Though summer is coming to a close and beginning to wind down, the DC Metro area real estate market has been experiencing just the opposite. August proved to be an unprecedented month for the real estate market, with sale price, pending contracts, and closings at a level we haven’t seen in over a decade. Washington DC saw its sales rise 14% from August of 2015, with sales volume rising to pre-recession levels of over 780 for the month of the August – the highest seen since August 2006. Fairfax County also saw a rise in sale volume of 15.4% from last August, with over 1,500 sales. Arlington County wasn’t far behind, with a 6.6% increase in sales from August of last year.

Yet another metric we see trending in the right direction for August is days on the market. DC metro, Fairfax county, and Arlington County each saw improvements in days on the market compared to last August. Though we haven’t reached pre-recession levels in this category, we are still seeing significant improvements. DC Metro and Arlington County’s median days on market dropped to 22 days, compared to last August with 25 and 27 days respectively. Fairfax County also saw a decrease from 29 to 26 days. With a robust market, we are expecting to see these numbers continue to decrease in the coming months.

The DC metro area reached another milestone in August, with the highest median sales price we’ve seen since August 2007. The median sale price rose 2.4% from last year to over $420,000. Once the recession hit in 2008, we didn’t see the median sale price rise to over $400,000 until 2013 when prices reached $415,000. Now we are finally seeing that figure restored to levels we haven’t seen since 2007, when the median sale price was $425,000.

August has proved to be one of the most significant months for the real estate market, showing us the strength and health of the DC metro area. It will be interesting to see in the coming months if the trend continues to reflect pre-recession market levels.