Home prices in the Washington area increased by the most in the country during the 12 months ending in March, according to data released Wednesday.
Prices for single-family homes increased 6.4 percent — the biggest increase out of 10 major metropolitan areas, according to CoreLogic, a real estate data company.
Nationally, home prices increased by 1.7 percent. The year-over-year increase “shows that the housing market is continuing to exhibit signs of stability,” said Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic.
While the Washington area overall performed strongly, home prices for all of Maryland fell 6 percent, the fourth-worst performance among states. Virginia’s 7.3 percent increase was third-best.The District’s home prices climbed 2.7 percent, the report said.
Area
12-Month Price Change*
12-Month Forecast**
Washington area
6.4%
2.2%
Maryland
-6.0%
-5.3%
District
2.7%
1.3%
Virginia
7.3%
4.3%
*March 2009-March 2010
**March 2010-March 2011
Source: CoreLogic
The real estate market in the Maryland suburbs has consistently lagged Virginia’s the past few years.
“Fairfax County had its recession a little earlier than D.C. and Montgomery County,” said local real estate agent Donna Evers. “Montgomery County and D.C. will follow along, but they kind of have to get through the whole cycle, so we might see a little bit negative price for D.C. and Montgomery County for a couple more months.”
Lower supply levels — currently at around three months — are helping, Evers said.
“It makes for a stronger sales situation, obviously, when we don’t have that much on the market,” she said.
In Virginia, a massivedrop in the percentage of bank-owned sales — from 88 percent in December 2008 to 15 percent in March — has helped boost home prices in Prince William County, said Deputy County Executive Chris Martino.
“That’s a very significant turnaround,” he said. “Prices are … increasing once again, however slowly, but … we’re going in the right direction there, so that tells us that the market is stabilizing some.”
“That’s a very significant turnaround,” he said. “Prices are … increasing once again, however slowly, but … we’re going in the right direction there, so that tells us that the market is stabilizing some.”
CoreLogic is forecasting a 2.2 percent price climb from March 2010 to March 2011 for the area and a 0.5 percent decrease in home prices nationally.
