April 10, 2020
As of today, April 10th, we are fully immersed in a different way of living due to Covid-19. Unfortunately, we can’t offer advice on health and don’t know the best place to buy toilet paper or latex gloves, but we can help you understand what is going on in our local real estate market.
Are people still buying and selling homes? Absolutely. And from the numbers we have now, we are definitely in the “Spring” market — not only on the calendar, but with regards to activity as well. No doubt we are missing a key element to our market with the lack of PCS moves, but we expect that surge to bring another wave of demand once our military gets the “green light” to move to their next duty stations.
For now, let’s take a look at what has happened in West Springfield and Burke (22152, 22153 & 22015) in the last 2 weeks. We will simply look at Active listings and those that have received contracts. This data isn’t as firm as closed sales, but it does help us see current market activity.
The townhome market in all price ranges in Burke and West Springfield is sizzling hot. For those $450,000 and under, first-time buyers are still having to be aggressive with their offers. We have 17 homes that have received ratified contracts and a current inventory of 13 homes. That means we have about 1.5 weeks of inventory in that range. Of those 17 with contracts, 11 sellers ratified a contract in 7 days or less! And only 3 of those 17 were on the market more than two weeks.
For townhomes priced $450,000 and above, the inventory is critically short. There are four active listings as of the time I am writing this, and 12 contracts in the last 2 weeks. That is less than 1 week of inventory for townhomes in that range!
The single-family home market of $500,000-$750,000 in West Springfield and Burke is also moving well. Inventory is not bad with 23 current listings. However, the last 2 weeks have given us 28 ratified contracts. So we are looking at slightly under 2 weeks of inventory. Of those 28 homes that received contracts, only 2 were on the market for more than 2 weeks
If you need to sell your upper $750,000+ home in Burke or West Springfield then competition is low. Only 7 total listings right now, and with the lower price ranges moving at a quick rate then you will most certainly have a move-up buyer on the hunt soon. Three ratified contracts in this range in the last 2 weeks show we have slightly more than 3 weeks of inventory.
The best data will be revealed with April’s Closed Sales data, but that won’t be available until early May. Why? Closed sales are the true measurement of market health. But the lag time in that data is due to the time between a home getting a ratified contract and the sale being final. That timeline is typically 30-45 days. So the March hysteria from Covid-19 means that contracts ratified in March are closing in April. And all of April’s closed data will be available in May.
While uncertainty looms all around us, Real Estate in West Springfield and Burke is hotter than a face mask in July! Let’s just hope and pray we don’t have to know what that is like!
Whether you are looking to buy or sell a home in Northern Virginia, we are always here to help with your real estate needs! Contact Jason at 703-298-7037 or Jason@JasonandBonnie.com for a free no-hassle consultation!
