Loudoun Market Update-March 2006

April 10, 2006

We've been crunching March numbers all morning and updating the Loudoun County trend charts and graphs. We predicted a rise of active listings to the 3,200 to 3,400 unit range. What a surprise to see it at 3,734. That's a whopping 25% increase in just one month. New listings for March reached 1,831, an incredible 54% increase from February. Total closed sales were 552, up from 387 and ratified contracts rose to 585 from the February level of 495.

Absorption rates were 16% of total listings and 32% of new listings using March ratified contracts. Average price recovered some of the ground lost in February and average days on the market went down slightly to 76 days.

Buyers in the market have more to choose from than ever before. Sellers are dropping their asking price, sometimes dramatically. Sellers provided subsidies to buyers on about half of the homes sold in March; some as high as $25,000 to $30,000!

It looks like a long season for sellers. This level of inventory will not dissipate quickly unless buyers start coming out of the woodwork. I saw a recent report noting that spending on remodeling is up sharply. Inflated prices might explain why homeowners may be electing to spruce up the current home instead of purchasing another one.

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