Just Listed in Arlington

Just Listed highlights Arlington properties that just came on the market within the past week. This feature is written and sponsored by Team Cathell, “Your Orange Line Specialists.”

Happy New Year!

There’s no doubt that 2020 will be an exciting year with many major events from politics to the environment, to science, medicine, foreign affairs, and that’s just the start. So, buckle up for a wild ride.

What can we expect to see with Arlington’s real estate market? There are several key factors that will impact our local market: inventory, mortgage rates, wage growth and the national economy.

If you think 2019 was a bad year for low inventory, 2020 is looking even worse. Home builders are falling further behind the demand for housing, especially moderate to low income housing. The DMV area, particularly Arlington, has done a great job at creating new jobs. And most of these new jobs are white collar jobs with good salaries. More jobs, more people, more demand for housing.

It’s a simple equation that has put tremendous pressure on the available inventory of homes for sale. This week, only one home of 11 that sold had been on the market less than a week. All other 10 sales were stale inventory. And it’s going to get worse this year. We should expect to see home prices rise more than 5%-6% in 2020.

Mortgage rates are expected to stay relatively unchanged for the year. The 30-yr fixed rate is now 3.75% and is expected to stay below 4% by the end of the year. So low steady rates should help more people qualify and create even more demand for 2020.

Wage growth has been a decelerator for demand the last 2-3 years. Wages for salaried employees have been stagnant with no real growth. The small amount of wage growth we’ve seen in some areas of the U.S. has been countered by inflation, also running low at just 1.9%. Just in the last few months we have begun to see some wage growth for minimum wage workers, but these are not the consumers who buy homes, not yet. When our area begins to see real salaried wage growth, we can expect to see more housing demand from first-time buyers and move-up buyers.

The U.S. economy is the underlying driver all consumer activity, and it’s expected to grow at a modest 2% for 2020, GDP for 2019 will likely close out at 2.2%. The economy is expected to slow but stay steady and resilient. So, we should see a very similar economy for 2020.

In a nutshell, 2020 is going to be a highly competitive market for buyers. The market is showing no mercy: tighter inventory, more demand, continued price increases.

Click to see all the fresh new inventory in MRIS and call Team Cathell (703-975-2500) when you find a home you like.