Incredible record-breaking amounts of snow that we've received in the past week have caused municipality snow removal budgets to be squeezed, road conditions to remain impassable in certain locations, large tree branches to come tumbling down, and federal government employees (and just about everyone else in the D.C. area) to remain holed up inside.
All of this has indeed affected the real estate market in Northern Virginia.
- Many settlement companies have been closed for much of the week, so even those sales scheduled to go to settlement this week have been delayed.
- REALTORS (except perhaps those with Hummers) have been unable to show many homes; and
- People have just not been able to do much of anything except watch television, surf the internet, relax with a good book and some hot cocoa, or entertain their kids who have been out of school all week.
Nonetheless, the Northern Virginia housing market stops for nobody - not even Mother Nature. It may slow down, and slow down significantly but it does not stop!
Here then are some statistics about sales during the snowiest week on record in Northern Virginia:
In the last 7 days (remember the snow started last Friday), there have been 71 closed sales in Northern Virginia (including the jurisdictions of Alexandria, Arlington, Fairfax County, Fairfax City, and Falls Church).
Additionally, 247 contracts were ratified during the past 7 days.
These numbers are quite a bit off from the previous two weeks of real estate activity in Northern Virginia which respectively saw 276 sales and 495 contracts ratified, and 287 sales and 409 ratified contracts.
I'm expecting that next week will be back to a normal pace of real estate activity (or even a slight increase due to things that were delayed from this week).
Most of the roads are cleared at this point and people are itching to get out of their homes. I know that I'll be showing some Alexandria condos to some clients tomorrow.
The sky is blue. The snow WILL melt. The roads are cleared. And the Block Real Estate Group is open for business.
You might want to hurry. In order to qualify for the Federal Homebuyer Tax Credit, you need to ratify a contract on your new home by April 30, 2010.
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