Contact MargaretArchive for the 'Market Updates' Category
Has the Real Estate Market Stabilized?
March 1st, 2010 Categories: Market Updates
3–COUNTY YEAR END REAL ESTATE STATISTICS
Anne Arundel County, Maryland
Howard County, Maryland
Prince George’s County, Maryland
Our regional multiple listing system, The Metropolitan Regional Information Services, Inc. (MRIS), tracks real estate sales and periodically makes the numbers available to members. You’ve seen my monthly reports for Crofton and other nearby zipcodes here on Focus On Crofton and my Maryland Real Estate Blog, and you know that I like to use this information to compile charts and graphs of several years or several months to help you put those numbers in perspective.
For this year-end report, I’m approaching the real estate market on a more macro level – with a county-wide report which includes the three counties where I list and sell homes. These numbers represent only properties that were listed on MRIS (the majority of real estate sales), both detached and attached homes, in a broad price range ($100,000 – $5 million).
Days on Market have leveled off for Anne Arundel and Prince George’s Counties and even dropped slightly in Howard County. Of course, 2005 was a record year, so I don’t think it’s realistic to expect those levels again for a very long time… maybe decades.
Sold Prices (both average and median) are lower now than any of the four previous years but, fortunately, the drop has not been nearly as dramatic as other parts of the country have experienced. I speculate that the BRAC factor and government jobs throughout the region have helped this area in that regard.
Units Sold is a category that seems to have bottomed out and shown a slight bump from 2008–2009 in Anne Arundel and Howard Counties and a significant increase in Prince George’s County:
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Up 8.75% in Anne Arundel County
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Up 7.64% in Howard County
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Up 42.98% in Prince George’s County
My crystal ball is a little fuzzy, as to what we should expect in 2010, so I can’t realistically declare that the worst is over. I’m cautiously optimistic, however, that we will hold steady or show a slightly (less than 10%) improvement in these areas. Frankly, though, it could go either way depending on interference in the market by the federal government. If unemployment numbers go up, for example, the real estate market will suffer.
The economy and politics are just two examples of factors outside our control that impact the real estate market. That’s why it’s so very important for you to maximize the factors that are within our control by choosing an experienced real estate professional to help you buy or sell a home. But that’s a topic or another day…
If you’d like information more specific to your immediate neighborhood, click on Market Snapshot. For an accurate estimate of your home value, an inspection of your property will be necessary to ascertain its interior and exterior condition, size, features, location and other factors, as they relate to other properties currently on the market and recently sold.
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FocusOnCrofton.com is your one-stop source for information about Crofton, Maryland, and the surrounding area. It’s my way of keeping current residents informed about their community while also attracting relocating home buyers to the Crofton area (including Bowie, Crownsville, Davidsonville, Fort Meade, Gambrills, Millersville and Odenton). Please feel free to contact me any time for more information.
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Are Crofton Sales Up or Down From Last Month?
January 15th, 2010 Categories: Market Updates
Crofton MD Real Estate Statistics for December 2009
It was back to “normal” for Crofton MD real estate during December after a record-breaking 161% increase in November (over the previous year). There were just 13 homes sold/settled last month compared to 40 during November.
Why the difference? As I suspected last month, November statistics reflected a rush to settle for first-time homebuyers seeking the $8,000 tax credit incentive scheduled to expire in November. As it turns out, the tax credit has been extended, so we may see another burst of real estate sales before that expires in 2010.
Best news of the month is the 37.23% drop of “days on market” for sold/settled homes – 59 compared to 94 in December 2008. This figure is also better than the two previous months this year, when average for “days on market” was 86 (Nov.) and 83 (Oct.).
I’m pleased to see that the average sold price (as a percentage of list price) was nearly 94% – that’s a big improvement for home sellers over the 90.42% we were seeing a year ago in December. Buyers should take note of this, however, because it could mean they’ll need to make a better offer when they find a home to buy… they may have missed the bottom of the market.
The average sold price was the lowest we’ve experienced in Crofton in over five years (down almost 7% from last year), while the median sold price saw a slight bump (4.81%) during the same period. Not surprising, then, that the average list price for sold/settled properties was the lowest last month it has been for any December in more than five years.
My Forecast for the next few months in Crofton real estate?
As always, I’m looking at the number of new listings and new contracts last month as indicators of the future for Crofton real estate. Unfortunately, there were only 5 new non-contingent contracts, but 18 new listings. I need to see a better balance of these two figures before I’m willing to step out on a limb and predict a genuine improvement in the Crofton MD real estate market.
Copyright 2010. Margaret Woda. All rights reserved
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FocusOnCrofton.com is your one-stop source for information about Crofton, Maryland, and the surrounding area. It’s my way of keeping current residents informed about their community while also attracting relocating home buyers to the Crofton area (including Bowie, Crownsville, Davidsonville, Fort Meade, Gambrills, Millersville and Odenton). Please feel free to contact me any time for more information.
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Davidsonville, Gambrills and Odenton Real Estate Activity - November 2009
December 28th, 2009 Categories: Market Updates
Davidsonville, Gambrills and Odenton homeowners and prospective buyers in Maryland are asking how many homes sold last month in those areas, what happened to prices, and how long it took for homes to sell last month. And, for all of the above, how did November 2009 compare with November 2008?
