Back? 10 Ways To Tell If a Home Renovation is Well Done
Obtaining a Basic Business License For Your Rental What is an Adjustable Rate Mortgage? The Splitting the Rent Formula
How Much Cash Do You Need to Buy a House? Is This Condo Building Financially Healthy? Interest Rates and Mortgage Points
The Scoop on Mortgage Insurance

Unique Spaces

Awesome and unusual real estate from across the DC Metro

The Most Intriguing Loft in DC The R Street Firehouse DC’s One-Room House
Dupont Circle’s Old Frat House To Become Alley Home Best Transition From a Garage To a Home The Roundhouse
Tilden Gardens Restaurant-Turned-Home Hits Market Next Week Logan Circle’s Most Intriguing Garage Frank Lloyd Wright Goes Green in Kensington
Sears Bungalow Gets a Modern Makeover Old Town General Store Becomes Three-Level Home Making the Most of a Skinny House
A Studio 27 Renovation on Capitol Hill Once a Carriage House, Now a Home The Bank that Became a Home
From Pie to Hooch to Heroin to Home The Live-Aboards of Gangplank Marina A Treehouse with Rock Creek Park As A Backyard
Modern Tranquility in Sperryville Saddle Up For Stable Living Throwing a Curve at 550 Square Feet
A Modern Hilltop Retreat Tilden Street Restaurant Becomes Spacious Home Focus on Design: A Vastu Unit at 22 West
The DC Area’s First Net Zero Home A Yankee Goes Green DC’s First Carbon Neutral Home
Eco-Friendly Alley House Off H Street The Gym, The Stables and The Firehouse