ICYMI: Arlington Home Prices Suddenly Plunge

Editor's note: This article was originally posted earlier this week.

ARLINGTON, VA — If you're looking to buy a house in Arlington County, now may be the time: the median sale price here in October dropped by a whopping 9 percent compared to the same time last year, according to a new report from realtor Long & Foster.

The median sale price for an Arlington County home was $497,000 last month, compared to $546,500 back in October 2015. That's despite the fact that there were 12 percent more home sales in Arlington in October 2016 than the same time last year.

The drop in sale price also comes despite an even bigger plunge in inventory, which dipped 17 percent year over year.

“The U.S. economy saw promising signs in October, such as an uptick in wage growth and higher-than-expected retail sales. In the housing market, we continued to see positive trends as well, including in the Northern Virginia region where we saw rising home sales,” Jeffrey S. Detwiler, chief operating officer of The Long & Foster Companies, said in a statement. “Although low inventory has increased the burden on demand for homes, many are still purchasing property in an effort to take advantage of low mortgage rates.”

Alexandria City saw an even larger drop of 11 percent in median sale price and inventory, although it also had a decrease in total homes sold.

Image via Wikimedia user Linuxerist