Northern Va. home prices rise, home inventory falls in February

Chantilly-based Long & Foster Real Estate released a report Thursday showing that median home sale prices rose, but home inventory dropped in most of Northern Virginia in February. 

The Long & Foster Real Estate Market Minute Report studied trends in Alexandria, Arlington, Fairfax County, Loudoun County and Prince William County. 

Prince William County showed a 2% increase in home sale prices, while Fairfax County increased by 15%. Alexandria was the only city that dropped in sales price, which it did by 6%. Although home sales prices grew, the number of days on the market shrunk for several of the localities. Alexandria had the lowest average number of days on the market at 16.

“The market is very brisk right now with plenty of demand in most price-points,” Long & Foster President Larry “Boomer” Foster said in a statement. “New entrants in the market have caused days on market to shrink considerably.”

What could change, though, is consumer confidence, he says. Although consumer confidence in February was high, as shown in the report, it could begin to dip during the COVID-19.

“With the constant fluctuations in the stock market, many investors are moving away from equities and bonds and instead putting their money into real estate,” Foster said in a statement. He added that he thinks people will continue shopping for homes via the internet.

Long & Foster has more than 200 offices in Virginia, North Carolina, New Jersey and West Virginia and employs more than 10,000 real estate agents. In 2019, the company sold more than $30.4 billion worth of homes.