Northern Virginia’s housing market recovered slightly last month following months of losses, according to the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors’ report on February home sales.
“We saw February and January [home prices] up 2 percent,” said John McClain, a senior fellow at George Mason’s Center for Regional Analysis. “That a lot better than minus five and minus six,” he added, referring to drops in home prices seen in recent months.
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McClain said it appears as if the housing market had hit its bottom and was on its way to recovery.
“I think it’s possible that we’ve been through the worst part of it,” he said. “The markets are looking up, especially on the Maryland side. January and February were positive months, which I hadn’t expected.”
David Lereah, chief economist for the realty association, said he expects prices to continue to rise though this year and into next.
“After reaching what appears to be the bottom in the fourth quarter of 2006, we expect resale activity to gradually rise this year and well into 2008,” he said in a statement.
Despite these positive outlooks, the average price of a home in Northern Virginia is still lower than it was a year ago. The average home price then was $483,872, 1.24 percent more than the current $477,879 average.
