Home prices in the Baltimore area last month increased slightly over a year before, while total sales volume and the number of units sold fell by nearly 30 percent for the fourth consecutive month, according to data released Thursday by Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc.
The number of units sold year over year is a stronger indicator of the market than some of the other dollar-based figures, said Ross Mackesey, sales manager at Coldwell Banker Federal Hill.
“In Baltimore City, if you sell three waterfront town homes for $1 million, that has a huge influence on the ?average price? number,” Mackesey said.
However, Mackesey said that even the number of units sold could be thrown off by a large number of units, such as those at developments in Harbor East, coming off the market all at once.
Mackesey pointed to another MRIS figure, which in Baltimore City showed 400 properties marked as under contract in December and just 32 as contingent on other sales. In markets like Washington, D.C., he said that ratio can go as high as 40 percent, indicating a large number of first-time buyers in Baltimore as opposed to buyers waiting to sell their current home before closing on a new one.
Pete France, a Realtor with ReMax By the Bay, said fewer agents were active in the current market, which might influence the sales volume ? fewer agents, he said, could mean fewer deals. “When things got slow, people jumped ship.”
