Amazon's HQ2 Boosts Northern Virginia Housing, Cools NYC

(Bloomberg) -- Home sales in both Manhattan and Arlington, Virginia jumped after Amazon.com Inc. selected the two sites for its second headquarters. However, the Manhattan market cooled after Amazon dropped the city from the list, according to a report from realtor.com.

Listing prices in Arlington increased 17.3% from the time of Amazon’s November announcement through April. Prices in Manhattan grew 2.4% for the same time period. Arlington has also seen a larger drop in home inventory than Manhattan suggesting there is not enough supply to keep up with the demand.

“With a household name as big as Amazon moving into Arlington’s backyard, we expected that home prices were going to increase, but because the number of homes for sale is not keeping up with demand, the price growth we’ve witnessed so far in both the mid-market and luxury sector has been dramatic,” said Danielle Hale, chief economist at realtor.com.

Arlington’s luxury real estate has fared even better than the mid-market sector, according to the report. In April, the average for the top five percent of home prices reached $2.4 million. That’s a 22.1% increase over the same period last year.

Even with the robust price increases, Arlington’s inventory is tight. According to realtor.com, the number of active listings in Arlington was down almost 50 percent in April from a year earlier, to less than 400 listings.

Further evidence of how tight the market is in the Arlington area can be seen using data from Zillow. Among more than 1,000 counties analyzed, Arlington County, neighboring Alexandria City and Fairfax County are ranked among the seven tightest markets in the country. Loudoun County, which is a bit more suburban than Arlington, is ranked 12th.

To contact the reporter on this story: Shelly Hagan in New York at shagan9@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Tanzi at atanzi@bloomberg.net, Chris Middleton

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