It’s a doldrums-of-summer thing: The median listing price of a home across the Washington region for the week ending July 28 remained just below the $600,000 mark.
The $599,000 figure was down 0.2 percent from a week before but up 4.2 percent from a year ago, according to Bright MLS, the region’s multiple-listing service. And it is about $50,000 lower than the all-time weekly peak, set in May.
The median listing price represents market conditions in the District of Columbia; Arlington, Fairfax and Loudoun counties and the cities of Alexandria, Fairfax and Falls Church in Virginia; and Montgomery, Prince George’s and Frederick counties in Maryland.
Average listing and sales prices often trend down in the heat of summer, as typically there are fewer prospetive purchasers in the market. For the week, there was a total of 17,449 home-showings across the region – off 15.6 percent from a week before and down 19.1 percent from a year prior.
In terms of contracts consummated for the week, the total was 1,305. That’s down 9.4 percent from a week before and off 1.7 percent from a year ago.
Figures represent most, but not all, homes on the market. All current figures are preliminary and subject to revision. See the full data at brightmls.com/marketupdate.
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Looking to give up the inner suburbs for a little more open space? Prices certainly are more congenial if you head northwest of the local region and go Panhandle-ing.
In the 11 counties described by the Bright MLS multiple-listing service as the West Virginia/Maryland Panhandle area, the median home-listing price for the week ending July 28 at was $310,000. Though up 4.4 percent from a year before, that’s still well below the median $599,000 for the Washington region during the week.
The panhandle corridor includes eight West Virginia counties plus three (Allegany, Garrett and Washington) in Maryland.
Location helps determine pricing there as elsewhere. Leading the pack was Jefferson County, W.Va. – closest to the Washington region – with a median listing price of $398,500. In Allegany County, the median listing price was just $184,900, lowest of the bunch.
As with the Washington region, summer brings a decline in buyer activity, which this year is even lower than in 2023. The 1,867 showings for the week in the panhandle region represented a decline of 9.8 percent from the commensurate period last year.
But there is more for prospective purchasers to look at, as the 1,431 listings are up 23.7 percent from a year before.
