After a persistent slowdown in home sales during the back half of 2023, the housing market is showing new signs of life at the start of 2024.
Existing home sales in February jumped 9.5% compared to January. While that’s still lower than a year earlier, the increase in both buyers and owners willing to sell is notable.
That includes the D.C. metro housing market.
“We’ve had twice as many sales in the first 10 weeks of this year, and double the volume that we had in 2023,” said Corey Burr, president of The Burr Group at TTR Sotheby’s in the District’s Friendship Heights neighborhood.
Burr has sold 20 homes so far this year, many with multiple offers, including one with 12 offers that sold for $200,000 over list price, he said.
Lack of homes on the market is still holding back sales, though Burr said he’s hearing from more owners who are ready to sell.
New listings in the D.C. metro area in February were up 7.2% from a year earlier and active listings were up 5.5%, according to listing service Bright MLS.
Mortgage rates have also been an impediment for potential buyers, and when 30-year rates touched 8% last fall, that was a shock to the market. Rates have since eased, though they remain high compared to extremely low pandemic-era rates, which were likely a once-in-a-lifetime blip on the radar.
Burr believes buyers are realizing that waiting for rates like that to return is not realistic.
“The 30-year fix being around 6.75% of 7% is really quite benign,” Burr said. “This is where the typical market is, and there is a new reality that buyers understand this.”
Some buyers may be willing to buy now with intentions to refinance at a lower rate down the road, but that may not be the hedge they are expecting.
“We might be in an elevated interest rate environment relative to where we were during COVID for an extended period of time,” Burr said. “The thought that they are going to drop right back down I think is not reality.”
Waiting for prices to ease in the D.C. region is also an unlikely strategy for buyers. The median price of what sold in the D.C. metro in February was up 4.7% from a year ago, with the strongest price appreciation among single-family homes, up 10.7%, according to Bright MLS.
Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.
© 2024 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.
