Mid-July Real Trends For The Washington D.C. Metro Area

The absorption rate increased very slightly to 19.23% in June. This increase marks the sixth consecutive month where the absorption rate has increased. As a matter of fact, the current absorption rate is the highest it’s been at this point in the year since the summer of 2006!

Days on Market

The average time to sell a home dipped last month. It still takes about three months to sell a property in the current market. I expect to see an increase in the in the days on market due to the anticipated number of short sale (pre-foreclosure) homes sold this year. These transactions may take months to close and therefore may increase the overall average days to sale homes for the area.

Sales Price

The average sales prices in the region increased slightly last month. Montgomery County and Washington D.C. experienced the biggest jumps in market value.

Fairfax County ($443,714; 5.53% jump)

Arlington County ($499,122; 3.69% drop)

Baltimore County ($279,032; 5.13% jump)

Montgomery County ($471,758; 10.96% jump)

Prince Georges County ($242,917; .38% jump)

Washington D.C. ($535,359; 9.47% jump)

I expect to see property values to remain relatively flat for the entire 2009 year!

Number of Sales

The number of sales increased 21.5% in June! This is trend that we see almost every year. The number of sales normally peaks in June every year. The good news is that we are experiencing more sales this year than last year. We have had more sales this Spring than Spring last year and less than we had in 2007.