July Home Sales in DC Area Hit Highest Level in a Decade

• August 10, 2015

by Tianna Mañón

A Capitol Hill home that found a buyer in under a week in July.

Closed and pending home sales in the DC region were at their highest levels for the month of July since 2005, a clear indication that the regional housing market had another strong showing last month.

Closed sales increased 15 percent over July 2014 to 5,225 transactions, and new contracts leapt up 9.4 percent to just over 5,200, according to the report released by Real Estate Business Intelligence. Townhome sales increased by 19.9 percent, followed by single-family homes (+15.4 percent) and then condo sales (+9.9 percent).

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Median sales prices in the region also rose, increasing by 1.1 percent to $432,500, just $2,500 less than the record high of $435,000 set in 2007. In DC, median sales prices rose about 3 percent to $550,000; in Arlington, prices rose to $625,000, an almost 11 percent increase over last July.

Homes were selling the quickest in the District and Falls Church, where the median days on market were 10 and 11 days, respectively. For the region overall, homes are actually selling a little slower than last year. The days on market metric for the region rose to 19 days from 17.

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The inventory of homes for sale also increased, rising for the 22nd consecutive month, which might have some readers out there wondering how it is still a seller’s market. There were 12,564 active listings on the market in July, a 12 percent increase compared to July 2014. Condos led the way, increasing by 23 percent or to 3,216 units. Just over 6,800 new listings hit the market last month, an 8.5 percent increase over July 2014.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/july_home_sales_hit_highest_level_in_decade/10220