Home Sales Skyrocket in D.C. Area

WASHINGTON, D.C. - A bit of good news when it comes to the housing market: Home sales in our region are on the rise.

New sales numbers released Friday by the Metropolitan Regional Information Systems show sales in the Metropolitan Washington area are up 15.3 percent in March compared to the same time last year. Only three counties in the region saw a decline in sales: Arlington, Calvert and Charles Counties.

Here's the breakdown on some areas:

• DC + 1.5 %
• Prince George County +10.5%
• Fairfax County +11.9%
• Montgomery County +15.5%
• Frederick County +11.8%
• Loudoun County +1.4%

Until now only a few counties had seen a jump in home sales, mostly areas hit hard by foreclosures and a steep decline in prices. This is the first time since the market crashed that we've seen such a broad increase in sales across the Washington region, and it may indicate the market is on the way back up.

Nicole Bunting is one of those buyers. For the past month, she's looked at about a dozen homes and now has a contract on a house in Darnestown. She needed more room with a one year old son and another baby on the way but buying in Montgomery County had been out of reach but that's all changed.

"The prices for me just weren't affordable so this is just a golden opportunity for me," Bunting said.

The house has a big yard for her kids and is priced right. Bunting doesn't think prices will go much lower. That plus the $8,000 tax credit for first time home buyers and historically low mortgage rates made buying now attractive.

"It's kind of the trifecta. It's a great time to buy," Bunting said.

While home sales throughout the Washington region are up, prices are down 19 percent-- but even that's an improvement. For the past six months, prices have been down 25 percent or more in most areas.

"Prices aren't starting up but the decline in prices seems to have stopped," said John McClain a Senior Fellow at the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University.

Realtor Larry Prigal says the market is also getting more competitive. This week he was outbid on two houses.

"We're actually starting to see where multiple contracts are coming in on houses. If the house shows well and is priced well then there's a lot of people out there trying to get those," Prigal said.

He says buyers who were on the fence the last few months are now buying. Real estate prices are now back where they were in 2004, before the bubble. McClain says the activity in sales could mean the real estate market is on the road to recovery.

"Where we have fallen back to would suggest that maybe the adjustment is over," McClain said.

The turnaround in sales is just for one month so far and could be part of the normal real estate cycle. The numbers in April and May will show if this is definitely a positive trend.

Bunting says prices are already so low and "people are saying the market is going to go back up."

She's not ready to gamble that prices will drop any lower.