Are People Still Buying Single Family Homes in Washington DC?

As we continue to navigate these unprecedented times with social distancing and COVID-19 cases fluctuating up and down, the Washington DC real estate market feels largely unaffected. In this article we analyze the real estate data in the area to really understand what is happening.

For this analysis, we compared the real estate data each month in 2020 against its 5-year average for that month. This comparison will shed light on how the current market is performing compared against historic performance, while taking into account monthly and seasonal variations.

WASHINGTON DC NEW LISTINGS:

In Washington DC, the new year started out strong with new listings for detached homes in January, February and March being above the 5-year average for these corresponding months. As COVID-19 cases in the United States began to rise in late March, the new listings started to taper off in April and May, dropping to 58% of the 5-Year average for April new listings.

Table 1: New Listings for Detached Homes in Washington DC

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WASHINGTON DC NEW PENDINGS & CLOSED SALES:

New Pending Sales represent the number of homes that went under contract. Once again, a similar trend was observed, with the months of January, February and March starting off strong and mirroring the 5-year average for those months. In April, it dropped significantly to 48%, before rebounding in May to about 82%. As closed sales lag the new pendings by about 30 days, we do see the strong figures for closed sales for January, February, March, and April, followed by a drop in May to 72%. Although the June 2020 figures are not available yet, we do anticipate an increase in closed sales.

Table 2: New Pendings for Detached Homes in Washington DC

Table 3: Closed Sales for Detached Homes in Washington DC

WASHINGTON DC ACTIVE LISTINGS:

Active listings represent the available homes on the market. Historically, the summer months of June and July represent the peak availability of homes on the market. The 5-year average of active listings for detached homes in May is 269 and in May 2020, there were 230 Active Listings, which is only 14% less than the 5-Year Average. If COVID-19 did not reduce the new listings in April 2020, Washington DC would probably be tracking even closer along the 5-Year Average. The bottom line is that while the supply of acitve listings in DC have decreased, DC seems largely unaffected.

Table 4: Active Listings for Detached Homes in Washington DC

WASHINGTON DC MEDIAN SOLD PRICE & AVERAGE DAYS ON MARKET:

The lower inventory of homes is supporting a very robust sellers market, maintaining strong home prices and low days on market. In 2020, the median sales price for detached homes peaked at 113% of the 5-Year Average. The median sales price in April and May is still well above the 5-Year Average, but prices are trending down. When the June 2020 data becomes available, it will be very interesting to see if this market cooling trend continues or if the low inventory will continue driving prices up.

When we look at the average days on market, the data is clear that homes continue to fly off the market. Both April and May had average days on market at or under 30 days, which is about the 5-Year averages. With the historic low inventory of homes and strong buyer demand, there would be no reason to believe this trend will dissipate anytime soon.

Table 5: Median Sold Price for Detached Homes in Washington DC

Table 6: Average Days on Market for Detached Homes in Washington DC

About Peggy Yee

Peggy Yee is a supervising broker at Frankly Realtors and is a local Top Producer. She has sold over $180 million in sales and was one of Northern Virginia Magazine's Top Realtors since 2015. She has been quoted in the Around Reston Magazine, Washington Post, Money Magazine, Consumer Reports, Zillow, Trulia and Realtor.com. Peggy is 100% committed to making your move the best experience possible! Don't just take our word...Click here to see what Peggy's past clients have to say about the experience working with her from Buyer and Seller Video Testimonials and you'll understand why she is one of the top real estate agents in Washington DC with dozens of 5 Star Zillow reviews. Click here for Zillow Reviews.

* Data Source: BrightMLS and SmartCharts. Information deemed reliable but not guaranteed.