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Did Coronavirus Make DC An Even Better Market For Home Sellers?

  • May 12th 2020

by UrbanTurf Staff

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A home on Capitol Hill that sold in April.

Before coronavirus, the DC-area housing market was a very good market for home sellers. The pandemic may have only amplified that.

The April report out this morning from Bright MLS illustrates how supply and demand dynamics made a tight regional housing market even tighter. 

With stay-at-home orders in effect, home sales fell in every local jurisdiction in April, dropping 20% for the region year-over-year and as much as 25-30% in Arlington and DC proper. The number of homes to go under contract dropped even more acutely, falling by the largest amount in a decade. 

New listings to enter the market in April over the last five years.

However, the drop in the supply of homes for sale was even more precipitous. The number of new listings coming on the market fell to the lowest level for April in ten years, resulting in just a 1.36-month supply of homes for sale. The inventory of new listings to hit the market in the region was down 38%; detached homes for sale in DC fell 55%. 

The dynamics at play above created favorable results for home sellers. 

Home prices rose across all jurisdictions and hit a record-high for the region in April. In Alexandria and Prince George's County, prices were up 10% and 15%, respectively. Homes were also selling quickly, spending an average of just seven days on the market, the lowest that metric has been in ten years. In Northern Virginia, homes were selling in just five days, on average. 

"The inventory that is out there is being purchased and purchased at a good price," Chris Finnegan of Bright MLS told UrbanTurf. "People are not rushing to put their homes on the market, and as a result, a lack of inventory is leading to the numbers that you are seeing."

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/did-coronavirus-make-dc-an-even-better-market-for-home-sellers/16825.

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