The five top-selling counties in the Virginia-West Virginia region in March based on number of homes sold were:

Fairfax County — 1,041 homes
Montgomery County — 730 homes
Prince’s George’s County — 653 homes
Baltimore County — 562 homes
Washington — 521 homes

In the Northern Virginia real estate market, Fairfax County outsold the second most popular market in March by 629 units, more than doubling second-ranking Loudoun County’s sale of 412 units. The five top-selling market in the Northern Virginia area in March by number of units sold were:

Fairfax County — 1,041
Prince William County — 412
Loudoun County — 390
Arlington County — 194
Alexandria City — 160

Of the more than $693 million total dollar sales in the Northern Virginia region, Fairfax County accounted for 71.4 percent. The second-ranking county, Loudoun, accounted for 21.9 percent.

Fairfax County — $494,916,183
Loudoun County — $152,388,014
Prince William County — $120,992,339
Arlington — $108,139,493
Alexandria City — $68,941,710
Fauquier County — $20,611,598
Fairfax City — $13,928,820
Manassas City — $8,010,594
Falls Church City — $7,343,845
Manassas Park City — $3,581,250

The higher-priced four-bedroom homes also accounted for a big portion of Fairfax real estate sales in March. A total of 396 four-bedroom homes averaging $704,638 in sale price were sold. Next most popular were the three-bedroom homes which had a sales total of 357 and averaged
$395,644 in sale price.

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The major business costs that the KPMG study considered were labor costs, facility costs, transportation costs, utility costs and taxes. The baseline cost index of 100 was determined from the average cost of doing business in the four largest cities in the U.S., namely New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago and Dallas-Fort Worth.

Here are the 10 large cities which have higher business cost indexes than the North Virginia-Washington, D.C. metro area:

104.5     San Francisco, California
103.4     New York City, New York
101.5     Seattle, Washington
101.2     Boston, Massachusetts
100.9     Los Angeles, California
100.6     San Diego, California
100.0     Sacramento, California
99.4      Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
99.3      Portland, Oregon
99.3       Chicago, Illinois
99.2      North Virginia-Washington, D.C.

It is remarkable that the North Virginia-Washington, D.C. metro area’s business cost index is lower than those of other high-cost large cities, considering that the North Virginia area appears high on charts of office rents and annual mean wages.

Among these 10 large metro areas, the average asking rent per square foot in the North Virginia-D.C. area ranked second, based on Jones Lang LaSalle’s Office Statistics chart for the first quarter of 2012.

$51.37     New York City, New York
$50.53     North Virginia-Washington, D.C.
$47.49     San Francisco, California
$44.99     Boston, Massachusetts
$35.78     Los Angeles, California
$30.94     Chicago, Illinois
$29.73     Sacramento, California
$28.24     Seattle, Washington
$26.21     Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
$24.84     San Diego, California
$21.38     Portland, Oregon

The U.S. Labor Statistics’ May 2012 annual mean wage estimates for all occupations in metropolitan areas in the country also show that the Washington, D.C.-Arlington-Alexandria metro area also ranked second among the 10 metro areas with the highest business cost index in the country, as ranked by KPMG.

$64,820     San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City, CA Metropolitan Division
$63,720     Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV Metropolitan Division
$60,390     Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA NECTA Division
$58,500     New York-White Plains-Wayne, NY-NJ Metropolitan Division
$56,290     Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, WA Metropolitan Division
$51,480     Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA
$51,550     Sacramento–Arden-Arcade–Roseville, CA
$50,350     Philadelphia, PA Metropolitan Division
$50,350     San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA
$49,030     Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, IL Metropolitan Division
$47,600     Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA

Northern Virginia Residential Real Estate

There are more than 65 accredited two-year and four-year universities and colleges in the Washington, D.C. region and several of these are located in Fairfax County. Five of these are
major institutions.

1. George Mason University in Fairfax
This university is one of the largest universities in Virginia, with 36,562 students as of 2010. It offers bachelor’s, masteral, doctoral, juris doctor and certificate degrees and is a pioneer in the teaching of information systems security, computational sciences and bioinformatics.

2. Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale
With a student population of 48,996 as of 2010, this community college is among the largest in
Virginia. It offers associate and certificate programs.

3. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University – Northern Virginia Center in Falls Church
This university center is one the six extended campuses of Virginia Tech, which has an enrollment total of more than 30,000 as of 2010 and which offers 215 undergraduate and graduate degree programs using a budget of almost $400 million.

The Virginia Tech Northern Virginia Center functions as a facility for several of Virginia Tech’s research and academic departments in the National Capital Region. It has a student population of 1,078 as of 2010.

4. University of Virginia – School of Continuing and Professional Studies in Falls Church
This is another Northern Virginia Center in Falls Church, offering masteral and doctoral degrees and certificate courses to 1,378 students as of 2010.

5. University of Virginia Darden School of Business
This Darden School in Reston offers management and research programs for business executives in the area.

Other Fairfax County universities and colleges are the following:

Central Michigan University in Washington, D.C.
This school Offers masteral and certificate courses.

Everest College
This college has multiple locations in Virginia and Maryland, offering associate and certificate courses.

ITT Technical Institute
This institute has several locations across Virginia and offers associate and bachelor’s degrees.

James Madison University in Reston
This university offers masteral degrees.

Marymount University in Arlington
This school has a student population of 3,572 as of 2010 and offers bachelor’s, masteral and doctoral degrees and certificate programs.

Mercyhurst College – Intelligence Studies in McLean
This is an exclusive college, catering only to selected employees of public and private organizations. As of 2010, it has 71 students.

Missouri State University - Department of Defense and Strategic Studies - in Fairfax
This school offers masteral degrees and certificate programs.

Potomac College
This college has several locations across Virginia and the National Capital Region, offering associate, bachelor’s and certificate programs.

Sanford-Brown College in Vienna
This school offers associate and bachelor’s degrees and certificate programs.

Stratford University in Falls Church
Stratford offers associate, bachelor’s, masteral and certificate programs.

Strayer University
Strayer has several locations across Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia area. It offers associate, bachelor’s and masteral degrees and certificate courses.

University of Phoenix
Phoenix has several locations in Virginia, Maryland and the National Capital region, offering associate, bachelor’s, masteral and doctorate degrees and certificate programs.

Virginia International University in Fairfax
This university offers bachelor’s, masteral and associate programs and has 337 students as of
2010.

Washington Bible College – Capital Bible Seminary
This bible college, operating in multiple locations, offers associate, bachelor’s, masteral and certificate programs and has 541 students as of 2010.

Webster University
This school offers masteral degree programs and operates in multiple locations in Virginia, Maryland and the DC area.

Westwood College
This college, with several locations across Virginia, offers associate, bachelor’s and doctoral degrees.

Explore Fairfax County universities and colleges / Explore Fairfax County real estate

The biggest numeric increase occurred in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas area, with an increase of 154,774, and the second biggest increase was in Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, Texas area with an increase of 139,699.

5 Fastest-Growing Metro Areas from April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2011

1.  154,774    Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas

2.  139,699     Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, Texas

3.  121,911     Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, D.C.-Va.-Md.-W.Va.

4.   118,791    New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, N.Y.-N.J.-Pa.

5.  115,964     Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, Calif.

The population of the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria area as of April 2010 was 5,582,037 and increased to 5,703,948 in April 2011. This count included the Bethesda-Rockville-Frederick area, which contributed 1,226,539 in April 2011.

Over the one-year period from July 2010 to July 2011, the increase in this metro area was 94,798, a jump of 1.7 percent from 5,609,150 in July 2010. With among the biggest numeric growth in population, among the biggest household incomes, and among the highest-paid employees in the country, the Arlington-Alexandria-Washington metro area is also expected to continue to grow fast in its real estate sector.

In 2011, according to the National Association of Realtors, the Alexandria-Arlington-Washington, D.C. metro area was the 13th most expensive metropolitan residential real estate market in the U.S. With a median sales price of $325,400, existing single-family homes in the area were more expensive than those in 14th-ranking Edison, New Jersey; 15th-ranking Barnstable Town, Massachusetts; and 16th-ranking Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, California.

