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Homes in DC Area Selling At Fastest Rate in 8 Years

  • May 10, 2013

by Mark Wellborn

Homes in DC Area Selling At Fastest Rate in 8 Years: Figure 1

A report out Friday only reiterated what many in the DC area housing market already know: it is a very good time to be a home seller and a frustrating time to be a buyer.

The April report published by RealEstate Business Intelligence revealed that homes for sale in the DC area are spending a mere 11 days (median) on the market before finding a buyer, the lowest level for any month since 2005.

But that is just one of several statistics that is pushing the needle very much in favor of the home seller. The average sale-to-original list price ratio is now at 98.2 percent, notably higher than the five-year average (94.8%) and a clear indication of the many bidding wars that are currently happening in the region.

Prices also continue to hit new records. The median price for the DC area reached its highest point for the month of April in six years ($400,000). In DC proper, the median price hit $470,000, a new record for the city. At $560,000, Arlington County also is at an all-time high.

Homes in DC Area Selling At Fastest Rate in 8 Years: Figure 2
Click to enlarge.

Even the seemingly good news from the report on the inventory front just illustrated how fast homes are moving. There were 7,238 new listings in April, an increase of 15.3 percent from April 2012, and the sharpest gain in 3 years. But the fact that the number of new listings was higher than the number of active listings for the month was telling.

“The new listings count includes any home that entered the market during the month, including those that may have gone to contract and potentially even to settlement before month’s end,” RBI’s Corey Hart told UrbanTurf. “Active listings is the count of all listings at month’s end that remain in active status. So, the fact that the new listings number was higher than the active listing number at month’s end just shows how quickly new listings are being snatched up.”

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/homes_in_dc_area_selling_at_fastest_rate_in_8_years/7049

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