October 2016 Northern VA Market Update

 Here’s the pulse of the October 2016 Northern VA market:

• Contract activity
• Urgency Index of Buyers
• Inventory of Available Homes
• Interest Rates & Affordability

Contract activity was down just .5% from Sept 2015. Through the first 9 months of the year, new contract activity is up 3.5%. Average number of days on market for homes receiving contracts was 56, slightly down from Sept 2015.

The urgency index was 54.4%, up slightly from Sept 2015 and year to day is slightly up overall at 59.2% compared to the urgency index of 2015 of 58.4%.

Inventory is down 17.2% and there is a 3.1% drop in number of new listings. This is helpful to sellers, as prices hold steady due to less competition.

Interest rates were at 3.42% down only slightly but still historically low which means the affordability index is advantageous to buyers. Overall lack of quality inventory is curtailing activity.