Falls Church News-Press Spring Real Estate 2019

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R EA L E STATE

FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM

SPRING 2019 | PAGE 13

Real Estate Spring 2019

Report Shows F.C. City Sales Down, Local Agents Tell a Different Story

by Matt Delaney

Falls Church News-Press

A recent report shows the City of Falls Church’s home sales dropped precipitously over the past year. But local purveyors and observers of the market are pushing back against the definitive nature of the report’s findings. Conducted by Chicagobased real estate analytics firm ShowingTime using its Market Watch tool, the figures show that Fairfax County and the City of Alexandria saw slight bumps in their sales while Arlington County, the City of Fairfax and the Little City itself all witnessed

declines. The drops were mostly modest in surrounding jurisdictions, but Falls Church sank the lowest with a 33 percent decline from February 2018 to February 2019. Coupled with an increase in inventory — which outside of Washington, D.C., the City was the only other municipality to experience that, according to the report — and a rise in assessments, Falls Church appeared to be getting more expensive while also witnessing a weakening market that was struggling to move properties. For a locality that banks on real estate taxes to help fund its quality of life, the news

could easily be seen as troubling. But according to some who track the City’s real estate market, such as Falls Church City assessor Ryan Davis, he doesn’t believe the numbers are as declarative of the local market’s health as they purport to be. “It depends on sample size, because we have so few sales in the City, it could just be that sales got pushed back or moved forward,” Davis said, explaining that sellers try to time their sales in order to avoid making another mortgage payment. “If you get a couple of people to move it in a month it can cause percentage difference to look big. At roughly

“COMING SOON” signs typically mean the property is on the market in a sellers paradise like the City of Falls Church. Local real estate agents believe the level of interest in the City hasn’t waned despite a recent report’s findings. (Photo: News-Press.) 200 sales per year, so about 18 a month, for it to go down 33 percent that’s six sales. I could very easily see six sales being moved up because people wanted to miss that mortgage payment.” Using Bright MLS data, which ShowingTime also extrapolat-

ed its conclusions from, Davis checked the patterns himself. He noted that while sales were down 10 percent overall from 2017 (222) to 2018 (201), when comparing the January and February

Continued on Page 14

INSIDE: Credit Score Misconceptions page 15 | Bailey’s, 7 Corners Seek Commercial Facelift page 18 | F.C. Home Sales #s pages 19–20

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