• Combined new contract activity fell from 903 contracts in 2025 to 706 this year, down 197 contracts (-21.8%) — a smaller decline than last week's record -25.9%, even as every jurisdiction posted another down week.
• All six jurisdictions posted declines for a fifth consecutive week; none turned positive.
• Loudoun County was by far the steepest decliner at -45.5% (110 → 60 contracts) — its worst weekly reading of the fall, and nearly double the next-steepest jurisdiction's decline.
• Prince William County held the "least bad" spot for a second straight week, at -12.8%, following last week's -18.8%.
• Washington, DC's days-on-market spike streak broke: after back-to-back jumps of +45.3% and +32.0% the prior two weeks, DC's average days on market rose just +1.0% this week (79.7 → 80.5 days) — essentially flat.
• Montgomery County logged the week's sharpest single days-on-market jump, +26.7% (46.4 → 58.8 days), taking over that distinction from Prince George's County, whose own days on market actually improved -5.0% this week even as its contract volume kept falling.
• Year-to-date, the region recorded 45,292 contracts versus 47,331 last year, a gap of 2,039 contracts (-4.3%) — wider than last week's -4.0%, a fifth straight week of widening, though the weekly increments have been shrinking (roughly +0.5, +0.5, +0.5, now +0.3 points).

• Five straight weeks of across-the-board declines firmly establishes this as a sustained seasonal cooling rather than a blip. But this week complicates the "accelerating slowdown" narrative of the past month: the pace of decline itself eased, from -25.9% to -21.8%, suggesting the market may be closer to finding a floor than continuing to worsen.
• Loudoun County's -45.5% reading is the single steepest weekly decline logged by any jurisdiction all fall, and it deserves scrutiny before being read as a trend shift. Loudoun's weekly sample is modest (110 contracts a year ago, just 60 this week — a 50-contract swing), so a sharp single-week drop carries more statistical noise here than in a larger jurisdiction like Northern Virginia or Montgomery. Worth watching whether next week reverts toward Loudoun's year-to-date trend (-10.5%) or confirms a genuinely deeper local slide.
• DC's days-on-market deceleration (+1.0% this week versus +45.3% and +32.0% the prior two weeks) is a meaningful reversal from how last week's data read — as a "genuine shift" in that market's dynamics. This week's number suggests more caution was warranted: the two-week DC spike may have reflected a handful of longer-marketed listings clearing together rather than a durable structural change. The signal-vs-noise lesson that usually applies to the smaller Countryside markets apparently applied to DC this fall too.
• The "most troubled jurisdiction" keeps rotating rather than settling in one place: DC carried the DOM spike two weeks ago, Prince George's carried it last week (volume and DOM together), and now Montgomery takes the DOM-jump title this week while PG actually improves on both fronts relative to its own prior week. That rotation argues for broad-based, diffuse softening across the region rather than one jurisdiction cracking under jurisdiction-specific stress.
• Prince William County's second straight week as the "least bad" performer (-18.8% last week, -12.8% this week) is now a genuine two-week pattern, not a one-off. Combined with its positive year-to-date reading (+1.1%, the only jurisdiction still ahead of last year), Prince William continues to look like the region's most insulated market this fall — worth watching whether that holds into a third week or reverts to the regional pattern.
• The year-to-date gap has widened for a fifth straight week (-2.5%, -3.0%, -3.5%, -4.0%, now -4.3%), but the size of each week's incremental widening has been shrinking — roughly half a point for three straight weeks, now just three-tenths of a point. That's consistent with a market settling into a new, lower baseline rather than one still accelerating downward — a meaningfully different read than "this keeps getting worse," even though the cumulative gap itself is still growing.
• The rate environment remains the backdrop driver: mortgage rates still sitting in the high-6s/low-7s range give buyers little reason to rush, compounded by the usual seasonal pullback as the calendar turns toward the holidays. But this week's details — an easing (not accelerating) weekly decline, a decelerating days-on-market growth rate, and a rotating rather than concentrated "worst jurisdiction" — collectively argue the market may be leveling off at its current, cooler pace rather than continuing to deteriorate week over week.
• None of this is a turnaround signal yet — every jurisdiction is still down, and the year-to-date gap is still the widest it's been all year — but five weeks in, the character of the slowdown looks less like an accelerating slide and more like a market that has found, for now, a steadier if still weaker cruising altitude.

• Northern Virginia: 260 → 212 (-18.5%); YTD 14,988 → 14,613 (-2.5%)
• Loudoun County: 110 → 60 (-45.5%); YTD 4,747 → 4,247 (-10.5%)
• Prince William County: 86 → 75 (-12.8%); YTD 5,330 → 5,387 (+1.1%)
• Montgomery County: 169 → 137 (-18.9%); YTD 8,872 → 8,507 (-4.1%)
• Prince George's County: 148 → 127 (-14.2%); YTD 7,605 → 7,222 (-5.0%)
• Washington, DC: 130 → 95 (-26.9%); YTD 5,789 → 5,316 (-8.2%)
• Combined contracts: 903 → 706 (-21.8%)
• Weighted average days on market: 50.3 → 53.6 days (+6.6%)
• Combined year-to-date contracts: 47,331 → 45,292 (-2,039 contracts, or -4.3%)

Five weeks of decline tells you this is real; this week's smaller decline tells you it might not be getting worse.