Market Update on Clarendon Condos for Sale in Arlington Virginia

Details on Arlington VA condo Market Trends– Prices in Rosslyn Clarendon and Ballston

For the classic Ultimate Guide to Buying a Clarendon Condo in Arlington click here

Jay Seville:  Hi, I’m Jay, the owner of Just New Listings.com realty. And I thought I’ll give you an update on the Arlington, Virginia condo market and particular, in particular the Orange Line, the Ballston, Clarendon Courthouse, Rosslyn Orange Line condo niche. Now if you Google Arlington, Virginia condos, I’m number one and if you Google something even more nichey such as Clarendon condos Arlington real estate, I’m probably number one, two and three in Google as I also have the other website, theorangeline.net. My point being if you’re thinking about buying a condo on the Orange Line my team is who you should be talking to and we will protect you financially. There is some interesting things happening in the markets, some big shifts in terms of data and well, trans regulating to crisis days on market, inventory that kind of things. So, let’s look at it and show you what’s going on and give you better understanding of the market place here in 2011. We are now kicking into the Spring market and with the Spring market inherently comes more activity, along more showings and usually more contracts et cetera. So, let’s see what’s actually happening with crunching the numbers.

Days on Skyrocket In Recent Months After Tax Credit Frenzy

First chart I’m going to show you is medium days on market. This is going back two years that where you have some prospective seeing before the – seeing it currently as well as during the, you know, the government interference in the market place scenario with the, the tax credit that was meant to stimulate the economy in the real estate industry et cetera. So, check this out here, you have during the government tax credit, the average days on market to sell a condo in 22201 which is the general Clarendon area plummeted from 107 down to like 70. That’s a huge decrease in the amount of time to sell property. Since then and went straight back up to where it was before. It’s amazing how that works, isn’t it.  So, I really think that a lot of people just shifted their calendar dates to their purchasing transaction and listing transaction. Lot of people scooted their transaction up to meet the government calendar date for the stimulus and after that it’s just slow way down because now instead of listening, those people are enlisted before because they were trying to get in on the [Indiscernible] [0:02:35] that was going on last year. So, interesting sort of funny, 48 percent increase in the days on market is where we are at compared to a year ago. And it’s been really kicked in around September and has been going steadily that way. I expected just sort of flatten half going the rest of the year for it’s worth.

Days on Market– Time to Sell Clarendon Condo Increases Dramatically

Then you have the Arlington county days on market, as a whole also going back to a year ago from February to February ’11, we are up 53 percent. So, the point being that in the Clarendon niche which tends to be the hardest real estate market in Arlington at least for condos, it’s much more extreme. You have a higher days on market compared to the rest of the county. Here we are going to look at the three main parts of the Orange Line market. You have Rosslyn, this is the lowest demand on the Orange Line in terms of buyers wanting to buy homes and requesting showing from the et cetera. Here we’ve gone on the average days on market, there is now at a 126 days on market is the average to sell home.  And then Ballston and Clarendon are sitting even stiffen there about a hundred. It’s interesting, so it takes, you know, approximately 25 percent longer to sell a home in Rosslyn as it does in Clarendon and Ballston. And one thing you need to be careful of an address recently changed from one of the most popular buildings 1800 Wilson condo. It used to fall in the 22201 zip code but since it has changed 22209 it’s very important in your real estate searches that 22209 be included in your listing updates, otherwise you are missing out on a building that is pretty popular and was generally considered part of the court house, they were having more than anything just like, artsy so for what it’s worth.  Next we have new pending under contract, going back to – this is January, the main thing I want to point out is that the new pending is down 28 percent like right here and then at February new pending is down five percent. So, what this means is people are buying fewer homes, there are fewer transactions in 22201 than they were a year ago. So, I would say the market has slow down. And then what people often like the folks on the most are priceless and I break this down to help you understand when it comes to real estate everything is hyper local to the area, the zip code, the neighborhood but it’s also hyper local to the price cortile. And there maybe completely different market trends happening in one price bracket but if you go down to another price bracket it’s changed.  So, let me show you when I’m talking about here and I can see already I’m missing an important shot I wanted to show you. For the lower price condos on the Orange Line, they are pretty flat, they have gone up a couple of percent since they started right here. These are the homes that are like, you know, 350 to 400 that kind of thing, typically one bedrooms in the court areas of Clarendon. For – the next price bracket, they’ve gone from around 400 to 450. This would be like a bedroom and den or a less expensive two bedrooms, two baths in Clarendon. So, those who have done pretty well appreciating the last year, that’s for sure and then when you go up to the next bracket which is often more associated with two bedrooms, two baths, they have gone up from 475 to 525 about 13 percent from last year.  And the statistic that’s missing, again I apologies is the upper cortile and that was going to start here around 825 and it was down to like 750. So, completely upside down, it had lost about 15 percent of value. And my point is, even real estate is hyper local to the nitch price bracket you’re in. The trends can be opposite or the same depending on which cortile you’re in et cetera. So, there you go, the big picture on the Arlington condo market is that transactions have slowed down, it’s taking longer to buy homes. And the other thing is and I want to emphasizes again is inventory, let’s see if I can get that, here we go. Inventory, here we go is low, it’s 21 percent lower than a year ago for condos in Clarendon.  There is an inventory shortage right now, it is very frustrating for buyers it’s like me and, and the buyers out there. There is hardly any new listings to see it seems like. So, after your first round and make sure one of those 20 percent of the buyers who just did not connect with, who gets lucky and connects with a property the first time out. For most people after that initial showing you see what’s on the market, it’s high and dry. There are so few listings coming up in market not really sure, I think it goes back to the tax credit and a lot of people just sold their homes a year earlier is the best theory I have on it. But with such a low inventory compared to a year ago and then you go back even further, you know, it’s challenging. When the right listings comes up be prepared to act decisively, you need an agent who you can count on to look you in the eye and say look this is the best scenario you can afford for this price and therefore if you don’t take this, chances are you may have to wait a couple of months to get the same scenario or something just as good but it’s not going to be any better.  So, I’m just letting you know as a consultant if you don’t take this inherently because of the price limitation, you’re not going to do any better. So, you must go forward now or if you want to wait and still learn the market better that’s fine too. But you just need to know this is as good as it gets and if this fits you take advantage of it and let’s move decisively. You need to be pre-qualified ahead of time and have an agent prior side whom you can trust, to negotiate and help you bid out competing offers. And all new ones is there, I mean agent-to-agent relationships and power plays that go on. All right, talk to you soon. Hope to show you some homes.