The stabilization of the Baltimore-area real estate market has given home buyers the upper hand.
Though industry experts say the Baltimore-area real estate market remains strong and sale prices will continue to increase, it?s no longer a seller market.
“We have more inventory out there,” said Oliver Henderson, president-elect of the Howard County Association of Realtors. “Sellers got to the point where they thought they could put anything on the market. ? The homes that showed poorly were still selling. Now the ones that show well are going to be the ones that sell [but] they have to be priced appropriately.”
Henderson added that not only will buyers not be faced with exorbitant prices, as they have been for the past several years when supply and demand were out of sync, homes on the market will also be better quality.
“Years ago, people would take the time to put in new carpet, paint the house and clean the windows in preparation of putting it on the market,” Henderson said. “We have gotten away from that, and we are going to get back to it.”
Andy Evans, an agent with Century 21?s Horizon Realty in Dundalk, agreed that sellers were far more confident this time last year. He blamed the stabilization on rising interest rates and just too many homes on the market.
“It?s definitely a buyer?s market,” Evans said. “In order for them to sell, they have to aggressively price the home below market value.”
He also suggested homeowners set a minimum net profit goal ? not a minimum list price.
In Carroll County, while the average sale price has increased by more than 13 percent, from $344,489 in June 2005 to $389,682 last month, homes are indeed staying on the market longer, according to data compiled by Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc.
Compared with the same time period last year, the average number of days for homes on the market increased by 60 percent from 40 days to 64 days.
Phyllis Adams of RE/MAX Ambassadors and a member of the Carroll County Association of Realtors said this trend is indicative of buyers being more selective when choosing a home.
“The sellers haven?t gotten with the program yet,” she said. “They still think we?re in a booming market. It?s a normal market. … Buyers are more selective, similar to five years ago.”
Meanwhile, Amy Juras, an agent with Champion Realty in Annapolis, called the current real estate market much more realistic than it has been in the past few years, but that the boom had to slow at come point.
“It had to slow down, because if it kept going on my kids would never be able to buy a house,” Juras said.
In Harford County, where average home sales remained flat year-over-year at about $283,000, homes last month remained on the market more than 50 percent longer than the same time period a year before.
Gail Angel, who has been training real estate agents in Harford County for 12 years, said, however, that she expects the market to tighten locally when the Pentagon?s Base Realignment and Closure brings up to 28,000 new households to the area.
