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 Andors Real Estate Group.

Good morning Arlington!

It was quite a week for ratified contracts in Arlington, with 72 buyers finding a new place to call home in just the past seven days — 24 of those were on homes listed within the past week. Sellers are doing their part, listing 62 homes for sale. So far, demand is definitely outpacing supply for 2021, as we anticipated.

We’re down to just 375 homes of all different types, shapes and sizes currently available for sale, down 22 from the previous week. Of the currently available homes, 83 are single-family properties, 28 are townhomes/semi-detached and 264 are condos.

The average list price for currently available properties is $740,899 and the median is $515,000.

The Andors Real Estate Group has been fielding a lot of questions recently from prospective purchasers and home sellers alike. One question I’ve heard a few times that I want to bring up here in today’s column is not a new one…

“Why is inventory so tight?”

Well, like all good questions, it has many answers. The simplest version is that homeowners are staying put for one reason or another.

A more elaborated answer has to do with at least three factors: interest rates, life in general and property availability.

1. Market conditions are bringing buyers into the market in high numbers. Low interest rates continue to bring many would-be renters into the market for a new purchase, and it has fueled the highest-ever purchasing power across all buyers, probably most noticed by first-time buyers. First-timers are able to buy enough home to potentially skip the small condo and jump straight to a townhome or even a single-family property. Perhaps this is an additional factor to take into consideration when figuring out why condo inventory is so high.
2. The desire or need for more space, fueled by pandemic-related needs: changes such as work from home or school closures have had an outsized impact over the past year. But even with the pandemic, regular life continues — the typical family/job/life events we all experience from time to time are also making people move, as per usual.
3. Lastly — and this is not going to be nearly as big a story in Arlington as it will in many other parts of the country, but it’s worth mentioning, nonetheless — the moratorium on evictions and foreclosures (enacted under the previous administration and just extended by the new administration through March 31) means the negative side of this pandemic economy has yet to be felt in local housing markets. This is further tightening supply that otherwise would have been freed up in previous recession-like economic cycles, where evictions, foreclosures and then subsequent sale of these properties is pushed out indefinitely. Owners staying in place or choosing to hold their property as an investment when moving also lends to decreased resale availability, a popular option in Arlington, increased in the post-Amazon announcement era.

Rents are decreasing. According to a recent ARLnow article, rents have dropped by nearly 15% in Arlington since March. This is something to watch for; I suspect some landlords will see this as an ideal time to consider selling, possibly freeing up some long-lost inventory in the not-too-distant future. If an income-generating asset like a home stops generating, investors will look to other areas to generate revenue. Houses aren’t generally considered to be very liquid investments… unless you own a home in Arlington, where it can take one day to market/go under contract and as little as two weeks to settle.

Click here to search currently available Arlington real estate. If you see a home you’re interested in purchasing, give us a call.

Call the Andors Real Estate Group today at 703-203-1117 to talk more about buying or selling Arlington real estate. Below are eight new listings I think you might like to check out:

• 4501 Arlington Boulevard #501, Arlington, VA 22203 — $310,900
• 3515 Washington Boulevard #515, Arlington, VA 22201 — $349,900
• 5059 9th Street S., Arlington, VA 22204 — $515,000
• 1200 N. Nash Street #229, Arlington, VA 22209 — $649,000
• 3830 9th Street N. #301W, Arlington, VA 22203 — $750,000
• 453 N. George Mason Drive, Arlington, VA 22203 — $1,074,950
• 6629 Williamsburg Boulevard, Arlington, VA 22213 — $1,199,990
• 4133 33rd Road N., Arlington, VA 22207 — $2,695,000