Arlington VA Real Estate -- Equilibrium?

For Arlington VA real estate 2006 was a year when buyers and sellers did not get along.  Hence there were 12% fewer transactions in 2006 versus 2005 for Arlington County real estate.  Of course with prices so high fewer transactions was probably to be expected.  Average list price was 3% higher in 2006 as well, however the median sales price was down 3%. That's a sign something the buyers and sellers were having "issues". 

Average List Price Tumbles for Real Estate in Arlington & Clarendon

What is interesting to note that by January 2007 versus January 2006, the average list price tumbled 13% from $615,771 down to $533,556.  Of course the reason that the median sales price was down only 3% is that the stats had yet to reflect the true (lower ) value of all those units that did not sell but had just expired or withdrawn from the market.  And in Jan 2007 the median sold price compared with Jan. 2006 was down 16% but just 8% in Feb. compared to 2006.  So this says that the correction in 2006 was about 10% or so--hardly the bubble bursting the bubbleheads had seemingly been rooting for:




Maybe some of it will be recaptured in 2007 in the Spring Market.  Maybe not.  In some subdivisions though prices bottomed out and went up from 2 months ago.  Arlington Village off of Columbia Pike is a good example of this. 

In February 2007 there were 17% more sales than in Feb. 2006.  This was all the 2006 buyers getting off the fence since it seemed the correction was over.    With the average sales price down and the number of transactions up, we now have much more equilibrium in the Arlington VA marketplace.



Sellers figured it out because the buyers waited them out.  Still with most listings there is room to negotiate down.  But in many cases homes that show well are getting snapped up within 1-2 weeks, so if you're "sold" on a home, don't dilly dally.  You can probably negotiate down on the price if there are no other contracts, but get the negotiating started right away so nobody swoops in with a full price offer while you cogitate for 2 weeks, thereby missing out on a lower sales price on the home that you really wanted and could have had for a lower price.  An excellent realtor in Arlington Virginia will tell you what it's worth based on the comps and instincts.  The latter are hard to elaborate upon since most realtors do not have the "instincts" on home values that are often quite subtle.  Maybe I'll write on that sometime.

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