Average Price

Samantha Stoney bought her house in Canton for a lot less than the sellers had originally hoped to get, but the good deal didn't end with the $243,000 price. They covered most of her closing costs, too - a $10,000 incentive. In effect, the sellers received $233,000. But that's not what got recorded in the home sales statistics. Amid a deepening housing slump, givebacks have become increasingly common, even expected as a matter of course here and nationwide, economists and real estate agents say. And because they're unmeasured, they mask an erosion in housing prices.

If there is any weakness in the Baltimore area housing market, it has yet to reveal itself as sales of existing homes in August increased 21.52 percent compared with the same month last year.The increase was the largest for the year as reported by the Metropolitan Regional Information System -- the multiple-listing system used by the industry. The rise continued to substantiate the resilience of the market despite rising mortgage rates."Nothing seems to be able to cool this market off. An uptick in [mortgage]

LOS ANGELES -- Ira J. Feldman finished filling his Mazda with gasoline, eyed the readout on the pump and raised his hands, arms wide, as if to say, "You've got to be kidding." At $1.59 a gallon, he had just paid $21.56 for 13 gallons of gas."What a joke," Feldman, a 51-year-old home restorer, said. "What's the excuse? They're telling us there's a war? The chairman of the board had a bad meal last night? I don't get it."Although gasoline prices around the country have increased over the past several months, in part because of announced cuts in worldwide oil production, prices in California have soared the most, with the sharpest increases in the past two weeks.

Home sales in the Baltimore metropolitan area are going through the roof.Sales of existing homes for the region in July rose 20.9 percent over the comparable period last year as 3,509 homes changed hands -- the highest one-month total in more than three years."

DEARBORN, Mich. -- Ford Motor Co., the world's second-largest automaker, said yesterday that its average price on 1999-model cars and trucks will be 0.3 percent lower than it was this model year.It's the second year in a row that the company has avoided price increases. Chrysler Corp. has said that its average price on 1999 models will rise 0.1 percent.Ford prices will fall an average 0.2 percent. Lincoln-Mercury prices will fall an average 0.7 percent. Under pressure from foreign rivals, U.S. automakers have cut costs to keep prices competitive.

With the needle pointing to empty on his Chevrolet Blazer, Mark Rilley slowed at the Amoco station in Tenafly, N.J., and considered filling up on regular unleaded for $1.149 a gallon.Cheap as that was, Rilley was on a tight budget, and he knew gasoline prices had been declining for weeks. So he kept going and a block later hit pay dirt: Exxon's sign read $1.139. He pulled in and filled up with 23 gallons. His saving: 23 cents."I shop around," said Rilley, a painter in his late 20s who drives to jobs across New York and New Jersey, his equipment piled up in the back of his sport utility vehicle.

Maryland motorists bought fewer new cars last month than during the same period last year, but used-vehicle sales were up 3.2 percent, according to figures released by the state Motor Vehicle Administration.New-car dealers sold 2.5 percent fewer vehicles in October, continuing a slump that has affected five out of the past six months.According to the National Automobile Dealers Association, a trade group of 19,500 new-car and truck dealerships, the average profit on a used car last year was $350.

DETROIT -- Honda Motor Co. yesterday raised the average price of its new Accords by 0.5 percent, or $110, while cutting the price of V-6 models in a move that analysts said is likely to pressure Detroit's automakers.The price of the six-cylinder Accord LX was cut by $950, to $21,550, for 1998. The price of the most popular Accord, the four-cylinder LX sedan, rose by $100, to $19,090.Honda's pricing mirrors that of other automakers, who have raised 1998 prices modestly, if at all, in the face of some softening of demand and increased competition.

New vehicle sales in Maryland declined for the third consecutive month in August as state motorists rejected the generous cash rebates offered by car manufacturers designed to clear the lots of 1995 models.According to registration figures released by the Motor Vehicle Administration yesterday, new vehicle sales were 7.9 percent below the sales pace in the same month last year.For the first eight months of the year, auto and truck sales are off 3.6 percent in Maryland, according to the MVA.Michael Conte, director of regional economic studies at the University of Baltimore, took an optimistic view of the sales trend.

Maryland motorists bucked the national pattern last month by tightening their purse strings -- spending more for air conditioning but cutting back on the purchase of new cars."

Home sales continued to rise in the Baltimore metro area last month, though the velocity slowed. Buyers got the keys for about 5 percent more homes in August than a year ago, the third month in a row that year-over-year sales increased, according to numbers released Thursday by Metropolitan Regional Information Systems. Year-over-year home sales rose about 10 percent for July and 2 percent for June. It's the first stretch of increased buying since 2005, a frenzied time with fast-rising prices and go-go lending.

