More than half of the Reston homes that sold between January 2022 and September 2026 went under contract within seven days of listing. Of those first-week sales, 68 percent closed above list price.
Homes that missed that window sold for less, and the discount grew with every week they sat. Bright MLS records 4,958 Reston closings over those years. In every one of them, from the bidding wars of 2022 to the slower market of 2026, homes that went under contract in the first week sold for the highest share of their list price.
The same sales show that fall sellers give up about 1 percent to the season, and that a seller who starts high and cuts in small steps stays tens of thousands of dollars above what buyers will pay for months.
Most Reston homes sell in their first week, and most of those sell above list
The median Reston home in this set spent six days on the market. That figure is cumulative days on market, or CDOM: every day a home has been listed before going under contract, including days from an earlier listing if the seller withdrew it and put it back on. Fifty-five percent of the 4,958 homes went under contract within seven days, and 69 percent within 14.
The first-week sales brought a median 101.9 percent of list price. Detached homes in that group sold at a median 103.0 percent and townhouses at 102.6 percent. Condos sold closer to asking throughout the period and came in at 100.3 percent.
Those premiums come from competition. When a new listing matches recent sales, the buyers who have been watching that neighborhood tend to tour it within the same few days, and several write offers at once. A home that goes live on a Thursday in South Lakes or North Reston can have three or four offers by Monday for that reason.
By the second week, the premium was gone. Homes that went under contract between days 8 and 14 sold at a median 100.0 percent of list price, and one in ten of them had already changed price.
After two weeks, Reston homes sell for less with each week they sit
From the third week on, the median slides: homes that went under contract in days 15 to 21 sold at a median 98.5 percent of original list price. The figure was 97.7 percent for days 22 to 30, 97.0 percent for days 31 to 45, 96.2 percent for days 46 to 60 and 95.8 percent for days 61 to 90. Homes that took three to four months sold at a median 94.7 percent.
Original list price is the price on the first day of the listing, so those percentages include any cuts the seller made along the way. A quarter of the homes that sold in week three had changed price by then, and nearly three quarters of those that sat past two months had.
On a $700,000 home, the gap between the first-week median and the 31-to-45-day median comes to about $34,000. Most of the drop happens early: of the 4.1 points a home gives up between the second week and the third month, 2.3 come off by day 30.
Some of that discount reflects homes that sellers priced above their value on day one, which is part of why they sat. The sales data cannot separate the two causes, and a seller collects the same lower price either way.
Buyers pay about 1 percent less for a fall contract
Reston prices also follow the calendar, by a smaller margin. Among homes of the same size, age, type and neighborhood, contracts signed in April, May and June closed about 1 percent above August contracts. October contracts closed 1.2 percent below August, and November contracts 1.4 percent below. The ten-year record of Reston’s median sale price per square foot from ShowingTime shows the same October dip.
A seller who lists in late August and goes under contract in October gives up about 1.2 percent to the season, roughly $8,400 on a $700,000 home, before any stale-listing discount. A seller who lists in late August and is still on the market at Thanksgiving pays both.
A seller who starts high and cuts in small steps stays above the market
Our example home is worth $700,000 on list day in late August. The blue line starts there and falls along the two rates measured in Reston sales: about 1.2 percent over two months for the season, and the stale-listing discount that begins after day 14.
The seller lists at $750,000. With no offers after two weeks, the seller drops the price to $739,000. A week later the seller cuts to $729,000, then to $715,000 at week five and $705,000 at week seven. Each cut takes $10,000 to $14,000 off the asking price and still leaves the home above what buyers will pay. From week two through week nine, the gap runs between $36,000 and $45,000.
By week nine, the blue line sits near $664,000. In this example, the seller who held out for $750,000 now faces buyers willing to pay about $36,000 less than the same home would have brought in its first two weeks. The final $705,000 asking price is $45,000 below where the seller started and still about $41,000 above what buyers will pay.
The example home and its list prices are hypothetical. The rates behind the blue line are Reston medians, and any single home will vary around them.
In 2026, first-week premiums shrank and the cost of sitting held
This year’s market is slower than 2022’s. Forty-eight percent of Reston’s 2026 sales went under contract within a week, down from 61 percent in 2024, and the median home took eight days instead of six. The first-week premium narrowed to a median 100.7 percent of list price, from 102.6 percent in 2022.
The discount for sitting past two months held steady. Reston homes that went under contract after 61 to 90 days in 2026 sold at a median 95.9 percent of original list price, against 95.8 percent for the full five years. Sellers this year gave up most of the first-week premium and none of the late-listing discount.
Detached homes and $1 million listings lose the most by sitting
Detached homes that sat 31 to 45 days sold at a median 94.7 percent of original list price. Townhouses at the same point sold at 97.2 percent and condos at 97.3 percent.
Condos start from a smaller premium and slide less. Reston had 113 condos for sale in August, the most since October 2017.
Among homes listed above $1 million, the 35 that went under contract in 31 to 45 days sold at a median 94.4 percent of original list price, and the 25 that took 61 to 90 days sold at 93.6 percent. First-week sales in that band closed at a median 101.0 percent. On a $1.2 million listing, the difference between those first-week and two-month medians comes to almost $90,000. Fewer buyers shop at that price in any month, so a seller whose home misses the first wave of showings waits longer for the next buyer.
Withdrawing and relisting does not reset the count
Of the 4,958 homes, 254, about 5 percent, had been withdrawn and relisted before they sold. On the listing that finally sold, those homes showed a median 14 days on market. Their cumulative count was about 70 days. Bright MLS keeps the cumulative figure with the property, and buyers’ agents see it on the listing.
We price a Reston home for its first two weeks
- We price against recent sales in your neighborhood and home type, not the Reston-wide median. A Reston median blends condos near the Metro with detached homes on half-acre lots, and neither seller learns much from it.
- We track pending sales as well as closed ones. Pending contracts show where prices are heading 30 to 60 days before closings do.
- We finish the preparation, photography and marketing before the listing goes live, so buyers see the home at its best in the week they pay the most.
- We agree on a review date before we list. If we have no offer after 14 days, we already know the next step, and we make one adjustment large enough to reach the buyers the first price missed rather than a series of small ones.
Reston buyers pay the most for a home in its first two weeks and less for each week after that. Sellers who price at the market on day one sell into the week when buyers pay the most, and in the fall they also go under contract before the seasonal dip deepens. If you are thinking about selling in Reston, reach out and we will run these numbers for your neighborhood and home type.
See something missing or wrong? Email us at [email protected] and we will check it and update the post.
