Prince George's County, Maryland
Market Watch - April 2020
Prince George's County Residential Real Estate Market
With Listings Falling to 10-Year Low, Home Sellers Rewarded with Increased Home Sale Prices and Quicker Sales
The Prince George's County Association of REALTORS® (PGCAR) reports that April's local real estate market reflected opportunities for home sellers with quicker sales at higher average prices. In the midst of an escalating coronavirus pandemic that led to government-mandated stay-at-home measures and business slowdowns, there were 753 closed sales recorded, a decrease of 13.3 percent from April 2019. (April 2020 total sales volume was $259.5 million). The Average Sold Price increased 12.1 percent to $344,560, reflecting the County's limited inventory of existing homes.
Even with average home sale prices increasing, home buyers appear to recognize Prince George's as one of the go-to destinations in metropolitan Washington. As further indication that consumers are interested in buying homes, the Median Days on Market (DOM) was only 10 days, a decrease of 47.4 percent from April 2019. Average DOM was 29 days, a decrease of 23.7 percent from April 2019. In short, the pandemic and "Stay-at-Home" order appears to be deterring home sellers, but not buyers.
The chart above details April activity compared to the five-year average, an important longer-term measure of market trends. While New Listings, New Pendings and Closed Sales dropped substantially due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Median Sold Price and Average Sold to Original Listing Price both increased. The supply of homes for sale remains at a five-year low of 1.3 months (representing 1,247 units) available for sale (versus a 1,574 historical April measure and 1.9 month's supply.) This important statistic means that if no new listings come on the market and with typical demand, the supply will be exhausted in 1.3 months.
| April 2020 | Year Over Year (YoY) | Month Over Month (MoM) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total Sold Dollar Volume | $259,527,208 | - 2.1% | - 1.6% |
| Closed Sales | 753 | - 13.3% | - 4.7% |
| Median Sold Price | $340,000 | + 14.5% | + 3.1% |
| Average Sold Price | $344,560 | + 12.1% | + 3.3% |
Yolanda Muckle, PGCAR President and a professional REALTOR® at Long & Foster Real Estate Inc., shared: "We're pleased to report that in April, our real estate community showed that it could keep the health of our communities as our foremost priority, while still serving our home buyers and sellers. April was entirely under the "stay at home" mandate, and we never forgot our responsibility to flattening the curve in the Prince George's County and the DC region coronavirus pandemic impact. We will not let our guard down now either. However, the real estate community was deemed an essential business and we adjusted admirably to conducting business in a manner safe and responsible to preventing the spread of COVID-19."
"Thankfully, REALTORS® have been using tools such as virtual home tours and electronic signing services for several years so the transition has, in some ways, been a little easier," Muckle continued. "Our challenge is to instill confidence in our clients that we can market their property effectively so their home can be sold in a timely fashion. As we begin to realize that the new normal will be different than before and continue to evolve, we may see homeowners (who may have been considering selling their homes) being more motivated to do so as they spend more time at home than usual, and we spread the word on how well home buyers are responding to largely virtual home buying, inspections and settlements."
The Voice for Real Estate in Prince George's County
PGCAR is the voice for REALTORS® in Prince George's County, Maryland. Representing more than 3,500 real estate professionals in the national capital area, PGCAR is an affiliate of the Maryland and National Association of REALTORS®. We are proud to serve our members and our community, and work to ensure professionalism in the industry. Our volunteers and staff work to offer services to real estate professionals and to provide avenues for our members to become more successful. We proudly work to promote and protect home ownership and private property rights.
