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February sales warmer than January
While this February's home sales were dramatically down compared to the same month last year, the drop was not as drastic as January's had been. This report came from the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors, for the area including Fairfax County and Alexandria.
February sales fell by 33.72 percent, or about one third, to a total of 969 homes sold. January sales had shrunk by almost half, with a 46.92-percent decline, to 716.
The difference was most dramatic for single-family houses. Their sales fell by 23 percent for February, to a total of 417, compared to 44.63 percent for January, to 299. February townhouse sales declined by 36 percent, to 292. In January, they had plummeted by 51.68 percent, to 201. Condo losses held steadier, at 44 percent and 45 percent for February and January, respectively, to totals of 260 and 216.
The median sales prices followed the same mildly promising pattern. February's 8.57-percent skid, to $410,500, followed a 12.09-percent slide for January, to $400,000.
The average number of days on the market fell in a more welcome way. Having risen by 20.59 percent for January, to 123, they retreated to 7.41 percent for February, or 116.
Toll has hope
In a similar way, the CEO of Toll Brothers said he had seen "a few glimmers of hope" in the suburban Washington, D.C., market. They were a relatively bright spot in a dismal national report, revealing a net loss of $96 million for the first quarter of 2008.
At the same time, Robert I. Toll warned, "In metro D.C., which was among the first markets to weaken, we have seen the glimmer before and it faded. Perhaps this time it won't."
Regional President Bill Gilligan later explained that sales for the last half of January and the entire month of February had held fairly steady compared to those for the same period last year. By contrast, they had fallen for the period of November through the first half of January.
"And that was the glimmer," he said. "Now we are keeping our fingers crossed."
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