The housing market is recovering.
Whether Maryland?s housing sector suffered as greatly as other areas in the country in 2006 is debatable. But the numbers indicate the bloodletting is over in just about every area of the nation.
“When you look at Baltimore City, even though the number of units sold dropped off, we never saw a big decline in prices,” said Jody Landers, executive vice president of the Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors. “What we see for the general Baltimore area is that demand should pick up again in the spring.”
The numbers started showing some signs of strain as early as January, when the total number of housing units sold in the Baltimore metro area during the month fell 19.08 percent to 2,078. By June, symptoms of a serious problem were seen in the median selling price of homes, which had seen double digits of growth during the previous year. During the summer, that growth slowed to around 5 percent, and in the fall hit 1.92 percent.
But buyers are still in the market, though not in the record numbers seen in 2004 and 2005. In November, 2,733 homes were sold in the Baltimore region. That represented a 12.91 percent decline from the number of homes sold during the same month in 2005 ? 3,138.
“The drop-off in unit sales didn?t occur because of a drop in demand,” Landers said. “Some neighborhoods were bound for a correction because homes more than doubled in value in less than four years. But people are not selling at a loss or selling short.”
In Northern Virginia, 1,475 homes sold in November, down 23.69 percent from November 2005?s number of 1,933 homes sold. In Washington, November?s number was 2,810 housing units sold, down 22.29 percent fromNovember 2005?s 3,616.
The National Association of Realtors in Washington reported that sales of existing homes climbed 0.6 percent in November to about 6.28 million units. The increase was great news for the real estate industry, coming on the heels of a 0.5 percent increase in sales in October.
NAR chief economist David Lereah said the pace of home sales should continue through the coming months.
“It?s important to focus on where the housing market is now ? it appears to be stabilizing, and comparisons with an unsustainable boom mask the fact that home sales remain historically high ? they?ll stay that way through 2007,” he said. “In addition, a temporary correction in prices distracts from the fact that it is primarily the number of home sales that affects the economy, and the number for this year will be the third-highest on record.”
