Look Back: LoCo Market in 2013

2013 was the year of the seller in Loudoun County as every statistical measure of value in real estate increased. A couple of my buyers experienced this first hand with multiple offer situations, but we were still able to find them a home. Probably the most shocking stat was a 21% increase in total sold homes volume to almost $2.9 billion! That’s enough to buy the Redskins, Capitals, Nationals, and Wizards! Let’s take a look at a few key stats…

Our first graph shows a month by month accounting of last year’s 6289 closed real estate transactions (up 13.5% compared to 2012). The dark purple line represents detached single family homes (3,203 sales), and the lighter purple line represents all attached homes (like townhomes and condos, 3,086 sales). I thought one of the most interesting things here was the big spike in sales for December, making it the 6th busiest month of the year for home sales.

This graph is the one everyone wants to know about, show me the money! The average single family home sold for $570,327, almost 7% more than last year, while the average townhome/condo sold for $347,676, an 8.7% hike. It’s nice to see home values in Loudoun going up across the board, just keep in mind certain areas increase more rapidly than others. Over the following weeks we will be publishing updates at the town and neighborhood level, but if you can’t wait that long ask for your home value report here.

Most people don’t pay much attention to days on market before listing, but once a home is on the market when it will sell becomes a hot topic. In 2013 it took an average of 52 days to ratify a contract to purchase in Loudoun County, one week less than 2012 (2500 homes sold in 10 days or less). The graph above should give you a decent expectation of how long your home would be on the market, but keep in mind it typically takes 30-45 days to close after a ratified contract. That means the homes sold in May were actually listed in late February to late March. If you are planning a move before September this year, anticipate putting your home on the market 55-70 days before you want to be out.

Here were a couple of other noteworthy stats (if you want the whole picture download this –>LoCoVA-2013):

• Almost half of the homes sold had at least 4 bedrooms
• Condos had the largest increase in avg. sales price at 16%
• Exactly 4,000 borrowers used conventional financing
• Sellers got 98.1% of their list price (that doesn’t necessarily take into consideration price drops, just the list price at the time of contract)

What does it all mean? Prices actually came down a little in the fall, which is good for the overall health and sustainability of our market. A 6.98% increase year over year is outstanding and combined with the 2-3% increases we saw in 2011 and 2012, we have a pretty strong trend going that should continue. I would expect home prices to rise about 10-12% for the spring season, depending on where you are in the county. Buyers should be ready to act fast and be willing to negotiate to get the best deal possible.

Live in LoCo and wonder what your home is worth? Fill out this quick form and we will shoot you an email with an up to date market report. Thinking about buying? We’ve got you covered there too, click here to get email updates on listings as they become available.

Cheers,
Mike

If you have any questions about this report, or any other topics about LoCo, just ask!