You’ll see that activity varied widely, even for communities that are located within five minutes and five miles of each other in Anne Arundel County, Maryland:
UNITS SOLD:
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Davidsonville (21035) - No change – 3
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Gambrills (21054) – Down 25% to 3
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Odenton (21035) – Up 65% to 33
SOLD PRICES:
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Davidsonville (21035) - Median sold price down almost 20% to $490,000; average sold price down 2.55% to $573,333.
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Gambrills (21054) – Median sold price up almost 30% to $519,500; average sold price up over 61% to $637,027.
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Odenton (21035) – Median sold price down 7.67% to $294,999; average sold price down 7.92% to $302,179.
AVERAGE DAYS ON MARKET:
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Davidsonville (21035) - Down 68.62% to 123
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Gambrills (21054) – Down 43.36% to 128
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Odenton (21035) – Down 13.21% to 92
While the average days on market in these zipcodes was over three months, you can see from this pie chart that 23 of the sold homes were on the market for less than that, while 17 were on the market for 3 months or more.
Other Real Estate Market Updates for November 2009:
- Is Anne Arundel County Real Estate Rebounding?
- Has Crofton Real Estate Bottomed Out Yet?
- Are Bowie MD Real Estate Prices Still Dropping?
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Is Anne Arundel County Real Estate Rebounding?
December 16th, 2009 Categories: Market Updates
November was a very good month for real estate in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. Does this mean we can celebrate a rebound? To help answer this question, let’s take a look at the number of units sold, the average and median sold prices, and the days on market:
UNITS SOLD (Anne Arundel County, MD)
463 homes sold last month, compared to 266 in November 2008 – that’s a 74% increase in units sold from one year to the next. Although this is certainly good news, the total number of sold homes is down from last month, when 502 homes sold. Yet October 2009 home sales were up over 44% from October 2008.
I feel like we need a three months history before we can start thinking “trend”, so I went back one more month to September 2009 and found that 482 homes sold – still higher than November, but “only” a 24% increase from the previous year. Nevertheless, we do have three consecutive months of increased sales over the previous year, so I think we might allow ourselves to be optimistic about the Anne Arundel County real estate market.
SOLD PRICES (Anne Arundel County, MD)
Average and median home prices, however, have been lower than last year’s level during the same months, when comparing them to 2008:
NOVEMBER: Average sold price down 11.17% to $334,287. Median sold price down 9.38% to $285,000
OCTOBER: Average sold price down 7.97% to $349,961. Median sold price down 10.94% to $285,000
SEPTEMBER: Average sold price down 13.95% to $347,391. Median sold price down 9.38% to $290,000.
DAYS ON MARKET (Anne Arundel County, MD)
160 of the sold homes last month were on the market over 120 days, yet 129 were on the market for 30 days or less. The average days on market in November was 120 – down 18.12% from November 2008.
In October, average days on market were down 14.47% from October 2008 to 130, and September saw a decline of 11.76% to 120. It looks like a safe bet for any Anne Arundel County home seller to plan on four months on the market, although the average will be lower/higher in some zipcodes.
THE BOTTOM LINE (IS ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY REAL ESTATE REBOUNDING?)
While all these statistics seem to suggest the answer is “yes” to the rebound question… There’s just one problem – this apparent rebound is not the free market making a natural come-back from a downturn in real estate sales… it is most likely the result of the temporary tax credit targeting first-time homebuyers (and now some move-up buyers). When the artificial stimulus disappears, it’s anyone’s guess whether sales will drop off or continue to rebound. Only time will tell if this is genuine improvement in Anne Arundel County real estate.
For information about your own zipcode in Anne Arundel County, Maryland - or even your own neighborhood -you can contact me by email at MWoda@mris.com. If you’re a homeseller, I suggest you get your home on the market now or early in January to maximize the likelihood of your home selling before the tax credit expires.
More real estate statistics for November 2009:
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Are Bowie MD Real Estate Prices Still Dropping? (20715, 20716, 20720)
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Davidsonville, Gambrills and Odenton Real Estate Activity–November 2009 (21035, 21054, 21113)
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Real Estate activity in my own neighborhood (Request an online Market Snapshot)
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Crofton Home Sales Up 166% in November
December 10th, 2009 Categories: Market Updates
The number of homes sold in the 21114 zipcode last month (40) was 166.67% higher than sold in November 2008 (15).
Can there be any explanation other than the first-time home buyer credit? What can I say except “WOW!”
More good news for Crofton real estate last month:
- Days on market for sold homes (86 days) was down 14% from November 2008 (100 days)
- The percentage of sold price vs. list price was up slightly to 93.12% from 92.11% in November 2008.
- Average and median sold prices remained relatively stable, dropping less than 2% in 2009 (compared to the same month last year) to $345,173 and $317.250 respectfully.
The first-time buyer tax credit was scheduled to expire on November 30, 2009, so these closings were the result of contracts probably written in October before the tax credit was extended. Hopefully this extended credit will continue to boost home sales in the next few months.
If you’re thinking of selling anytime in the next year, NOW is a great time to list your home! I wouldn’t wait until the tax credit expires, because it’s likely most first-time buyers will already be settled into their own home.
P.S. If you already own a home, you may now be eligible for a $6500 tax credit when you buy your next home. Contact me for more information.
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