How DC’s Housing Inventory Could Affect Prices Next Spring

• November 10, 2015

by UrbanTurf Staff

A Cleveland Park home that sold in October.

It has been a frequent refrain and it remained the same in October: Just as quickly as homes are hitting the market in the DC region they seem to be finding buyers.

The inventory of homes for sale continued to increase in the region in October, albeit slowly, as pending contracts hit their highest level for the month in over a decade, according to a report out Tuesday from RealEstate Business Intelligence (RBI).

A total of 4,794 new pending sales were recorded in October, a 7.8 percent increase compared to last year and a 0.3% increase over last month, according to the report. “This marks a full year of consecutive year-over-year increases, and the ninth consecutive month that all market segments have demonstrated year-over-year increases,” the report stated.

Median home prices across the region in October.

Prices in the DC area fell ever so slightly in October to $399,000, down 0.3 percent compared to October 2014. Prices did see big gains in Falls Church (8.1 percent) and Fairfax City (5.7 percent), while rising 2.8 percent in DC proper.

Inventory in the region rose to 12,676 active listings, the 25th month in a row that the supply of homes for sale has increased and a 6.4 percent jump over last year. However, month over month, the number of active listings fell 2.2 percent, which RBI’s Elliot Eisenberg points to as a telling sign of things to come.

“While growing year-over-year for 25 straight months, the increase last month was just 6.4 percent down from a 35 percent increase in August 2014,” Eisenberg told UrbanTurf. “At this rate, inventories will soon start to shrink and if sales and existing contracts remain as high as they are, prices will start to noticeably rise. As winter is slow season for real estate, I expect the impact of the soon-to-be declining inventory to make itself felt in the traditionally strong spring season with price increases of at least the mid to upper single digits, a strong improvement from the recent price increases of generally 1 to 2 percent.”

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/housing_inventories_rise_in_dc_for_25th_straight_month/10566