In the battle for real-estate supremacy in the Mid-Atlantic, Fairfax County drew closer to Philadelphia in November but appears likely to return to bridesmaid status after being the bride in 2020.
Fairfax County slightly exceeded Philadelphia in home sales for November – 1,546 to 1,540 – but will have to make up a deficit of 235 sales in December to overtake the so-called City of Brotherly Love for 2021.
Philadelphia traditionally is the leader in home sales across the Mid-Atlantic, but last year – in case anyone missed the memo – was anything but normal. Pennsylvania’s more draconian economic lockdowns caused its real-estate market to hibernate for several months longer than Virginia’s, allowing Fairfax to surge forward and claim the crown.
This year, however, Philadelphia has rebounded; its year-to-date sales total is up 23.8 percent from the same period in 2020, while Fairfax has managed an increase of 17.6 percent. (The increase across the entire Mid-Atlantic, where 303,624 homes have sold to date, stands at 12.2 percent.)
Six other localities in the Mid-Atlantic have surpassed the 10,000-sales mark for the first 11 months of the year:
• Montgomery County, Md., has posted 14,378 transactions, up 18.3 percent from a year before.
• Baltimore County, Md., has seen 11,729 sales, up 11.6 percent.
• Montgomery County, Pa., has reported 11,474 sales, up 12 percent.
• Prince George’s County, Md., has recorded 11,405 sales, up 13.1 percent.
• Anne Arundel County has seen 11,205 sales, up 11.5 percent.
• Baltimore city has seen 10,745 sales, up 21 percent.
The District of Columbia will be joining the 10,000-sales-for-2021 club after December’s figures are in. Through November, it has seen 9,939 sales, an increase of 13.7 percent.
Year-end 2021 figures should be available in mid-January.