What an August Report Might Foretell About the Fall Housing Market in DC

• September 11th 2018

by Nena Perry-Brown

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After 23 consecutive months of home price increases, the DC area has grown accustomed to seeing values tick up year-over-year, and those rising prices really haven't dampened buyer demand. The latest Bright MLS housing report shows that median prices rose by 2.8 percent in August to $442,250, another monthly decade-high. In DC proper, prices also increased by 2.8 percent to $560,000. 

At almost $2.8 billion, the sales volume in the area rose by 4.1 percent year-over-year in August, but the number of closed sales during the month decreased by a fraction of a percent, led by 6.9 percent fewer detached houses selling.

However, the fractional drop in closed sales might not be the real harbinger of the climate of the market this fall. 

New pending sales in the area took even more of a hit, decreasing by 4.4 percent to 4,747 transactions, just above the 5- and 10-year averages for the region. The drop in the number of pending sales was more pronounced in DC proper, falling 5.6 percent. 

While it is far too early to call this anything more than a blip, something to watch in the coming months is whether this slow down continues and begins to create the conditions for a buyers' market, particularly as new listings continue to hit the market (5 percent more new listings hit the market in DC proper last month than in August 2017). 

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/what-an-august-report-might-foretell-about-the-fall-market/14421.