It’s back to bridesmaid status for Fairfax County, which reverted to its traditional No. 2 spot in home sales across the Mid-Atlantic for 2021.
With 19,407 transactions during the calendar year, Fairfax County ran slightly behind Philadelphia (19,904), according to data reported Dec. 11 by MarketStats by ShowingTime, based on listing data from Bright MLS.
Fairfax ended the year strong with 1,627 sales for December, up 6.6 percent from a year before, while Fairfax County’s monthly total of 1,348 was down 3 percent.
Philadelphia is the traditional sales leader, but in 2020 – with Pennsylvania seeing more aggressive government-imposed lockdowns than Virginia did – fell to second place. For 2020, Fairfax scored 16,739 sales to 16,317 for the purported City of Brotherly Love.
But things reverted to usual in 2021, as Fairfax saw a year-over-year sales boost of 22 percent (compared to 15.9 percent in Fairfax) to regain the crown.
Among the more than 70 localities across the Mid-Atlantic tracked by Bright MLS, nine scored more than 10,000 home sales during the year. In addition to Philadelphia and Fairfax:
• Montgomery County, Md., saw 15,672 sales, up 16.1 percent from a year before.
• Baltimore County, Md., had 12,830 sales, up 10.2 percent.
• Prince George’s County, Md., reported 12,562 sales, up 11.4 percent.
• Montgomery County, Pa., recorded 12,527 sales, up 9.9 percent.
• Anne Arundel County, Md., saw 12,153 sales, up 10 percent.
• Baltimore City recorded 11,743 sales, up 19 percent.
• The District of Columbia reported 10,829 sales, up 12.2 percent.
For the Mid-Atlantic as a whole, sales for 2021 totaled 331,289, up 10.5 percent.