The average price of homes in the Northern Virginia area is continuing to increase, according to recent data from the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors (NVAR).
Average prices were about 5 percent higher than they were at this time last year across Northern Virginia. In Arlington, average prices were up 13.7 percent. Fairfax County prices were up 4.7 percent and Falls Church prices were up more than 11 percent. (See chart below for more details.)
But in Alexandria, the average home price was down by more than 9 percent in June. It's not clear why this happened in June.
The trend lines, overall, are up in Alexandria this year. The average home price in Alexandria in May was up 3.5 percent over the previous May. Going back, the average price was up more than 5 percent in April and up almost 10 percent in March.
The Northern Virginia Region includes the Cities of Alexandria, Falls Church and Fairfax, plus Arlington and Fairfax Counties and the towns of Herndon, Clifton and Vienna.
The average sale price in the NVAR region in June was $632,016, compared to $601,928 in June of 2018. Alexandria's average sale price was $494,250.
On a region-wide basis, NVAR attributes strong home sales to low mortgage rates, a rallying stock market and a healthy local economy.
The average number of days on market for a home has dropped from 46 in June 2018 to 31 in June 2019, as investors snap up homes quickly in an effort to benefit from the predicted "Amazon effect" on prices. So far, the promise of Amazon does seem to be lifting prices in Arlington, but not in Alexandria, despite low inventory in both places.
“Nowhere is this more apparent than in Arlington and Alexandria, where the number of homes for sale is half of what there was last year due to the ‘Amazon Effect,’ or at least the perception of that effect," said Derrick Swaak, a broker with TTR Sotheby’s International Realty in McLean and 2019 NVAR Secretary-Treasurer, in a market report.
"Amazon hasn’t hired too many employees locally yet, but investors have snapped up available inventory and some sellers have put off selling their properties in anticipation of outsized price increases over the next few years," he said.
Northern Virginia Association of Realtors
