Yes – open house traffic has thinned out.
Yes – houses are staying on the market longer.
Yes – interest rates moved up.
No – the market is not tanking in Northern Virginia
No – you will not get a “really good deal” by waiting (depending on the price range).
But these are THE EXACT conditions buyers were looking for…waiting for…begging for…praying for…saving up for!
Home markets are measured in absorption rate – that means that when you have a 2 month supply, if no more inventory shows up, it would take 2 months to absorb what’s on the market. The type of markets are divided up this way:
| TYPE OF MARKET | MONTHS SUPPLY |
| SELLERS MARKET | Less than 3 months |
| NORMAL MARKET | 3-5 months |
| BUYERS MARKET | 5+ months |
Now – here’s the issue for all the folks buying, selling and investing in Northern VA for the last 5 years — we’ve been lingering at 0-1 months supply since 2018. The Northern Virginia Association of Realtors Historical Data demonstrates that the overall market has not seen a 2 months supply since February 2018.
That means everyone in the market the last two years have been high on a quick paced, outbid your neighbor, waive everything scenarios. That’s over (for now). Now what you have is a time in place in Northern Virginia – in the shadow of the White House and Pentagon – to actually hang out at the listing for longer than 15 minutes. Go see another house – or dozen – and then come back to that first choice and make an offer. You MAY still compete for the really fine homes, but maybe not!
It’s here! It’s what you wanted! Now you can negotiate! Now you can ask for seller subsidies to help you lower your rates, pay your closing costs, paint the closets! Get off the fence and take advantage of it.