Best January in decade for DC-area housing

WASHINGTON — Prices, sales and contract signings for home sales all hit 10-year highs for a January in the Washington metro.

Listing service MRIS said the median price of a sale that closed in January was $390,000, up 3.9 percent from a year ago. It was the highest January median sales price since 2007.

Sales volume across the D.C. metro was nearly $1.5 billion, up 19.5 percent and closed sales were up 11.5 percent from a year earlier, the highest January level in 10 years. Contracts signed to buy homes also reached the highest January level in a decade.

There are more sellers coming to market, though inventory throughout the Washington region remains tight.

MRIS says new listings were up 12.7 percent from a year ago, but the total number of residential properties for sale is down 12.7 percent. It was the ninth consecutive month with a decline in year-over-year inventory levels, and the number of properties on the market is now the lowest in three years.

Sellers continue to get what they’re listing for or close to it, with the average percent or original list price of 97 percent.

In Virginia, Falls Church, Arlington County and Alexandria were the only three jurisdictions with lower median sales prices from a year earlier.

The City of Fairfax in Virginia and Montgomery County, Maryland, saw the biggest year-over-year increase in median prices, up 8.7 percent and 8.3 percent respectively.

Jeff Clabaugh

Jeff Clabaugh has spent 20 years covering the Washington region's economy and financial markets for WTOP as part of a partnership with the Washington Business Journal, and officially joined the WTOP newsroom staff in January 2016.

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