Sterling Market Update, Nov 2008

In the last week, we’ve looked at the market conditions in Leesburg and Ashburn. Here is what I found when looking at the numbers from Sterling. For single family homes, there were 188 homes active and for sale in Sterling, ranging in price from $161,500 for a 45 yr old split foyer in Sterling park, to $1,399,000 for a Cascades area home on over an acre. (How’s that for a wide swing in prices, holy cow!) There were 65 single family homes under contract in Sterling in the last 30 days; the lowest list price was $129,900 for a Sterling Park rambler, and the highest list price under contract was a $725,000 home in River Crest.

So for single family homes, that’s an absorption rate of 2.9 months. Not too shabby! I think it’s pretty indicative of investors hopping back in the market, as the prices have come down. The least expensive homes are getting gobbled up quickly.

For townhomes in Sterling, there were 186 homes active for sale. Of those, the least expensive was listed for $89,900 in the Newberry and Pembrooke neighborhoods (there were two at that price!), while the most expensive was $447,650 for a two car garage townhome in Lowe’s Island.  There were 61 townhomes that went under contract in the last 30 days; the least expensive listed for $92,000 in Newberry, and the most expensive list price was $394,000 in Potomac Lakes.

That puts the absorption rate for townhomes at 3 months, which is very much a balanced market. It’s easy to see when you compare those absorption rates to the longer selling times in Ashburn and Leesburg, that the shortened commute/closer in location, combined with the drop in prices that we have seen, have made Sterling an affordable and popular choice for homebuyers in Loudoun County.

I also took a look at the overall inventory for Loudoun County, which two days ago stood at 2213 homes for sale, of all types; there were 357 homes under contract.  That puts the absorption rate for the county at 6.2 months.  When I looked at those numbers on October 2nd, there were 2266 homes for sale, and 428 under contract , with a 5.3 month absorption rate.  So things have slowed down just slightly in most of the county. We are coming to the slowest part of the year, in terms of the number of homes coming on the market and the sales volume sold.  That’s not to say that you can’t successfully sell a home at this point in the year: the number of listings is lower, so you stand just as much chance of selling as during a busier point in the year…less buyers but less houses to choose from.

If you are interested in keeping up with market updates, you can visit our Market Stats page or just reach out to us.

Cheers,

Heather