Median sale prices of homes sold last month in the Baltimore metro area fell for a seventh straight month, according to data released Tuesday. The number of units sold remained down 30 percent from last year, as it has since the residential housing crisis began last fall.
The median sale price, the price at which half of all homes sold for less and half for more, fell 1.14 percent from May 2007 to $270,000 in Baltimore City and Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Howard and Harford counties.
The number of units sold last month fell 30.4 percent to 2,109 from 3,030, according to data collected by Realtor-owned Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc.
“Sounds like the trend continues,” said Marc Witman, a partner at real estate broker Yerman Witman Gaines and Garceau. “We?re maintaining the same level of sales [as recent months] … and the price is pretty much holding up.”
The number of sales pending also fell, to 2,414 from 3,492 in May 2007. That number was down slightly from April, when 2,605 properties were contingent or under contract, according to MRIS data.
The local numbers came a day after the National Association of Realtors? seasonally adjusted index of pending sales for existing homes rose to 88.2 from a March reading of 83.0, the lowest since the index was started in 2001.
A “seventh straight month” of price declines in the local MRIS data makes for a good headline, Witman said, and price cuts are necessary to bring buyers back into the market. But he said minor corrections like last month?s aren?t likely to entice many home shoppers.
“When you?re talking about a percent and a half, that?s statistically insignificant,” Witman said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
