The average single-family home-sales price in Fairfax County soared past $1 million for the first time ever in October, even as there were signs of some cooling in the market.
A total of 1,476 properties went to closing during the month across the county, down 7.9 percent from October 2020, according to figures reported Nov. 11 by MarketStats by ShowingTime, based on listing data from Bright MLS.
That sales drop-off has a number of explanations, including the fact that late summer and early fall 2020 were exceptionally healthy in the Fairfax County homes market, which was playing catch-up from the early blast of COVID that momentarily derailed the market in the spring of that year.
In addition, unlike 2020 there appears to be a return to normal seasonality, suggesting that home sales will continue to slow through the start of the year, then begin to pick up as the market begins to approach spring.
But it’s the average $1,034,460 sales price for single-family homes that sold during the month that’s the eye-opener, as Fairfax now joins Arlington, Falls Church and Alexandria as localities that have surmounted the seven-figure mark, at least for a period of time.
That average sales price represented an increase of 18.3 percent from $874,277 reported a year before. About 38 percent of the 748 single-family properties that sold during the month – 214 in all – garnered $1 million or more, with 22 scoring more than $2.5 million and three realizing more than $5 million.
There were higher prices, though not so stratospheric, in the other two legs of the local real-estate market:
• Attached homes on average garnered $464,577, up 4.9 percent from a year before.
• Condominiums averaged $343,723, up 3.5 percent.
There were signs of cooling in two data points: It took an average of 22 days for homes to go from listing to ratified contract, up from 16 days a year before, and homes garnered 99.4 percent of original listing price, down from 100.3 percent a year before.
But sellers are still chasing restricted inventory, with the 1,519 properties on the market at the end of the month representing just under a one-month supply – it would take a three-month supply to bring the buyer-seller teeter-totter into balance.
Conventional mortgages represented the method of transacting sales in 1,057 cases, followed by cash (178) and VA-backed mortgages.
The Fairfax market appears ready to close out the year on relative par with the end of 2020, with all pending sales in the pipeline (1,818) just a handful different from this point a year ago.
Figures represent most, but not all, sales during the period. October 2021 figures are preliminary and are subject to revision.