Final figures for 2021 won’t be reported for another few days, but two things about the 2021 Northern Virginia real-estate market already are in focus:
• Total sales across the region will be the highest since the market boom of two decades ago, but won’t set a record.
• Total sales volume, however, already is guaranteed to be the highest in Northern Virginia history, owing both to the high level of sales and ever-spiraling-upward prices.
For the first 11 months of the year, homes going to closing across Northern Virginia totaled 24,224, according to figures reported by the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors.
That 11-month total is already higher than the 12-month sales every year going back to 2005, when there had been 29,235 transactions across the region.
If total sales for 2021 do not reach that figure – as seems likely – the past year will go into the record books as the eighth highest sales total in Northern Virginia history.
Figures count sales in Arlington and Fairfax counties and the cities of Alexandria, Fairfax and Falls Church. The Sun Gazette uses reports from the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors, MarketStats by ShowingTime and BrightMLS to divine an annual sales total, which may differ from other published sources.
The all-time record for home sales across the region in a year stands at 32,735, set in 2004 in the midst of what proved to be an overheated national real-estate market.
Also near the top: 2003 (30,580), 2005 (29,235), 2002 (27,935), 2001 (27,741), 1986 (27,052) and 2000 (26,062).
For the first 11 months of 2021, total sales volume across Northern Virginia stood at just over $17 billion, easily eclipsing the $15.7 billion set in 2005 and $15.3 billion set last year.
The Sun Gazette has been compiling sales and price data since 1975. That year, the average sales price for a home in Northern Virginia stood at $58,739. Average prices topped the $100,000 mark in 1981; went over $200,000 in 1991; over $300,000 in 2002; over $400,000 in 2004; over $500,000 in 2005; over $600,000 in 2019; and reached an all-time record of $670,408 in 2021.