Even though sales declined regionally and nationally, inventory was lower and prices grew faster in the Northern Virginia real estate market than nationally in August, according to the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors.

“Despite mortgage rate increases, demand for housing is outstripping available options in our region. Low inventory is much more pronounced in our region than nationally and is driving up prices,” said Ryan McLaughlin, NVAR CEO.

Regionally, home sales continued to decline, dropping 12.4% from last August, but this was a smaller decrease than the overall market which fell 15.3%. Homes stayed on the market only 17 days on average in August 2023 in the Northern Virginia area, two days less than August 2022.

In Northern Virginia, home buying options were significantly less, with only a 1.08 month’s supply of inventory, down 1.4% from August 2022. 

The tight supply pushed prices even higher as the median sold price for a home in August reached $700,000 in Northern Virginia, up 11.6% over the previous August. Nationally, the median home price in August also grew reaching $407,100. However, this was a much smaller increase at 3.9% from August 2022.

In June, NVAR released a mid-year update to its NVAR Region 2023 Residential Real Estate Market Forecast. The forecast noted that a continued lack of housing inventory, pent-up buyer demand creating a sellers’ market, and positive economic conditions peppered with mounting risks may be in store for the Northern Virginia housing market for the remainder of 2023. The update was created in cooperation with the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University.