The 10 most expensive ZIP codes in the Baltimore metro area all had average sale prices above $500,000 in the first half of this year, according to a Baltimore Sun analysis. One of the most expensive neighborhoods in the city topped half a million on average, too. The regional map shows the 10 priciest ZIP codes on average, while the city map shows the five top neighborhoods by average price. (Article, page 14)

Maryland gasoline prices may not be as high as last summer, but they have risen faster than in any previous year. Since the beginning of the year, the average price of a gallon of regular gas in Maryland has increased 63 percent to $2.58 - a steeper climb than last year's march to a record $4.05, according to AAA Mid-Atlantic. The steady climb since the market bottomed out at $1.58 Jan. 2 has raised fears of a return to $3 or $4 gasoline. With gas prices up $1 per gallon since the beginning of the year, some Maryland families are feeling a pinch that even memories of last year's sky-high prices can't ease.

In what could be a harbinger of summer driving costs, the nation's average price of gasoline jumped 12 cents, or 6 percent, last week, after several weeks of relative stability, according to AAA Mid-Atlantic. In Maryland, the average price for a gallon of unleaded was $2.19 as of Monday, up from $2.03 a week earlier - in part because crude oil was approaching $60 a barrel. "Due in part to signs that the economic recession may be turning around, slightly higher gas prices may be a sign that the summer driving season will bring increased demand as motorists take to the roads," said Ragina C. Averella, manager of public and government affairs for AAA Mid-Atlantic.

Average home prices in metropolitan Baltimore took their steepest dive in more than a decade in April and plunged below $300,000, a 13.5 percent drop compared with a year earlier, statistics released Friday showed. The average price of a home sold in Baltimore and the five surrounding counties fell to $268,367 last month from $310,237 in April 2008, according to Rockville-based real estate listing service Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc. Average home prices had first topped $300,000 in June 2005 amid the housing boom of 2004 and 2005, in which the Baltimore area typically saw double-digit gains in home values.

In a sign that more homeowners are lowering their expectations to sell in a difficult market, house prices in the Baltimore area fell last month to the lowest level in more than three years. And the drop in home sales, which had been leveling off, accelerated in November, sliding nearly 33 percent on a year-to-year basis, according to numbers released yesterday by Rockville-based Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc. Experts said the turmoil in the economy and tighter credit markets over the past few months continue to take a toll on housing values and sales, with rising joblessness adding to buyer anxiety.

What many Baltimore-area drivers have been experiencing this week is now official: The average price of gasoline is under $3. AAA Mid-Atlantic reported yesterday that the average price of regular gas in the Baltimore region dropped to $2.97 from $3.02 Thursday. The statewide average, propped up by higher prices in the Washington suburbs, remains barely above the three-buck line at $3.01. If current trends continue, that average would slip below $3 this weekend. As of last night, some of lowest gas prices in the Baltimore area were spotted in Essex, Reisterstown and Glen Burnie, where regular fuel sold for $2.79 a gallon at a Liberty station, according to marylandgasprices.

T he Q: At the Exxon on Honeygo Boulevard in White Marsh, regular unleaded gasoline was running $4.17 a gallon at the end of last week. Not too far away at Ebenezer Road and Pulaski Highway, the Texaco was selling it at $3.99 a gallon while Sunoco priced its gas at $3.94 a gallon and Shell was selling the same for $3.96 a gallon. Reader Bill Dunbar called with a twinge of vexation in his voice about those wildly varying prices. "One White Marsh gas station is always 10 cents to 20 cents higher than other stations," Dunbar said.

WASHINGTON -- Drivers beware: Today's high gasoline prices soon may look like a bargain, because they are expected to peak at $3.60 a gallon nationwide in coming months, according to a government report released yesterday. In the latest bit of bad news for cash-strapped consumers, the Energy Information Administration predicted that average gasoline prices will shoot up to $3.60 a gallon in June and average $3.54 per gallon over the summer driving period, an increase of 60 cents a gallon over last summer.

Average home prices in the Baltimore metro area dropped for a second straight month as sales continued to free-fall in February. Prices were down just over 4 percent from a year earlier, the largest decline since the housing market turned from boom to slump, Rockville-based Metropolitan Regional Information Systems reported yesterday. The average home sold for $301,816, down from $315,578 a year earlier. In January, the average price fell 2.6 percent. Sales in the metropolitan area dropped 33 percent, the second-largest decline since MRIS began tracking the local market in early 1999.