Even as much of the rest of Northern Virginia is showing signs of cooling interest from prospective real-estate purchasers, many parts of Arlington remain hot-hot-hot even as the temperature gets cold-cold-cold.
A number of those Arlington locales are among the strongest in the region.
The T3 Home Demand Index, created by the Mid-Atlantic multiple-listing service Bright MLS, uses a variety of data points to settle on a monthly score for the Washington region’s overall homes market all the way down to the ZIP-code level.
In new data reported Dec. 13, the regional index figure stood at 97, in the “Steady” range but down from 127 a month before. Fairfax stood at 105, down from 147 a month before.
The decline suggests that many prospective purchasers have found homes during recent months, while others may have decided to hold back for a variety of reasons, from the general seasonality of the market to pricing getting out of hand.
“Demand fell for each type of home in November,” Bright MLS analysts said. “Higher-priced condos recorded the strongest demand. The higher-priced single-family segment posted the largest drop, but still recorded ‘Moderate’ demand.”
The factors used to compile the scores are activities that occur before the sales process transpires, so unlike monthly sales reports, the figures can be used as a forward-looking indicator. The baseline of 100 was in March after analysts looked at a year’s worth of data; there is no upper limit to how high a number can be reached.
Among all jurisdictions that make up the ranking, Arlington was the runaway winner with a countywide T3 index of 164, followed by Alexandria at 149.
While higher than the rest of the region, those figures are down substantially from the astronomical heights of the preceding few months.
Rounding out the pack were Prince George’s County (106), the District of Columbia (98), Falls Church (95), Montgomery County (86), Loudoun County (80) and Frederick County (68).
Among Arlington’s ZIP codes, four stood out with exceptionally strong buyer interest for the month: 22206 (a score of 252), 22204 (223), 22213 (201) and 22202 (195).
In addition, two others – 22201 (169) and 22203 (160) – showed robust health. A trio of North Arlington ZIPs – 22205 (120), 22207 (116) and 22209 (109) – were in the “Moderate” category.