Interested in getting a more in depth look at the market? Click on any of the pins below to get a quick glimpse of the real estate market for that area, and enter your name and email address to get a detailed report sent to you. Knowledge is power, right? Let me know if you have any questions once you review your report.

Cheers,
Heather

If you are curious about how much your home (or a home you might want to buy) is worth, just fill out this form and I’ll email you a report with clickable links to comparable homes that are for sale or recently sold. Don’t worry, I won’t spam you…I hate spam just as much as you. =)

~ Heather

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Well, I’ve been really apprehensive of what our real estate market would look like in Loudoun County after the first time homebuyer tax credit expired. (which happened last Friday, so you can go ahead and exhale now)

Look at what our inventory levels did in the last couple of weeks…a lot of homes on the market all of a sudden. And apparently there wasn’t quite enough buyer demand to soak up all those homes. Of course, we’ll have to watch closely in the next few weeks to see if demand will pick up and these houses will go under contract. Otherwise days on market will increase and things will definitely have slowed down.

Cheers,
Heather

I thought it might be helpful to look at how the current market climate has affected median price in different towns across the county. The first chart shows single family home data, and the second shows the combined condo/townhome market.

Everything seemed pretty stable right up until the beginning of March, huh? I’m guessing that the last rush of contracts for folks taking advantage of the first time homebuyer tax credit is what has caused such dramatic change in pricing and inventory. Anyone that wants to use that credit has to be under contract by the end of April, so I expect that we will see prices flatten out again after that. I’m very curious to see if our sales volume will continue at a steady pace, or if it will be very quiet for a bit after that.

If you have any questions about how this may affect you or your home’s value, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Cheers,
Heather

One of the statistics I rarely look at is price per square foot, because it is typically the most stable in the short term. Going into the spring market, I thought it would be helpful to look at where the median price per square foot is for different towns in Loudoun County.  Remember that ‘condo’ really means ‘condo and townhomes.’

For the whole county, you can see the slide downward as the median price dropped across the county from 2007 through 2009. From the beginning of 2009 to now, it’s stabilized to within $5 a square foot, looking at single family homes or condos/townhomes.

Sterling is trending slightly below the Loudoun average for condos and townhomes, but in line with the rest of the county for single family homes. There is definitely a bigger disparity between home types here than on a county-wide level.

In Ashburn, there is no discernable difference in price per square foot between home types. Expect to spend around $160 a square foot, no matter what you are purchasing. Therefore, condos and townhomes are more expensive in Ashburn than in Sterling when you are looking at cost per square foot.

Leesburg is like Ashburn, because right now the cost per square foot is the same across all home types; however it’s about $10 less per square foot than in Ashburn. So you can afford a bit more home for your money, but your commute time is slightly longer as you head East.

In Hamilton, you can basically disregard the stats for condos and townhomes, as there are so few that it makes it statistically irrelevant. Single family homes are averaging about the same as Leesburg, but have not seen the huge rise and fall that the rest of the county saw between 2007 and 2009.

Single family homes in Purcellville are trending as high as the county average for dollars per square foot, refuting the theory of saving money by living further out. (Although in actuality, with the low number of homes on the market right now, it could be that what is available in Purcellville right now is in better shape, or newer, than what is on the market in the Eastern part of the county. Sometimes statistics don’t make sense to me, and this is one of those times.)

As expected, Round Hill is the least expensive as the most outlying town in the county, with the single family home price per square foot coming in about $20 a square foot less than the county average, and condos/townhomes about $25 a square foot less.

If you would like to see statistics specific to your neighborhood, or the neighborhoods you are interested in, just hit the Ask Heather button and let me know what you are looking for.

Cheers,

Heather

Most of the time here, I take a city-wide or county-wide look at market statistics, which is great if you are looking for a general idea of what the market is doing in your area.  However, when you are trying to get a specific idea of your home’s market value (or the market price of a home you are considering purchasing) you need to look a little closer, as pricing can vary wildly by zip code, or even neighborhood.  Case in point, median price for single family homes in Leesburg:

Let’s look specifically at the May 1 to September 1 time span, which in 20176 corresponded to a slight rise but overall gain of about $3000. During that same span in 20175, median price jumped up from $555,000 to roughly $602,000…slight difference, huh? And since then, an even bigger difference, as 20176 plummeted to around $590,000 while 20175 saw volatility before inching up to around $595,000.  See why it’s so important to look more closely? I can’t break these charts down on the neighborhood level here (although I’m happy to run those numbers for you individually, by request) but I’d venture to say that on that level, we’d see a variety of trends too.

If you would like me to give you specifics about your neighborhood and house type (whether you are in Leesburg or anywhere else in Northern Virginia) just click on the What’s My Home Worth? button or email me at heather@LoCoMusings.com .

Cheers,

Heather

What an interesting year. Going into 2009, I wasn’t sure what to expect from the Loudoun County real estate market. After the tumultuous up and down we have seen in the last five years, it’s reassuring to see stability in our market again. When you look at the year over year numbers for Leesburg, whether it’s for single family homes or the combined condo/townhome market, we don’t see a whole lot of difference between last November and this November. The only notable difference is in the inventory levels, which are down quite a bit year over year.

We’ll keep on analyzing these numbers, and see if the stability continues.

Cheers,
Heather

Here’s a slice of the market in Loudoun County, as of this week…Looking specifically at single family homes in Leesburg, we see the statistics mirroring what is happening in Sterling and Ashburn. Median price has hovered right around $640,000 since June, which is a $40,000 improvement over where that stood in January. Meanwhile, inventory has dropped off steeply since the beginning of May, from 410 listings to 325 across all price ranges. (If that doesn’t seem like a large dropoff, ask any buyer who has been trying to find a home to purchase in Leesburg in the last couple of months!) At the same time, of course, average days on market is down as well, from a high of nearly 205 days (almost 7 months) in May, and seems to still be dropping.

Questions? Just hit that Ask Heather button and reach out to me! (Or if you prefer, call me on my cell phone at 571-233-5491 or email me at info@heatherelias.com)

Cheers,
Heather

Mosey over to Leesburg Market Stats or Ashburn Market Stats to read the latest updates on single family home market activity in each of those towns; I just posted there based on this week’s statistics.

Cheers,

Heather

Take a peek at the charts below, which give you a snapshot of both the single family home market and the condo/townhome market in Sterling, Ashburn, and Leesburg. One of the main things that jumps out at me is how the “Homes Absorbed” compare to the “Newly Listed”~~since in all cases those numbers are very close, it shows us that houses are pretty much selling as fast as they are hitting the market. Our inventory level isn’t increasing as the summer months wane, as it usually does.

You can also get a feel for what is selling the fastest by looking at the days on market.  Not surprisingly, the condos and townhomes, which are lower price points for the most part, are selling more quickly than the single family homes.  (In Sterling, the days on market are similar for single family homes and condo/townhomes, but there are a slew of older single family homes in the same price bracket as the condo/townhomes.)

If you’d like a free statistical report on your zip code and home type emailed to you,  fill out the Subscribe Now form at the top of this page!

Cheers,
Heather