Loudoun County Real Estate Prices Continue Upward Trend in 2009

Contrary to what you read and hear regarding real estate prices on a national level, prices in Loudoun County have been trending upward during the first four months of 2009.  The following graphs shows the prices of resale homes in Loudoun County have risen 8% from the December levels.

There is also a significant uptick in April prices which is exactly the opposite of what occured in April of last year when prices dropped 19,772 from March levels.  The April numbers are an estimate based on the current list price of the 352 homes already sold in April and a 97% sales price to list price which has been the rate for the last 6 months. 

 

And while this is definitely an encouraging trend, I anticipate the prices will start to move down again because of the recent lift on the foreclosure moratorium that has kept hundreds of foreclosure properties off the market during the last six months.  Look for those levels to increase going forward. 

And unlike others who report foreclosures levels dropping dramatically, I don't think this will be the case going forward as the economy continues to shed jobs.  Prices here will fare better than anywhere else in the country but will probably languish as the overhang of supply from abandoned and vacant houses hover over the marketplace.

Comments

[trying to get more info]

Tony,

Do you have any info on the 'average' home sold during the first 4 months of this year vs the 'average' home sold during the first 4 months of last year(i.e. single family home vs town home, square footage, build year, etc)? If the average home being sold this year is a 4000+ sq ft single family home while the average home being sold last year at this time was a 2500 sq ft town home then the "average" selling price indicator could be quite misleading.

Thanks!!

[Tony Arko]

Thanks for the question regarding the average home being sold. Although this post doesn't make a comparison of prices in 2008 vs 2009 (it compares the price trends not absolute prices) it is still a very good question. If we compare 2009 prices to 2008 prices for the first four months, the difference is $75,000 ($329,000 vs $404,000). The average home sold in 2009 was a 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath house built in 1991 on a lot of 28,000 square feet. The data for finished square footage is incomplete and a lot of times inaccurate. The average home sold in 2008 is a 4 bedroom, 3.5 bath house built in 1991 on a 39,000 square foot lot. So the houses purchased in 2008 have an additional full bathroom and 11,000 square feet more of lot size.

[Richmond REO Deals]

Wow! thanks for the info. I had a feeling that Loudon was one of those "exception" places because I saw how things were developing in the South Riding area. It seems like a lot of stuff is coming in there! Are there a lot of foreclosures "built up" in Loudon?

[real estate in philippines]

Very informative update! I like the way you delivered your post co'z I really enjoyed reading it. Thanks for sharing.

-joicee-