I think its the higher priced homes skewing the numbers. There is a home in my neighborhood, your typical 3000sqft home with a nice kitchen, finished basement, etc that started at $600,000 and was just reduced to $584,900. Although one house doesn't make a trend or average. But I'm suspect of the higher priced homes skewing the numbers of the Townhouse/Avg. SF home prices.

New listings are decreasing, withdrawals are on the rise and contracting activity appears to be on the decline...and yes, prices are rising, Fairfax faster than Loudoun.

With Fairfax at an approximate 5 month backlog and Loudoun a little over 6 months, some would say these markets are balanced or normal. If that is true, prices holding or rising a bit would not surprise me. I don't know what balanced or normal is...

Price increases may be just a mix of higher priced homes being sold...

Absorption rates have been on a slow decline since about April. Prince William is showing significant sluggishness.

I'll have the Loudoun Single Family chart up with June numbers in the next 24 hours or so.

Maybe I'm seeing things, but the charts for Fairfax and Loudoun indicate that prices are increasing. Increasing in a weak housing market? What is going on? StagHousingFlation?

I send my prayers to sellers in Prince William County. Nearly a 1/yr supply of homes forsale. Thats got to hurt. I might be mistaken, but I think PW Co. differs from Fairfax or Loudoun, is that PWCo is pretty much all Residential. It doesn't really have a major Industrial/Business base that makes it an employment center. Its more of a bedroom community to the jobs in Fairfax/Loudoun and WashingtonDC. Plus, I think its population is 2x that of Loudoun.. In any case, if you want a cheap home and the ability to play one seller off the other, go to Prince William County.