The real estate market is becoming a game of cat and mouse.
According to the March real estate numbers released Tuesday by the Metropolitan Regional Information Statistics, the market seems to be home to a pickier and more discerning buyer, with total units sold dropping 10 percent from 3,170 in 2006 to 2,866 last month.
“The market has a lot of energy in it,” said William Yerman, president of the Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors. “A lot of buyers are looking for good houses, and if they?re priced right, they?re selling.”
As buyers continue to have the upper hand, the average number of days that homes remained on the market grew by more than 60 percent. For the region, properties were on the market for more than 95 days, with Carroll County being the highest at 137 days.
Sellers are countering that move by seeing an increase of nearly 4 percent in the average price sold from the same time last year. Averaging the sold prices together for each county, property in the region is going for about $334,529, a boost of about $12,000 from the $322,721 recorded during the same time last year. Of all the counties,Howard had the highest average sale price at nearly $445,000, while Baltimore City had the lowest by nearly $100,000 at $178,000.
The largest increase from last March to this year was seen in Carroll County, which saw its average sale price jump nearly $42,000.
“As far as from last year, we?ve seen a great improvement in the last couple of months,” Yerman said. “In the last six weeks, we?ve seen multiple contracts per house, which is a very good sign.”
Kate Prahlad contributed to this story.
