The Commerce Department recently announced that sales of new single-family homes jumped 16 percent from March to April. Sales reached a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 981,000.
Of course, these are nationwide statistics, and for only one month. Locally, new-home sales have not been great this year.
During the first quarter, area builders sold 5,373 new homes in the Washington metropolitan area. That’s an increase of 1 percent over the first quarter of 2006. But, you only need to look at 2004 and 2005 to see that a 1 percent gain is nothing to boast about.
Sales have expanded in some markets. New-home sales in Arlington and Alexandria were up a shocking 79 percent during the first three months of the year. But, once again, reality sets in when you compare this year’s data to that of 2005, when sales were three times higher than this year’s.
Prince George’s County is one jurisdiction that has remained steady during the slowdown. Sales there were up 17 percent in the first quarter. It was, in fact, the best first quarter for Prince George’s since 2001.
The worst-performing jurisdiction in the region this year has been Fairfax County. Eight years ago, Fairfax was the region’s largest new-homes market. This year, it is smaller than Prince William, Loudoun, Montgomery, Howard and Prince George’s. Sales in Fairfax are off by 46 percent, and that is on top of a 35 percent decline in sales last year.
Will we see the same bump in April new-home sales in that were reported for the nation as a whole? I’m not sure.
You would think our healthy economy would mean that we would get a good chunk of any positive national trend, but considering that existing-home sales were so weak in April, I’m not willing to gamble on strong new-home figures for April.
Contact Chris Sicks by e-mail (csicks@gmail.com).
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