Prince William housing market shows improvement

It’s too soon to wave the winning banner, but an upward movement on the home price chart for Prince William is good news to a market that’s seen dramatic slumps for months, according to just-released numbers from the county demographer.

“The average sales price for homes in Prince William for May is $238,000,” said Bill Vaughan, chief economist and demographer for the county. “That’s a good 12 percent higher than it was a month earlier. It’s too early to call it a trend, but we’ve had three straight months of [upward] prices.”

By contrast, the low for average housing sales prices in Prince William hit in February, at $208,000, he said.

“We’re selling 700-plus homes in the community every month,” he said. “The average days on the market has come down as well, to 78 compared to 128 a year ago.”

The $8,000 federal tax credit for first-time homebuyers is helping open the doors to more sales, Vaughan guessed.

Still, for a look at the longer perspective, Vaughan’s written demographic fact sheet for the second quarter of 2009 specified that the average sales price of homes for May, at $238,231, nonetheless “represents a 16.3 percent decline year-over-year.” Moreover, the supply side of housing still favors the buyer.

“As of June 15, 2009, there were an estimated 137,381 housing units in Prince William County. This represents an additional 39,329 units, or 40 percent, since April 2000,” according to the report. “Roughly two out of every five houses in the county were built since 2000.”

As busy as developers have been these last few years, other periods in Prince William’s life have experienced similarly heavy construction. For instance, between 1950 — when there were 5,755 housing units in the community — and 1960, the county experienced nearly a 130 percentage growth rate with the addition of 7,452 housing units, the report states.

Between 1960 and 1970, another 16,678 homes were built, for a 126 percentage growth rate.

The next two decades were slower-growth — albeit still healthy, with 16,608 homes added between 1970 and 1980, for a 56 percent rise, and 28,269 built between 1980 and 1990. That’s almost a 61 percent growth rate for that decade, according to the report.

Staff writer Cheryl Chumley can be reached at 703-670-1907.