The regional housing market in 2018 is, in many ways, continuing the narrative that began in 2017.
Bright MLS’s latest monthly report out today shows that regionwide home prices hit a decade high for January, rising by 2.5 percent year-over-year to a median of $399,900. This uptick represented the 16th consecutive month of year-over-year price increases in the DC area.
Despite there being slightly fewer closed sales in January 2018 compared to last January, overall inventory fell by 14.8 percent, making for the lowest number of listings on the market since January 2013. Fairfax was the lone jurisdiction where active inventory rose from year to year.
DC proper continues to buck the regional trend in one way or another, with median home prices dropping from $528,000 in January 2017 to $505,000 last month. Alexandria was the only other jurisdiction where the median sales price decreased.
However, unlike at other times last year, the drop in home prices in DC didn’t coincide with a bump in supply. There were 2.7 percent fewer new listings on the market at the end of January, leaving the overall inventory nearly 10 percent slimmer than it was a year prior.