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.”

Right on cue, the inventory floodgates opened this week.

It must be mid-March. That’s when traditional wisdom says it’s time to list your home, the spring market is here, and the buyers are out shopping.

This week sellers listed 70 homes giving buyers the most amount of choices so far this year. And buyers stepped up and ratified 57 contracts, some 19 of those were on homes that were listed for seven days or less. Arlington currently has only 239 homes actively for sale.

At this pace of absorption, that is only one month of inventory meaning if no more homes came on the market, all homes would be sold in one month. It’s also known as an extreme sellers’ market.

Here’s the craziest story heard this week: a $185,000 townhouse in Lorton listed “As Is” attracted 55 offers! It was on the market for five days.

This kind of market attracts every kind of buyer, and we are especially seeing more investors and flippers than usual. They are attracted to homes in need of much work and TLC, the kind of homes that scare away first-time home buyers and are too much work for end users who want fully updated conditions, even in vintage 1920’s-30’s homes. Whatever kind of buyer you may be, prepare for battle. The competition is brutal.

Mortgage rates continued to be kind to buyers this week with no major changes. The 30-yr fixed rate remains at 4.375%-4.5%. Helping to drive buyer activity is available credit. Lenders are flush with cash. So, there is a wide variety of liberal loan programs for all types of buyers enabling much lower down payments than we’ve seen in over 10 years.

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