The housing market appears to be suffering from too much of a good thing.
In the most recent data from the Maryland Association of Realtors, each county in the Baltimore region has a higher active inventory than the same time a year ago. The largest of these inventory increases was in Baltimore City, which rose by 1,357 units to 5,502.
Rounding out the area, Baltimore County saw an increase of 921 units, followed by Anne Arundel at 516, Harford at 451, Howard at 234 and Carroll at 198.
“There is a fairly significant inventory, especially in some corners of the market,” said John Kortecamp, executive vice president and chief executive officer of the Home Builders Association of Maryland. “We are going to be going through a [very] transitional year.”
In Baltimore, condominium developments continue to be built, adding to the surplus, and according to the MRIS Trends in Housing Mid-Year 2007 report, there will be a market for them ? but maybe not until 2009. As a result of this “elevated inventory,” the report states that more projects such as condo developments are likely to be removed from the pipeline in the coming months, but “price traction” should come back around 2009.
Senior Forecast Economist Lawrence Yun of the National Association of Realtors also discussed the housing market in his third-quarter forecast report.
“The condo market was the first to lead the housing boom and first to lead the slump,” Yun reported. “Since the beginning of this year, the condo market has been consistently outperforming the single-family market in both sales and price changes.”
Yun speculated that the condo market posting respectable numbers might be an indication of a market turnaround.
“However, it is too early to say if home sales have already passed bottom,” he added.
AT A GLANCE
Total housing units sold in the Baltimore region.
» 2007: 16,588 (year to date)
» 2006: 38,067
» 2005: 43,973
» 2004: 42,734
Source: Metropolitan Regional Information Statistics Inc.
