The once-hot real estate market in Northern Virginia is cooling as interest rates rise.
The median home sale price dipped slightly in July. While Arlington’s stats did not include a price drop — prices here have held up better than the outer suburbs — the number of home sales dropped.
More from the Sun Gazette:
The median sales price for homes that sold in Northern Virginia in July stood at $580,000, according to figures reported by the Virginia Realtors trade group.
While higher by nearly 5 percent than the $553,000 recorded in July 2021, the $580,000 figure trails the median sales price of $583,000 for the first seven months of 2022.
Put another way: While the year-to-date median sales price through July was up $13,100 (from $539,900 during the first seven months of 2021), July 2022’s sales price was down $3,000 from the same point a year before.
A sign of the apocalypse? No. But decidedly a sign of cooling. Especially as the summer months tend to be among the strongest, price-wise, in the local real-estate market.
Today we’re asking a somewhat counterintuitive question: do you, personally, think this dip in prices is a good thing?
After all, the run-up in home costs have come at the expense of affordability for first-time homebuyers, pricing many middle-income families out of the market for homes in places like Arlington, even as it has benefited existing homeowners.
So, purely from your perspective, do you see a home price swoon as a net negative or a net plus?