Inventory of Homes For Sale in DC Area At Lowest Level Since 2005

• December 10th 2012

by UrbanTurf Staff

If you have been house hunting in the region and have grown frustrated with the lack of homes for sale, you are probably not alone.

On Monday, RealEstate Business Intelligence reported that the number of active listings in the DC area last month fell below 8,000 for the first time since June 2005. Specifically, there were 7,830 homes on the market at the end of November, almost a 38 percent drop over November 2011.

To put that number in perspective, it is about one-third of the inventory in November 2007, when there were over 25,000 homes on the market. What’s more is that, with the exception of August, active inventory has been dropping noticeably over the last four months — from 9,650 listings in July to 8,766 listings in October to 7,830 in November.

Low inventory has been a common theme of the region’s housing market this year, and one of the main reasons is the lack of new listings to hit the market each month. In November, 3,428 new homes came on the market in the DC area. That may sound like a lot, but it represents a 7.7 percent drop from November 2011, with all property segments reporting the lowest new listings in over a decade.

While it might be frustrating for buyers, the scant inventory is good news for home prices in the region. The median home price in the area is 10.4 percent higher than last year and the highest level for the month of November in five years. In DC proper, median sales prices rose almost 14 percent between November 2011 ($395,000) and November 2012 ($450,000).

The area that RBI analyzes includes DC, Montgomery County, Prince George’s County, Alexandria City, Arlington County, Fairfax County, Fairfax City, and Falls Church City.

Thumbnail image is a home for sale at 5042 Sherier Place NW.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/inventory_of_homes_for_sale_in_dc_area_lowest_since_2005/6414.