A lot of people ask me if I think we are in a “buyer’s market” or a “seller’s market”. After the beating we all took during the recession, most homeowners in our area seem to think sellers now have the edge and can drive a hard bargain with buyers. They also want to know how much homes have appreciated in the past year.

I think we’re in a balanced market, which favors neither side, and appreciation has been rather flat. Not losing ground, but not gaining much either. Although I hear from my colleagues that the inventory of homes has been low this year, I haven’t seen many multiple offer situations. I find this reassuring, since it means the real estate market isn’t overheated. We certainly don’t need another episode like we saw ten years ago of irrational price escalation, followed by a bust.

When I study the Miller Heights market, I look at what has sold in the previous twelve months, in this case back to the beginning of August 2015. This community has again seen 40 homes change hands (it was 39 in my twelve month look back last year), of which 30 were in what I call “classic” Miller Heights, the homes built around 1980. On average those homes sold for $745,000, which is a small drop from the $762,000 average I noted in my last report in November 2015. The average time for a home to get a contract was 53 days, but as you can see from the chart there were a lot of homes that sold in much less time.

In the newer parts of Miller Heights, like Windsong and Wheatland Farms, the average sold price of the ten homes that sold was a lot higher, $1,555,000, and the time to sell a lot longer, around 103 days. We had a number of these homes come on the market about the same time this past spring, and that flooded the market a bit.

These stats all point to a very stable market and steady demand for homes in our great community. It’s fun to see a lot of new folks joining us long-term residents (Leslie and I have been here for 19 years), bringing their energy and desire to get involved.

I hope you have a pleasant remainder of the summer. The days are getting longer and, despite the heat, we know Fall is right around the corner, with the colors and cool evenings and parade of school buses in the morning. I love it!

Craig Lilly, Realtor, Long & Foster, Vienna