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Fairfax County’s housing market gained momentum in 2024, with more properties changing hands and prices climbing even as mortgage rates remained well above their pandemic-era lows.

Preliminary data from Bright MLS shows 11,787 properties sold during the year, a 5.1% increase from the 11,218 sales recorded in 2023.

Prices rose under all three major measures. The average sales price increased 8.6% to $858,057, while the median climbed 7.4% to $730,000. The average price per square foot reached $367, up 6.1%.

Buyers spent much of the year adapting to borrowing costs that had surged from historic lows. Rates for a 30-year fixed mortgage averaged 6.75% in November and December, roughly in line with long-term norms.

Lisa Sturtevant, chief economist for Bright MLS, said buyers have adjusted their expectations after seeing rates exceed 7% and approach 8% during the past year. Against that backdrop, she said, a rate in the mid-6% range can now look appealing.

Many existing homeowners, however, remain reluctant to sell because doing so would mean surrendering the exceptionally low mortgage rates secured during the Covid era. That has kept the supply of available homes constrained.

Bright MLS analysts said the D.C. region entered 2025 with substantial pent-up demand but continued obstacles. Inventory was expected to remain limited, affordability was still a significant barrier, and uncertainty surrounding federal employment presented another issue to watch.

Analysts expect changing family and financial circumstances eventually to bring more properties onto the market. In a nationwide Bright MLS survey, homeowners in their 30s and 40s were the group most likely to sell in 2025, with family and job changes cited most often as the reasons.

Across the roughly 80 counties and cities covered by Bright MLS in the Mid-Atlantic, 223,275 sales were recorded in 2024, up 2.5%. The median price rose 6.5% to $410,000, the average increased 6.8% to $505,873, and the average price per square foot climbed 5.1% to $249.

The coverage area includes the District of Columbia and Delaware, along with parts of Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The figures account for most, but not all, listed homes. The 2024 totals are preliminary and may be revised.

More growth forecast for Fairfax in 2025

A forecast released in December by the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors and George Mason University’s Center for Regional Analysis projected further gains in Fairfax County sales and prices during 2025.

Single-family home sales were forecast to rise 5.7%, with the median price increasing 1.5% and inventory growing 3.4%.

Townhouse sales were expected to increase 2.9%, accompanied by a 3.9% gain in the median price and a 6% expansion in inventory.

The condominium market was projected to record a 0.9% sales increase, a 3.5% rise in the median price and 3.6% inventory growth.

Tysons leads the region in apartment rents

Fairfax County apartment rents also ended 2024 above their year-earlier levels, bucking a slight national decline.

Tysons had the highest median rent among the 29 D.C.-area communities tracked by Apartment List. Median rents stood at $2,344 for a one-bedroom unit and $2,810 for two bedrooms, producing an overall median of $2,578—a 2.6% annual increase.

Other Fairfax County markets also posted gains. Annandale’s median rents were $1,848 for one bedroom and $2,109 for two, up 1.2% year over year. Centreville reached $2,019 and $2,345, respectively, for a 6.2% increase.

Fair Oaks recorded rents of $2,163 and $2,418, up 4.3%. Fairfax reached $1,883 and $2,155, up 5.2%; Herndon stood at $1,757 and $2,109, up 3.8%; and Merrifield reached $2,283 and $2,806, up 3%.

Across the D.C. region, the overall median apartment rent finished 2024 at $2,146, an increase of 3%.

The national median moved in the opposite direction, falling 0.6% from the end of 2023 to $1,373, its lowest level since early 2022. Even after that cooling, the typical national rent remained 20% above its pre-Covid level.

Apartment List analysts said monthly national declines could moderate and return to positive growth as moving activity increases in the new year.