Home | Newsletter | Advertise
loading...

Same Story, New Month: Record Prices Result in Declining Home Sales in the DC Area

  • January 10th 2019

by Nena Perry-Brown

✉️ Want to forward this article? Click here.

The narrative of the regional housing market in the final months of 2018 was one of record prices and falling sales, and December was no exception.

The latest monthly report from MarketStats by ShowingTime shows that the December metrowide median price hit a decade-high for the month, rising 5.9 percent year-over-year to $445,000. Prices went up by an even 6 percent in DC proper to $599,000. 

December sales and median price. Click to enlarge.

While home sellers might like record prices, home buyers do not. Closed sales fell 9.4 percent in the region in December. The drop was even more pronounced in the District, where 16.4 percent fewer sales closed year-over-year. Despite the drop in closed sales, new pending sales rose slightly in the DC area for the first time in five months; however, pending sales fell in DC proper by 5.4 percent.

While home prices are high, buyers can take solace in that they may have more inventory to choose from, at least in DC proper. While there were 3.2 percent fewer new listings regionwide in December 2018 than in December 2017, there were 16 percent more listings on the market in DC than the previous year. 

See other articles related to: bright mls, dc area home prices, dc area market trends

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/same-story-new-month-record-home-prices-result-in-declining-home-sales/14867.

DC Real Estate Guides

Short guides to navigating the DC-area real estate market

We've collected all our helpful guides for buying, selling and renting in and around Washington, DC in one place. Start browsing below!

First-Timer Primers

Intro guides for first-time home buyers

Red Flags Revealed During a Home Inspection Top 5 Tax Breaks For Homeowners Tax Relief for DC Homeowners
Condo Fee Tutorial What is a Rent Back? 10 Ways To Tell If a Home Renovation is Well Done
Obtaining a Basic Business License For Your Rental What is an Adjustable Rate Mortgage? The Splitting the Rent Formula
How Much Cash Do You Need to Buy a House? Is This Condo Building Financially Healthy? Interest Rates and Mortgage Points
The Scoop on Mortgage Insurance

Unique Spaces

Awesome and unusual real estate from across the DC Metro

The Most Intriguing Loft in DC The R Street Firehouse DC’s One-Room House
Dupont Circle’s Old Frat House To Become Alley Home Best Transition From a Garage To a Home The Roundhouse
Tilden Gardens Restaurant-Turned-Home Hits Market Next Week Logan Circle’s Most Intriguing Garage Frank Lloyd Wright Goes Green in Kensington
Sears Bungalow Gets a Modern Makeover Old Town General Store Becomes Three-Level Home Making the Most of a Skinny House
A Studio 27 Renovation on Capitol Hill Once a Carriage House, Now a Home The Bank that Became a Home
From Pie to Hooch to Heroin to Home The Live-Aboards of Gangplank Marina A Treehouse with Rock Creek Park As A Backyard
Modern Tranquility in Sperryville Saddle Up For Stable Living Throwing a Curve at 550 Square Feet
A Modern Hilltop Retreat Tilden Street Restaurant Becomes Spacious Home Focus on Design: A Vastu Unit at 22 West
The DC Area’s First Net Zero Home A Yankee Goes Green DC’s First Carbon Neutral Home
Eco-Friendly Alley House Off H Street The Gym, The Stables and The Firehouse