Virginia Home Sales Rise, but Area Jobless Rate Also Grows
Home sales in Fairfax County rose 10.7 percent last month, the county's first double-digit increase in a year and a half, according to the most recent data from the company that tracks local real estate listings.</br></br>The flurry of sales activity suggests that prices have dropped low enough to lure buyers to the Washington area's largest county. But the uptick in sales is not widespread throughout the region, and unemployment data for August show a steady slowdown in the region's economy.</br></br>"The big unknown is to what extent the financial trauma we've seen in the news in the past week has scared buyers away," said Barry Merchant, senior policy analyst at the Virginia Housing Development Authority. "We know it has shaken people's confidence in the economy and their own personal situations."</br></br>Fairfax's median sales price was $375,000 in August -- meaning half the homes sold for more and half for less. That's nearly a 22 percent drop since August 2007. The last time prices fell lower was in April 2004, said John McClain, a senior fellow at George Mason University's Center for Regional Analysis.</br></br>"Perhaps we've seen enough cut out of prices to see a return to normalcy," McClain said. "We're seeing buyers move back in from the sidelines in the past few months."