WASHINGTON — It was a solid February for housing sales in Washington. Prices also rose, and perhaps the best news for potential buyers looking: There is more on the market to look at.
Listing service MRIS says the median price metro wide of what sold in February was just shy of $400,000, up 5.2 percent from a year earlier. It was also the highest median selling price for a February in 10 years.
Sales volume across the DC metro was nearly $1.59 billion, up 16.7 percent from last February. .
Pending sales, or contracts signed to buy a house or a condo, reached a 10-year February high, up 2.7 percent from last February.
A lack of inventory has plagued Washington’s housing market — and most markets across the country — for the past few years, but there was at least a twinkle of more sellers coming to market in Washington last month.
New listings of 5,600 increased 7.5 percent compared to last year. Total active listings were still down 9.5 percent from a year ago, but active listings rose 3.9 percent from January.
Even with the increase in listings last month, inventories in the Washington region were the lowest February level in three years.
MRIS data indicates sellers are getting what they’re listing for, with the average percent of original list price received at sale in February of 97.4 percent, up from 96.7 percent a year ago.
And listings are selling faster, with the median days-on-market for February of 28 days, 16 days faster than last February.
Below is a breakdown of median sales prices in the Washington area by jurisdiction, courtesy MRIS:
