WASHINGTON — It has been a long time since potential homebuyers in the D.C. market have had to be prepared to act as quickly as they do now, with condos and houses selling at the fastest pace in a decade.

Listing service Bright BLS said the median number of days on the market a property spent before going under contract in March was 13 days, half of what it was in February. It is the shortest March “Days on Market” of the last 10 years.

The median price of what sold area-wide also reached $435,000 in March, up 3.6 percent from a year earlier. It was the 18th consecutive month for year-over-year price increases and was easily the highest March level of the last 10 years.

Sales are still slowing.

Sales volume across the D.C. metro was $2.2 billion, down 2.6 percent from a year ago. New contracts signed were down 6.2 percent from a year ago, and new listings were down 7.6 percent.

What did sell, sold for an average 98.4 percent of list price, the highest March level of the last decade.

Arlington County led the region for price, with a median selling price in March of $564,250. That’s up 11 percent from a year ago and topped D.C.’s median price of $555,451, which was up 3.8 percent.

Here are median selling prices and year-over-year changes, courtesy of Bright MLS: