Arlington and Alexandria, Va., are the two most competitive U.S. housing markets, fueled in part by their proximity to the new Amazon headquarters, Redfin reports.
The most competitive U.S. housing markets are the two that are closest to Crystal City, home of Amazon’s upcoming second headquarters (HQ2) in Virginia: Alexandria and Arlington. This is according to the latest ranking of cities by Redfin Compete Score, which rates how tough it is for buyers to win a home using Redfin data on the number of competing offers and waived contingencies, as well as multiple listing service (MLS) data on how quickly homes are going under contract and for how much above list price. Both with a Compete Score of 96, Alexandria and Arlington buyers face the most intense competition anywhere in the country.
In the HQ2-adjacent cities, homes are going under contract far faster than the national rate or even the D.C. metro as a whole. Homes sold in July went off the market in a median 11 days in Arlington and 14 days in Alexandria, about a week less than last July in both and far lower than the 27-day median for the D.C. metro and 38 days nationally. Over half of all homes for sale (57%) in both Arlington and Alexandria went off the market in two weeks or less. That was true of just 40 percent of homes in the D.C. metro and just 29 percent of homes nationwide.
Read more
