The first 3 months of the 2020 Northern Virginia Real Estate Market was zooming as forecasted. With low employment, record low interest rates, our market from Arlington, VA through Fairfax, Loudoun, Alexandria, Prince William and Stafford Counties were on record pace. Many houses were getting multiple offers! There were stories of homes selling in Arlington and Alexandria with 30 to 40 offers, appraisals waived, escalations of offers $50k over asking price with no home inspections and full cash offers – it was NUTS! Suddenly, March 17th, we were quarantined with this COVID-19 threat. It is real. Through the Governors orders, realtors are still allowed to list and show homes. But as expected, many homes are not being shown at the same pace.
As a realtor, I am of course torn with houses not being shown as much, BUT more important is the healthy and safety of everyone. So for the time being, let’s get healthy and there will be time for normalcy in the future.
I wanted to study the effects on our market. Let’s take a look at my video which highlights some surprising stats and an outlook on our upcoming Summer.
Real estate is such a regional market and business. Northern Virginia is very reliant on our Federal Government for employment along with our “Beltway Bandit’s”, military and contracting business. Thankfully, this keeps this area partially insulated from recessions and other challenges. Right now interest rates are around 3.5% and forecast to go to low 3%’s in May/June. What is surprising is that our Active listings in Northern Virginia is literally about 50% of what was listed at this same time in 2019. When our residents are able to go outside, they will go home shopping and take advantage of low interest rates. In the interim, for those home shoppers now, there are some great opportunities to find a home and avoid multiple offer situations. More inventory will be coming in May / June – so expect a “SUMMER” MARKET INSTEAD OF “SPRING MARKET”