Existing home sales rise 16.7 percent in county
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Buyers spent $365.5 million for existing homes in Washington County last year, a 16.7 percent increase over 2011.
This is according to figures provided by RealStats, a Pittsurgh-based firm that tracks residential real estate sales data in five Southwestern Pennsylvania counties.
Collectively, the Metropolitan Pittsburgh region – which also comprises Allegheny, Beaver, Butler and Westmoreland counties – had a fabulous 2012 in existing home sales. It experienced a collective 19.1 percent rise in sales volume, from about $3.2 billion to about $3.8 billion in 2012. The total increase was $609.8 million.
This is further evidence that the housing market in Southwestern Pennsylvania is gaining momentum.
Although Washington County’s 16.7 percent jump ($313.2 million to $365.5 million) was healthy, it was the smallest increase in the metro region in 2012. Westmoreland County (22.5 percent) led the way, followed by Butler (19.7), Allegheny (18.1) and Beaver (17.0).
But Washington County fares well in a number of RealStats categories.
It extended an impressive winning streak, with the average price of an existing home there rising for a 13th consecutive year. The 2012 figure was $162,526, up 5.8 percent from $153,669 in 2011. Washington and Allegheny are the only counties in the region to have experienced a rise every year since 2000.
Over the past 10 years, average existing home prices in Washington County have gone up 4.0 percent, second to Butler (4.3).
The median price in Washington also has risen 13 years in a row, including a jump from $122,000 in 2011 to $134,000 last year (10.2 percent).
Metropolitan Pittsburgh likewise has experienced an increase in both categories every year since 2000, but its 2012 average ($154,194) and median ($123,000) are below Washington County.
The county’s sales volume of $365.5 million last year was its second-best figure since 2000, trailing only the $371.6 million in existing home sales in 2005. It also represents a 30 percent leap from the $281.2 million in 2009, the peak of the Great Recession.
RealStats said its “figures are based on recorded arm’s length sales of existing homes, townhomes, condominiums and duplexes with a price of at least $10,000” in the five-county region.