Home sales across the five largest localities in Northern Virginia for the first 10 months of 2021 are running 17 percent ahead of last year, the result of the initial blast of COVID briefly derailing the market in mid-2020.
A total of 37,068 properties went to closing between January and October in the region, according to figures reported by MarketStats by ShowingTime, based on listing data from Bright MLS, and analyzed by the Sun Gazette.
That’s up from 31,694 properties that went to closing during the same period in 2020.
Sales were up by double digits in all five locales:
• A total of 16,401 properties went to closing in Fairfax County, up 18.4 percent from a year before.
• Prince William County reported 7,762 transactions, up 12.4 percent.
• Loudoun County saw 7,292 sales, up 13.9 percent.
• Alexandria recorded 2,665 sales, up 18.9 percent.
• Arlington saw 2,948 sales, up 29.1 percent.
(Arlington’s largest boost came after a steeper decline during the early COVID era, largely due to a dearth of sales in the upper-end condo market.)
Of the more than 70 localities spread across the Mid-Atlantic tracked by BrightMLS, fewer than 10 have seen year-over-year year-to-date declines. Of them, the largest was Ocean County (N.J.), down 5.8 percent – perhaps due to a red-hot market in 2020 as buyers were attempting to secure vacation homes.