The Loudoun County, Virginia, housing market is almost as hot as Arlington right now, albeit with lower prices. And, that is part of the reason why.
Big houses that are more affordable are attracting would-be buyers now priced out of the closer-in suburbs.
“What they could afford in the Fairfax County-Arlington-Alexandria area doesn’t quite get what they need,” said Casey Menish, a realtor with Pearson Smith Realty in Ashburn, and a member of the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors.
“So they’re looking a little bit farther out into Loudoun County to find something where the pricing is a little bit more affordable, but they can find the space that they need.”
Loudoun County is not the relative bargain it may have been a few years ago though. The median price of a single-family home that sold in Loudoun in January was a record $860,000. There is just one week’s worth of inventory on the market in Loudoun, according to listing service Bright MLS. And last month sellers got an average of 102% of list price.
Loudoun County may also be attractive because of choice for buyers looking for newer homes.
“There is so much new construction, still being built there,” Menish said. “I would say that most of the homes in Loudoun County were built in the last 20 years or so, and there is no real signs of slowing down.”
There are really two Loudoun Counties; Suburban eastern Loudoun County, and bucolic western Loudoun County. And there, buyers can find homes that also come with land.
“People that would typically look in that suburban, eastern Loudoun County, sort of Leesburg East, are even looking a little further out, like Purcellville, Round Hill, Hillsboro, just to get a little bit more space. Buy a horse if they want, or at least give that dog they adopted during the pandemic some space to run,” Menish said.
Across all home types in Loudoun County, the median selling price in the county in January was $585,000, up 7% from a year ago, and up 18.2% from 2020, according to Bright MLS.
