Darci Marchese, wtop.com
WASHINGTON – Usually it’s location, location, location, but the current housing market appears to be all about the inventory — or lack of it.
Fewer and fewer homes are going up for sale, according to data collected by MRIS.
In the Washington, D.C. region, single-family homes on the market plummeted by 36 percent from January 2012 to January 2013.
Condominium listings fell by 43 percent during the same time period.
However, the limited market appears hot.
Condo settlements, which occur when sales are finalized, increased by 27 percent in January 2013, while sale prices rose by 17 percent.
The median sale price for single family homes rose 5 percent.
Housing experts say the low inventory may be artificially pushing up sale prices, but it is helping to give sellers the upper-hand.
Earlier this month, Ryan Price, a research associate with the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University, told WTOP, inventory was at an eight-year low.
Analysts say there are many reasons why inventory continues to be so low, including homeowners being upside down on their mortgages, not having enough equity in their homes to move up to a new home and foreclosures slowing.
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