It was not only the higher salaries that were significant in the preponderance of higher-priced Northern Virginia homes, but the higher number of people in highly-paid occupations. The highest-paid professionals — managers who were receiving a mean annual salary of $125,400 in 2010 — number 228,860,the fourth highest total number of individuals in an occupational group.

Following are the numbers of professionals and employees for occupational groups in 2010, including their mean annual salaries, based on data published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

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The mean annual salary for all occupations in the Washington, D.C. area as of May 2010 was $61,530, significantly higher by 38.6% than the national mean annual salary of $44,410. Here is a table comparing mean annual salaries for certain occupations in the Washington-Alexandria-Arlington area with the national mean annual salaries as of May 2010:

Based on a report from the National Association of Realtors (NAR), the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria real estate market was the 13th most expensive metropolitan market in the U.S. for existing single-family homes in 2011. The median sales price for pre-owned single-family homes in 2011 in the area was $325,400.

Here are the median prices for Northern Virginia homes sold in February, including their rates of increase compared to median sale prices in February 2011, based on data published by the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors (NVAR)

Compared to the previous month, median sale prices in many Northern Virginia markets also
increased in February. Seven of the ten markets posted increases in median home prices month over month, with Fairfax City showing the biggest rate of price increase. The following table shows how fast median home prices increased in seven areas month over month and how fast median prices dropped in three areas:

In the whole Virginia-West Virginia region, the median price for homes sold increased over the year in February by 2.13% to $240,000 and the average sales price increased by 1% to $301,058. Month over month, however, both the median sales price and average sales price decreased. Nevertheless, the total sales in both dollars and units increased month over month and year over year. Total sales rose by 5.12% over the year and 9.2% over the month to 6,158 units and total dollar sales increased by 6.2% over the year and 5.2 over the month to $1.854 billion in February.

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An index of 100 means that a family earning the area’s median family income has the exact level of income to be able to buy a median-priced existing single-family home. The higher the index from the 100 level, the more the median-priced home is affordable to a median-income-earning family. The lower the index from the 100 level, the lesser the affordability of the median-priced home to a family with median income.

Here are the least affordable metro areas — those with affordability indexes lower than 100:

As seen in the table, Arlington homes and Alexandria homes have an affordability index of 93.2. Despite lower affordability, the Northern Virginia area, where Arlington and Alexandria are located, sold a total of 16,703 housing units in 2011, with an average sales price of $483,159, based on data published by the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors (NVAR). This sales volume marked a decrease from the total sales of 18,883 units in 2010, but an increase in the average sales price from $468,870 in 2010.

In 2011, a total of 2,269 Arlington homesand a total of 1,903 Alexandria homes were sold, with average sales prices of $509,392 and $436,737, respectively. In January 2012, a total of 122 homes in Arlington and a total of 104 homes in Alexandria were sold. The median sales prices were $513,500 and $393,500, respectively.

Arlington, Alexandria and Washington, DC have among the highest median household incomes in the nation, helping push up the prices of residential properties. Significant numbers of residents are college graduates and work in white-collar jobs as managers, artists, designers, computer programmers, analysts and other professional occupations.

Just like in previous years, the Honolulu real estate market was again the most expensive in 2011, as foreigners compete to have a piece of the lovely island. Land is not abundant and construction materials are expensive, so the prices of homes soar high.

Here are the most expensive metropolitan housing markets in 2011, based on median sales prices:

The Washington-Alexandria-Arlington real estate market is part of Greater Northern Virginia, a
region where the richest county and three of the five richest counties in the U.S. are located. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Loudoun County was the nation’s richest county in 2010, with a median household income of $119,540. The median incomes of Fairfax and Arlington Counties were $103,010 and $94,986, respectively.

The city of Falls Church, which is an independent city in Northern Virginia, also had the lowest
poverty rate in the country. Only about three percent of residents are poor, based on Census data.

In January 2012, the Arlington real estate market posted the highest median home sales price in the Mid-Atlantic region, with a median of $513,500. The Alexandria real estate market posted the third highest sales price, with a median of $393,500.

ARLINGTON REAL ESTATE MARKET / ALEXANDRIA REAL ESTATE MARKET