Author: Scott McCaffrey

Those trying to purchase homes in Fairfax County are finding the available inventory down by nearly half from a year ago, but that situation is aiding those who are putting their homes on the market.

Sales across the county were down in July from a year before, but prices were up in all three segments of the market, according to data reported Aug. 10 by MarketStats by ShowingTime based on listing activity from Bright MLS.

Fairfax County stood in the middle of the pack when it came to home-buyer interest in July, according to new data.

The county’s score of 88 on the Bright MLS T3 Home-Demand Index was good enough to place the county fourth out of 10 jurisdictions. But it still represented a slow pace of buyer activity, perhaps owing to limited inventory and higher prices coupled with elevated (compared to several years ago) mortgage-interest rates.

Those wishing to partake of the urbanizing atmosphere of Tysons and the Mosaic district around Merrifield are having to pay more for the privilege, according to new apartment-rental data.

Both areas have seen year-over-year increases in median rentals even as the nation as a whole saw a contraction in costs.

Fairfax County’s jobless rate in June was up slightly from May but down from a year before, according to new figures.

With 655,498 county residents in the civilian workforce and 16,495 looking for jobs, the county’s unemployment rate of 2.5 percent in June was up two ticks from 2.3 percent a month before but down from 2.6 percent in June 2022, according to figures reported Aug. 2 by the Virginia Employment Commission.

The Fairfax County real-estate market stayed above the billion-dollar mark in June, according to new data, as the average sales price among single-family homes remained above $1 million.

A total of 1,312 properties went to closing during the month across the county, down about 18 percent from a year before, according to figures reported July 11 by MarketStats by ShowingTime based on listing activity from Bright MLS.

As a student at Annandale High School and Edison Academy, Jose Florian promised his mother that, after graduation, he would take college courses.

But how to do that when also needing to work full-time?

You take your wins where you can find them in today’s real-estate market. And for Northern Virginia, there was a bright spot or two in the June sales data.

Month-over-month sales across the local region were up 3.6 percent from May to June, while at the national level, month-over-month sales dipped 3.3 percent.

Fairfax County’s unemployment rate ticked up a bit from April to May but remains on the low end of the statewide total, according to new figures.

With 651,524 in the civilian workforce and 15,572 looking for jobs, the May unemployment rate of 2.3 percent in Fairfax County was up from 2.1 percent a month before but down from 2.5 percent a year ago, according to figures reported June 28 by the Virginia Employment Commission.

Despite a recent uptick, apartment-hunters in Tysons are getting better deals than they did a year ago, according to new data.

The median Tysons apartment-rental rates in June stood at $1,998 for one-bedroom units and $2,389 for two-bedroom units, according to figures reported by Apartment List.

A recent Juneteenth ceremony hosted by NOVA Parks (the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority) and Fairfax County branch of the NAACP served as another step in unearthing the unique history of the Bull Run area and those – free and enslaved – who lived there more than 200 years ago.

The event, held June 17, brought to life the story of the largest private emancipation in Virginia, something occurring generations before the Civil War effectively ended slavery in the U.S.