Home sales surge in Washington County, region
Home sales in the Pitsburgh region from January through July surged 9.8 percent compared with the same period of 2012. Washington County helped fuel that rise, especially in the new homes category.
Pittsburgh-based RealStats tracks residential real estate sales data in five Southwestern Pennsylvania counties: Washington, Allegheny, Beaver, Butler and Westmoreland. Its figures indicate that the housing market in Southwestern Pennsylvania is continuing to accelerate.
There were 16,017 homes sold in the region through July, up 9.8 percent from 14,582 year over year. The sales of all homes in Washington County for that period was 1,447, a 4.1 percent increase from 1,390 in 2012.
The total dollar volume of Washington’s sales, however, rose from $246,322,660 in 2012 to $285,168,348 – an increase of $38,845,688. That’s a 15.8 percent spike, the second-highest increase among the five counties, trailing only Beaver (16.2).
The median price of all homes sold in Washington during the first seven months of the year was $169,900, second highest behind Butler County ($192,000) and well above the regional median of $135,000. Washington’s figure was 14.4 percent above its 2012 median of $148,450.
The median is the point at which half of the homes sold for more and half for less.
Sales of existing homes was a mixed-bag category for Washington. Of the counties, it had the weakest growth in the number sold, 3.7 percent (1,256 to 1,302), but the greatest dollar volume increase (15.2 percent, from $203,580,099 to $234,553,837). Washington’s median price ($152,500) also rose precipitously, 13.4 percent, from $134,400 in 2012.
Metropolitan Pittsburgh experienced increases of 10.1 percent in existing homes sold (13,576 to 14,948) and 13.1 percent in dollar volume ($2.10 billion to $2.37 billion).
Washington was particularly strong in new home sales, posting a dollar volume increase of $7.9 million ($42,742,561 to $50,614,511), or 18.4 percent, and a 10.0 percent rise in median price (288,976 to $318). There were 145 new homes sold compared with 134 for January-July of 2012.