Instead of moving out, local residents are moving up.
With projects springing up in the area such as Beazer Homes? Quarry at Greenspring, the Ritz-Carlton Residences on Key Highway and the $250 million mixed-use Park Place development in Annapolis,the region is becoming a popular location for condominium development.
Clausen Ely, a co-founder of Results 1 Realty, said the company is planning an eight-unit building in Washington Village.
“There?s two different types of markets ? the harbor, and then you have the downtown condos,” Ely said. “Those aren?t going to sell quite as fast, but a well-priced condo in other neighborhoods would move just as well as a town house.”
And reasonably priced seems to be the state of the market.
Michael Yerman, a trustee of the Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors Foundation, said the housing market has something to offer everyone. With prices ranging from $300,000 to $5 million for traditional and luxury condo units, buyers can find their heart?s desire, Yerman said.
The average selling price for a home in the Baltimore region ? Anne Arundel and Baltimore counties, Baltimore City, and Harford, Howard and Carroll Counties ? was slightly less than $310,000 in 2006, according to year-end data provided by Metropolitan Regional Information Statistics.
But that?s not to say there isn?t a market for top-of-the-line housing.
“Every time an expensive apartment comes on the market, it sells pretty quickly,” said Yerman. “We are making sales. When they say the real estate market is dead … we are still doing business.”
As for the Ritz-Carlton condominiums, with prices ranging from $1.2 million to $5 million, Yerman said sales are going strong. Developers report that nearly 65 percent of the Ritz-Carlton?s 192 units are pre-sold.
“We want to have people living in downtown,” Yerman said. “And one of the ways is to have a great viable population that lives and goes home downtown.”
