Home sales, prices picking up in Northern Virginia

Published April 15, 2013 by Robert Powell, III

Northern Virginia home sales rose in March, marking the third month in a row that sales increased over the year before.

The Northern Virginia Association of Realtors (NVAR) reported on Monday that March home sales in the region totaled 1,499, up 4.02 percent from the 1,441 home sold in March 2012.

The median home price for March was $442,500, an increase of 7.93 percent from the same month in 2012, when the price was $410,000. (The median price is the midpoint at which there are an equal number of sales above and below that price.)

The average home price for March was $531,950 up 10.57 percent since the same period last year, when the average was $481,103.

The year-to-date average price overall was $512,079 up 9.74 percent compared to the first-quarter 2012 average of $466,642.

Helping to drive rising home prices is a shrinking inventory of homes for sale. Northern Virginia had only a 1.44 month’s supply of homes in March, NVAR said that number represented a decline of 41 percent from last year, when there was a 2.43 month’s supply of homes.