The Arlington County, Virginia, housing market continues to get more expensive, and potential buyers continue to have fewer and fewer houses and condos to consider.

The Arlington County, Virginia, housing market continues to get more expensive, and potential buyers continue to have fewer and fewer houses and condos to consider.

Long & Foster’s monthly market snapshot shows there were 193 sales in Arlington County in September, down 13% from a year earlier, and the number of homes on the market, currently at 268, is down 52% from last fall.

The median price that Arlington buyers paid in September was $590,000. That’s $75,000, or 15% more than a year ago.

Throughout Northern Virginia, prices were largely up, with Alexandria City being the exception. The median price of a sale in Alexandria last month was $499,000, down 4%. There were 180 sales in Alexandria in September, a 10% decline from last September, and active inventory in Alexandria is down 54%.

“The Amazon effect is still in full swing, with both Arlington and Alexandria seeing their inventory contract, causing a squeeze on number of units being sold,” said Long and Foster President Larry Foster.

Fairfax County, Northern Virginia’s largest county, had 1,179 sales in September, a 13% increase from September 2018. The median price in Fairfax was up 4% to $502,500

Loudoun County’s 547 sales last month were up 17% from a year ago. The median price of what sold in Loudoun County in September was $495,000.

In Prince William County, the number of sales rose 8% from a year ago to 567, with a median price of $382,000, up 5% from a year ago.

The inventory contraction is most pronounced in Arlington and Alexandria, though the number of listings across Northern Virginia is down double digits in all jurisdictions.