The market is on vacation along with us….sort of

You know we are heading towards a more balanced market when the normal annual ebbs and flows of the calendar manifest themselves in the market.  We are back to the last week of July and the first 3 weeks or so of August being vacation and school prep time first, home buying and selling second.  However, the local NOVA market continues to be strong and have legs, and will do so for the foreseeable future.  The same is not true for many other markets across the country, so be super careful to differentiate national headlines from local ones.  Skip that.  Ignore the headlines and call me.

Inventory is down ever so slightly to 3,520 units.  I’m predicting that we will see a spike after Labor Day, however.  There are a lot of folks who could wait out August who did so, and lots of folks who overpriced earlier in the year pulled their listings and are ready for another shot.  Sales last week were 531 units, which is down week over week, and 1,935 in the last 30 days, also down from last year.  All of this translates into the all important supply of homes, which stands at 1.8 months for sales (nationally we are at 4.6 months!)  and a mere 1.2 months for rentals.  Still favoring the sellers.  How long are homes staying on the market?  The average DOM in NOVA is 20 (the national average is 40!) and the median DOM is a healthy 12.  The divergence shows the pockets of slowing, and the fact that some still don’t properly prep, market, or price their homes.  Still essentially no distressed inventory with only 9 foreclosures and 5 short sales.

Some other interesting tidbits:  Seeing more announcements of old commercial buildings being converted to mixed residential and retail rather than being torn down and replaced.  And next week there are a lot of larger economic reports and indices coming out so expect to see some daily volatility in rates.  If a consensus in direction results we might see a decent temporary change in rates by the end of the week, one way or the other.

Lastly, on the buyer side, we are seeing a lot more contracts with contingencies, negotiated prices if they’ve been on the market a while, and closing concessions.  So this, coupled with the recent dip in rates, presents one of the best buying opportunities for home purchasers in a good while.  Reach out to me to discuss!

It’s a good life.

Chris