Home-buyers across Arlington are taking the current inventory crunch in stride, giving the market a strong performance in March.
A total of 290 properties went to closing last month, up slightly (2.1%) from the 284 transactions recorded a year before, based on data provided April 12 by MarketStats by ShowingTime based on listing activity from Bright MLS.
The increase in sales is significant, as total inventory of available properties in the county continues to run well below 2021 figures.
While sales were up slightly, average sales prices also increased, rising 3.6 percent overall to stand at $796,562 for the month.
The increase was fueled by townhome and condo appreciation; for the moment, at least, the single-family market appears to have stalled slightly, price-wise, albeit while remaining in the stratosphere.
The average sales price of single-family homes that went to closing in March stood at $1,311,944, up 1.9 percent from a year before, while the other two legs of the real-estate stool saw more broad increases:
• The average sales price of townhouses and other attached homes was $586,392, up 18.2 percent.
• The average sales price in the condominium sector was $521,102, up 15.8 percent from a year before.
Add up the sales and prices, and total sales volume for the month stood at $224.7 million, up 3.1 percent from a year ago.
A total of 84 properties went to closing for more than $1 million, including four for more than $2.5 million.
Homes that sold in March spent an average of just 20 days between listing and ratified sales contract, down from an average 27 a year before, and nearly 60 percent of them spent less than 10 days before finding a suitor.
Homes that sold garnered an average 101.3 percent of original listing price, up from 99.5 percent a year ago.
Conventional mortgages represented the method of transacting sales in 202 cases, followed by cash (49) and Va-backed loans (25).
Inventory continues to bedevil buyers. At the end of March, there were 304 homes on the market, down from 410 a year before. That works out to roughly a one-month supply of homes, a number that strongly favors sellers. (To get to a balanced market, there would need to be something like a three-month supply available.)
While the Arlington market persevered over inventory woes in March, coming months may prove more problematic. The number of pending sales reported for the month was down about 17 percent from a year ago. Those figures usually translate into completed sales a month or two after posting.
Figures represent most, but not all, homes on the market. All March 2022 figures are preliminary and are subject to revision.