You're going to hear about an amazing surge in pending sales for May 2013 pretty soon, but be still. In the midst of a hot market, there's always an explanation for why pending sales for pocket markets would escalate by 100+ percentage points. Taking a gander at the table below, you'll see that several markets in the D.C. area surged ahead of May 2012 in the 100%-plus range.
The final numbers will differ a bit from the info below, but as of the 25th of May, the Alexandria zip code area of Fairfax County, for instance, was up a whopping 140%. In May 2012 there were 127 pending sales, this year for that same time period, buyers nabbed 305 contracts. The same type of surge occurred in Springfield (141%), Falls Church (120%), Fairfax (116%), etc.
While we're excited about the surge, it's tempered by looking at the headlines and economic events that were occurring last year at this time. Namely, the NY Times announced, "Jamie Dimon, the bank's chief executive, announced in May that the bank had lost $2 billion in a bet on credit derivatives..." and subsequent reports put the loss at around $9 billion. (For more info, take a look at this wiki report: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_JPMorgan_Chase_trading_loss). What followed last year was a 1,100 loss on the Dow from April 27 through June 1, 2012, an investigation and resignations of JPMorgan Chase executives.
As goes Wall Street, many times, so goes the real estate buyers' confidence. This year - the stock market is in all-time record territory, job creation is eeking upward and jobs are really growing in Northern Virginia, resulting in confident buyers with good mortgages, competing for homes.
Meanwhile, other good local news includes: listings are up; prices are up; and days on market are down. Need more information? Call us at Weichert Realtors, McLean VA at (703) 821-8300 if you want to know how the latest news affects your real estate goals.
The data below is compiled from the local MLS, MRIS.com. 
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