Michelle Johnson stepped out of her Realtor?s sport utility vehicle and squinted into the bright morning sunlight at yet another possibility.
The town home in Parkville?s Ridgeleigh neighborhood was the sixth stop of 12 planned for Thursday, and the 26th home the 24-year-old nursing student had been shown in three days. But after a quick tour, the three-bedroom, $199,900 listing-price home joined many others in Johnson?s “no-go” pile.
“We?ve seen more updated places for this price,” Johnson said. “We?ve seen lots of homes at this price with nicer kitchens, nicer floors.”
Just a few years ago, a first-time homebuyer like Johnson might not have had the luxury of being picky, and would have had less to pick from. But that was before the downturn in the residential housing market last year left plenty of homes on the market, and cooler buyer interest.
Now, real estate agents hope the spring season will warm up prospective buyers and turn browsers into contract signers.
“There?s been a lot of activity in the last two weeks,” said Linda Willis, a Realtor with Re/Max American Dream in Perry Hall who is working with Johnson. “Really, right at January 1, it switched on, like a light switch getting switched on. But we didn?t have hardly any activity in the last quarter.”
The average sale price of homes in the Baltimore metro area saw the biggest decline last month since the subprime mortgage crisis cooled off the housing market last summer. Average sale prices fell 4.36 percent from the same month in 2007 to$301,816, according to data released this week by Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc. Sales volume fell by 33.38 percent, in line with month-over-month declines since last summer.
The average price was $253,916 in February 2005, 19 percent lower than now.
January and February were the only months since last July in which the average price fell by more than half a percent, and the only two months during that time in which the average listing price of a home decreased ? a possible sign that sellers have begun adjusting their asking prices to the current market.
“We?ve seen enough homes to know for this price, we can get a much better place ? the buyers aren?t being fooled by prices anymore,” said Willis. “Sellers are finally getting it.”
Those price drops might entice buyers into the market, said Jody Landers, executive vice president with the Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors.
“If you?re in the market for the long term ? and you?re expecting to stay in a home for a few years, trying to time the market doesn?t make any sense,” he said. “In the long run, you?ve got more choices, you?ve got more bargaining power than you have had in the last four or five years.”
MRIS data for March is scheduled for release on April 10.
“We?re halfway through March right now, the weather?s been pretty good, so this month should be a good indicator of how the spring will be,” he said. “We?ll see.”
