Will Northern VA home values continue to appreciate through 2018 into 2019?  The answer is: YES! – as long as there are more homebuyers in the NOVA market than there are listed homes for them to buy.  We all know this as supply & demand and it will determine future home values in NOVA.

When the demand of homes exceeds supply, prices go up.  Every month this year, demand (homebuyer traffic) has increased as compared to last year and for the first five months of 2018, supply (the number of available listings) had decreased as compared to last year.  However, a recent report by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) revealed the first year-over-year increase in supply in three years.

Here are the numbers  as compared to last year since the beginning of 2018:

The increase in the June numbers doesn’t mean that prices won’t continue to appreciate. In that same report, Lawrence Yun, NAR’s Chief Economist, explained:

“It’s important to note that despite the modest year-over-year rise in inventory, the current level is far from what’s needed to satisfy demand levels.

Furthermore, it remains to be seen if this modest increase will stick, given the fact that the robust economy is bringing more interested buyers into the market, and new home construction is failing to keep up.”

Bottom Line

The reason Northern VA home prices are still rising is that there are many buyers looking to purchase but few sellers listing their home for sale.   This imbalance is the reason prices will remain on the uptick.