Northern Virginia Real Estate: Vienna, Oakton, McLean, Great Falls, Reston, Fairfax, and surrounding areas.

• Vienna & Oakton are in a “Balanced Market”.
• Interest rates are at historic lows.
• Financing is available.

NOW is a great time to buy and a great time to sell. (You don’t need us to tell you that!) But what else is going on?

Well, one thing we are seeing as a trend in Northern VA is that some appraisals are coming in low – meaning below sales price. (An appraisal is an independent property valuation that is usually ordered by the bank or mortgage lender on behalf of the buyer.)  Can a low appraisal derail your home sale or your home purchase? Absolutely. But not necessarily. Stay tuned to our blog and we’ll share several examples of what happened to The Belt Team over the past month.

In the meantime, let’s see what happened this past week in Vienna & Oakton real estate. Here are the highlights:

• Inventory in Vienna & Oakton inched up ever so slightly – there are now 221 homes on the market in Vienna and 88 homes in Oakton.

• Vienna & Oakton both saw one of the slowest weeks of the year in terms of contracts. Two homes in Oakton went under contract (both in less than 10 days) and 8 homes went under contract in Vienna. Since this past week included Labor Day and Back-To-School, this is not unusual. 

• Homes are still selling fairly quickly, but not as quickly as we have seen through most of the summer. Of the homes that went under contract this past week, 30% sold in 10 days or less. Throughout most of the summer, this number trended more in the 33-40% range. However, the average days on market for these homes was only 56 days – still pretty swift.

• After being in a Sellers Market for most of this year, Vienna is now moving toward a “Balanced Market”. With sales down in two of the past 4 weeks, we are now at a 3.9 month supply of homes based on the past 30 day contract rate. (A “Balanced Market” means a market where there is no advantage to Buyer or Seller; and the market supply is about 4-6 months.)

• Oakton is also in a “Balanced Market” – with a 4 month housing supply based on the past 30 day rate of contractrs.

• No homes listed over $800,000 went under contract in Oakton this past week. This makes six out of the past 10 weeks where this has happened. In Vienna, two homes listed over $800,000 (25% of the homes that went under contract) went under contract. This is just about average for the year.

For our detail-oriented readers, here are last week’s stats:

Last week in Vienna Real Estate (22180,22181, 22182):

• Number of Contracts: 8
• Average Days on Market for Active Listings: 111 days
• Average Days on Market for Listings That Went Under Contract: 68 days
• Inventory: 221 homes on the market
• Number of Months Supply of Homes (Based on past 90 day contract rate): 2.9 months
• Number of Months Supply of Homes (Based on past 30 day contract rate): 3.9 months

Here are last week’s stats for Oakton Real Estate (22124):

• Number of Contracts: 2
• Average Days on Market for Active Listings: 95 days
• Average Days on Market for Listings That Went Under Contract: 8
• Inventory: 88 homes on the market
• Number of Months Supply of Homes (Based on past 90 day contract rate): 3.8 months
• Number of Months Supply of Homes (Based on past 30 day contract rate): 4.0 months

If you’re thinking of buying or selling a home, Contact The Belt Team for a more in-depth discussion & analysis – because it’s only the neighborhood YOU live in (or you WANT to live in) that matters. We’ll be happy to schedule a consultation and get very detailed about “YOUR Market” so that you can make the decision that is best for YOU!