Housing market shows signs of life

“Prices are showing renewed signs of strength,” said Sandy Paul, national research director for Delta Associates, an Alexandria real estate consulting group. “The spring selling season is usually the strongest of the year, and this year’s bodes well for a continued correction — the first step in a housing market recovery.”

The average second-quarter sales price was $382,515 in the region, down 13 percent from the second quarter in 2008, but up 12 percent from last quarter, according to data from Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc. and Delta Associates.

In July, home sales jumped the most in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, increasing by 30 percent and 76 percent, respectively, from July 2008.

The Prince William-Manassas-Manassas Park region, however, was the only jurisdiction in the area to post a year-over-year decline in both median price and the number of sales in July. The median price dropped about 7 percent, from $214,000 to $200,000, and sales dropped 22 percent, from 1,012 to 787.

Anirban Basu, economist and chief executive of Sage Policy Group, cautioned not to read too much into one month of data, however.

He said he first noticed a turnaround in the suburban Maryland housing market early this year, when there was a big jump in pending home sales, and that there has been “steady and apparent” progress in the local market during the first half of the year.

“There’s no reason to believe that we won’t continue to see progress” into 2010, he said.

Basu said Northern Virginia has been a leading indicator for the rest of the region in recent years. Heading into the housing crisis, the Northern Virginia market turned first, followed by the suburban Maryland and Baltimore markets, he noted.

“I hope it’s a one-month anomaly,” he said.

[email protected]