A September to Forget for DC-Area Sellers
September home sales across the Washington DC region came in at their weakest level for that month in almost two decades, and the region’s dominant listing service pins the chill on mortgage rates. The September market report from Bright MLS, as covered by the real estate publication UrbanTurf on October 13, tallied closed sales down 8.4% from the same month a year earlier.
Buyer hesitancy ran deeper than the closed-sale count implies. Contracts waiting to settle fell 17.1%, and property showings dropped 16.9%. Bright attributes the retreat to borrowing costs rather than federal workforce cuts, and the weakness appeared in virtually every jurisdiction the report tracks.
Prices Hold While Piles Grow
Sellers have not capitulated on price. The region’s median sale price edged up 1.6% year over year to $610,000, a gain Bright reads as a mix effect: more detached houses trading, fewer condos and townhomes. Detached homes were the sturdier segment, with a median of $785,000, up 2.6%, even as their transaction count slipped 4.7%.
Inventory is the bigger signal. Homes on the market jumped 20% from a year earlier, lifting the region past its pre-pandemic stock, and months of supply climbed from 2.65 to 3.22. Owners are not exactly rushing to sell, with fresh listings essentially flat, off 0.3%, but so few buyers signed contracts in September that unsold homes kept stacking up anyway.
One Region, Many Stories
The closer you zoom, the more the picture splinters. Inside DC proper, the median slid 2.9% to $660,000, and homes needed a median 36 days to go under contract, the slowest pace of any jurisdiction measured, with almost six months of supply sitting on the market. Alexandria dropped 11.4% to $660,000 and Arlington gave back 4.6% to $655,000, while Fairfax County moved the other way, gaining 5.6% to reach $749,750.
A few pockets stood apart. Frederick County was among the rare spots with more closings than a year ago, an 8.8% rise, and Loudoun County watched its active inventory soar 34.1%.
Looking toward the rest of autumn, Bright expects some local markets to fall below their year-ago price levels in coming months, though the service does not project steep declines. For now, the region’s data sketches a standoff: sellers holding list prices, buyers waiting on rates, and a market cooling one month at a time.
