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Health & Fitness

Blog Post: Summer Has Arrived In Real Estate

The spring real estate market is over and summer has arrived. What does that mean for buyers and sellers?

The calendar has flipped to June. In the Northern Virginia real estate market, that often marks the official end to the “spring season” and the beginning of the “summer season”. (Never mind that summer really doesn’t start until June 20th!)

SELLERS: If your home is on the market now and has been on for a while, it’s your last chance  opportunity to get the price right and get sold. Buyers are still out there, but the further into summer we go, the more things usually slow down. Buyers with school age children are accelerating their efforts now because in order to find a home, write a contract, get to settlement, get moved in and settled in before school starts – things have to happen soon. As we move into late June and into July, active buyers often take a break from looking. It’s vacation season and summer travel sports season and that takes priority.

If your home is not on the market yet (maybe you’re thinking you’d like to move in the fall and be settled in your new home for the holidays) – NOW is the time to interview realtors  and start prepping your home for market. You don’t want to spend money on improvements that are not necessary, but you do want to take care of anything that will affect saleability and price. Your realtor should consult with you on this now and differentiate these items for you in terms of what buyers in the market respond to.

Find out what's happening in Viennawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

BUYERS: Homes are still selling quickly in our area. Whether you are buying now or buying later in the year, the best way to prepare yourself is to look at listings on a daily basis. Sign up for a FREE Listing Alert service that is directly fed from the MLS and see what’s out there. (Don’t just manually search online sites because they are often out of date and filled with inaccuracies.) Filter through different areas, home types and price ranges until you are really comfortable with what you get for your money and what things are most important to you. Make sure your loan is FULLY approved before you start looking at homes. Arm yourself with a top-notch realtor who is a master negotiator.  And then be ready to strike when you see one you like. As an example, last week in the Vienna/Oakton area, 30 homes sold. Half of them sold in two weeks or less. Eight of them sold in a week or less. And three of them sold the day they went on the market.

Here’s this week’s detailed update on Vienna and Oakton real estate. (Contact The Belt Team if you would like statistics on YOUR particular market!)

Find out what's happening in Viennawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

  • Inventory dropped ever so slightly – down 3 percent in Oakton (currently 85
    homes for sale) and down 1 percent in Vienna (currently 204 homes for sale)

  • Contracts SOARED in Oakton this past week. 11 homes went under
    contract. This is the highest number of contracts we’ve seen in one week
    in all of 2012. Only two weeks in 2011 exceeded that number. And in
    2010, we matched that number only once.

  • Vienna saw 19 homes go under contract. This is under the year-to-date weekly average of 24.

  • Average days on market for active listings continued to decline in both areas – down to 96 days in Vienna and 72 days in Oakton.

  • Housing supply in Vienna shows a Seller’s Market (with about 2
    months of housing). And Oakton has moved into a Balanced Market (with
    2.9-3.5 months supply). Remember, however, that market supply also
    varies vastly within the same city, but in different price ranges,
    neighborhoods & school districts.

  • Homes are still selling quickly, 55 percent of the homes that went under
    contract in Oakton this week sold in 2 weeks or less. In Vienna, that
    figure was 47 percent.


  • Last week in Vienna Real Estate (22180,22181, 22182):

    • Number of Contracts: 19
    • Average Days on Market for Active Listings: 96 days
    • Average Days on Market for Listings That Went Under Contract: 36 days
    • Inventory: 204 homes on the market
    • Number of Months Supply of Homes (Based on past 90 day contract rate): 2.1 months
    • Number of Months Supply of Homes (Based on past 30 day contract rate): 2.2 months

    Last week in Oakton Real Estate (22124):

    • Number of Contracts: 11
    • Average Days on Market for Active Listings: 72 days
    • Average Days on Market for Listings That Went Under Contract: 56
    • Inventory: 85 homes on the market
    • Number of Months Supply of Homes (Based on past 90 day contract rate): 2.9 months
    • Number of Months Supply of Homes (Based on past 30 day contract rate): 3.5 months

    For more from the Belt Team, click here.

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