Home sales continue to slow across the D.C. region, even as year-over-year selling prices generally remain higher, but there are exceptions to the annual price gains.
Across the D.C. area, listing service Bright MLS reports the median price of a home that sold in September was $532,000, up 3.3% compared to September 2021.
In Arlington County, the median selling price of $557,500 was 13.6% lower than a year ago. In Alexandria, the median selling price of $493,000 was 9.5% lower than a year ago.
That does not however represent a true double-digit drop in home values.
“Some of the reasons that we’re seeing lower prices in Arlington and Alexandria is just that the mix of homes being sold this year is different than last year,” said Bright MLS chief economist Lisa Sturtevant. “So when you have more condos in the mix of homes sold, it is going to show up as a lower median price.”
The pace of home sales typically slows in the fall and winter months, but when compared to levels a year ago, the slowdown is significant. Contracts signed to buy a home in September were lower than a year earlier for the seventh consecutive month, and 32.7% lower than last September.
“The extent to which contracts are down compared to last year, we would almost expect that because last year was unusually busy,” Sturtevant said. “But now we are starting to see the number of pending contracts down even lower than 2019, even having to go back several years to see levels this low.”
In the year ahead, sales are expected to continue to moderate as high mortgage rates sideline buyers and prices may moderate as well. Though comparatively speaking, any modest decline would not be significant.
“We are, I think, going to see prices come down from their peak,” Sturtevant said. “And even as prices come down from the peak, they will still be 20, 30, sometimes even 40% higher than they were prior to the pandemic,”
Here are September home selling prices and their annual change, across the D.C. area:
