Despite the ongoing COVID Crisis, the DMV’s real estate market continues to move along at a steady pace. There was an initial shock to the market caused by the stay-at-home orders driving many sellers to withdraw their homes from the market. We also saw a 40% decrease in showing activity as buyers decided to put their searches on hold temporarily. That pause seems to have been short-lived as many of those sellers have now put their homes back on the market, and more buyers are out home shopping again. New listings and new closed sales are now at or near 2019 levels and we are still experiencing multiple offer situations fairly regularly.

As restrictions ease, the weather gets nicer, and people want to get out and about again, we expect to see even more sellers putting their homes back on the market. There is still plenty of time to capitalize on the traditionally busy Spring Market and it’s highly possible we will see spring market conditions push into the summer months.

The landscape for buyers will continue to look more and more like it did pre-COVID. There has been, and will likely continue to be, an inventory shortage across the DMV region, so being assertive when shopping and making competitive offers will still be necessary. Many listing agents are improving virtual access to properties by posting more videos and 3D tours of properties to reduce the foot traffic in homes. This is making it easier for some buyers to narrow down the list of homes they are actually interested in before ever going on a showing appointment (and is safer for everyone overall!). Buyers still have the benefit of historically low interest rates, with last week’s national average for a 30-year fixed rate coming in at 3.23%. That is the lowest rate ever reported in the weekly Freddie Mac survey since they started tracking in 1971.