Washington-area home sellers had a great February. About 6,750 existing homes were sold last month, an increase of 29 percent over February 2010. It was the best February since 2006 and a further sign that the Washington region is climbing out of the housing slump ahead of most of the country.
Before we celebrate too much, we have to be sure we are talking about February sales in the right context, which is extremely important when dealing with statistics.
In case you’ve forgotten, we had some snow in February 2010. A couple feet of it. That put a damper on home sales.
However, even that fact cannot account for a 29 percent increase in sales this past February.
February 2010’s snow caused a drop in sales of just 7 percent compared with 2009. This year, we more than made up that 7 percent, and, as I already said, it was the best February since 2006. Some of those years we had very little snow.
When you look at both January and February sales, it is pretty hard to dispute that 2011 is off to a great start. Besides the strong sales figures, the inventory of unsold homes is climbing more slowly than sales, which is good.
Potential problems ahead include: a surge in foreclosures, which could become a problem if banks clean up the foreclosure-paperwork mess they got themselves into. If mortgage interest rates climb too high, that also could put a damper on buyer enthusiasm.
But for now, it appears that 2011 could be the best year for Washington-area real estate since 2007.
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