Average Sales Price

Home hunters in the Baltimore metropolitan area should be realizing two things about the marketplace: Homes for sale are getting fewer and they are more expensive.Although sales of existing homes fell for the second consecutive month in November -- down 2.05 percent compared with the corresponding period last year -- the number of homes for sale dropped 900 units, while the average sales price rose by 3.87 percent over November 1998.The statistics were released yesterday by the Metropolitan Regional Information System, the database used by real estate professionals.

Baltimore-area buyers preferred existing units in the $200,000 rangeWhat style of home did Baltimore-area buyers seek the most, yet was the hardest to find during the real estate boom of 1998?In year-end statistics released by the Metropolitan Regional Information System, the home of choice was a four-bedroom unit that sells in the $200,000 range.Overall, the Baltimore metropolitan area saw existing-home sales in 1998 increase by 20 percent over 1997, making it one of the best years for the industry in decades.

More new townhouses were sold in Anne Arundel County than in any other jurisdiction last year.Owings Mills New Town in Baltimore County had another record year in home sales, boasting two of the top-selling communities in the metro area.The hottest selling single-family community wasn't in Howard County but, rather, in the Edgemere area of eastern Baltimore County.But if you wanted to pay the most for a new single-family home, you should have gone down the Interstate 70 corridor of Howard County, where sale prices averaged more than $350,000.

Sales of existing homes in the Baltimore area continued their upward surge in1998 with March transactions rising 41 percent over the same period in 1997 -- the biggest percentage gain in 15 months.And for the third straight month, Baltimore continued to outpace the surrounding jurisdictions covered by the Metropolitan Regional Information System, the multiple-listing system that includes the city, Baltimore, Carroll, Harford and Howard counties.According to statistics released yesterday by MRIS, sales of existing homes in the city were up 54 percent last month over March 1997.

Aided by falling interest rates and strong performances in Howard and Harford counties, the Baltimore metropolitan area posted a 15 percent increase in completed sales of existing homes for December.It was the fourth straight month of increased homes sales for the area, according to statistics released yesterday by the Maryland Association of Realtors.Not included in the statistics were final sales from the Anne Arundel Multiple Listing Service, which were unavailable.Howard County had its best month of 1997, showing a 37 percent gain over December 1996.

Spurred by strong activity in Carroll and Harford counties, sales of existing homes in the metropolitan region continued their strong summer by showing their third straight month of increased sales.According to figures released by the Maryland Association of Realtors, Baltimore and the five surrounding counties had a 9 percent rise in sales in August over the same time period last year. That compares with a 7 percent gain in July and a 6 percent increase in June.It marks the fourth month in the last five that existing home sales have been higher than in the corresponding period of 1996.

Most Ocean City beach-goers are seeking temporary getaways rather than permanent spots in the sun -- a trend that last summer boosted tourism but held back the real estate market.In 1995, more people than in recent years crossed the Bay Bridge, spent money in shops, stayed at hotels and rented condominiums, according to a real estate consultant's annual portrait of the resort town's economic health.But sales have remained relatively flat, the June analysis by Lipman Frizzell & Mitchell shows.

Home sales in the Baltimore region remained on an upswing in October, jumping 14 percent over year-ago figures, the Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors said yesterday.The number of new and existing home sales in Baltimore City and Baltimore, Howard, Harford and Carroll counties climbed to 1,607 from 1,406 in the corresponding period last year, the board reported.The housing market had emerged from a 14-month slump in September, when sales rose 11 percent. For several months, a rising number of homes have gone under contract, signaling that stronger settled sales would follow.

Sales of new and existing homes in Howard County surged 15 percent during the first six months of the year compared with the same period last year, an increase Realtors and builders say is evidence of a robust local real estate market."

Realtors report sales increase for JanuaryThe Howard County Association of Realtors reported that single-family sales for January increased 38 percent compared with last January. The average sales price was $190,676.Condominium sales decreased slightly, with an average sales price of $84,499. Rental activity decreased by 22 percent, with an average rent of $925 a month.The average mortgage rate for January was 6.96 percent and the average mortgage was $109,415.Taneytown Bank & Trust announces profitsTaneytown Bank & Trust Co., with a branch in Columbia, announced that profits increased 5.3 percent from $1,853,630 in 1991 to $1,952,089 in 1992.

Home prices in the Baltimore area took the biggest year-to-year plunge in almost a decade in January, falling more than 10 percent as rising joblessness and credit woes continued to batter the housing market. The average sales price in the city and five surrounding counties fell to $265,768 last month, Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc. said yesterday. Sales plummeted by more than 21 percent, to just over 1,000 homes sold during the month, the Rockville-based real estate listing service said.

Baltimore-area home prices declined for the first time in at least a decade last year, preliminary figures released this weekend show, as the region's housing market feels the sting from the worsening recession. Sales statistics released by the area's real estate listing service indicate the average home price dropped 3 percent last year to $306,500 in Baltimore and its five surrounding counties compared with 2007. The figure was less than the average in 2006 as well. Sales on an annual basis slumped 28 percent, with 21,500 homes changing hands.

With the real estate market slowdown, what once made sense when it came to pricing a house no longer holds true. Across the Baltimore region, as in the rest of the country, the average sales price of houses continues to drop. In September, the average sales price in the Baltimore metropolitan area dipped more than $21,000 from the prior month to about $296,000, according to Metropolitan Regional Information Systems. Compared to a year ago, home prices were down almost 6 percent overall - retreating to figures not seen since 2005.

Home sales in metropolitan Baltimore tumbled again in November, the third consecutive month that sales have dropped about 30 percent. Prices also fell slightly as the market headed into the traditionally slow holiday selling season. Sales in Baltimore and the five surrounding counties declined to 1,892 homes last month, a 30.77 percent retreat from November 2006, statistics released yesterday showed. The string of declines - volume fell 31.74 percent in October and 29.72 percent in September - is the most severe recorded by Metropolitan Regional Information Systems, which began tracking sales through the multiple-listing service in 1999.

Home sales across the Baltimore metropolitan area tumbled nearly 10 percent in March from a year earlier but the average sales price continued to rise as the region continued a fairly smooth transition from a seller's to a buyer's market, experts said. In Baltimore and the five surrounding counties, 2,866 homes sold, compared with 3,170 sales in March 2006, according to statistics released yesterday by Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc., a Rockville firm that tracks homes sold through the multiple-listing system.

The number of homes sold last month in metropolitan Baltimore posted the smallest decline in 10 months as sellers became increasingly willing to forgo price gains - a trend that could signal that the sales slump here may be nearing bottom. The average price of 2,733 homes sold in Baltimore and the five surrounding counties was $309,753 last month, a slight increase from the $309,291 average in November last year and the weakest performance in at least five years, according to the Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc. And the 12.91 percent sales decline from a year earlier was the lowest since February and a sharp improvement over the past five months, when year-over-year sales declines ranged from 22 percent to 30 percent.

Baltimore-area home prices eked out Sept. gain Baltimore-area home prices eked out a slim gain in September, posting their weakest performance in more than five years as the number of homes sold plummeted more than 30 percent. The average sales price rose just 1.69 percent from a year earlier to $308,841 in Baltimore and five surrounding counties, Rockville-based Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc. reported yesterday. It was the fourth consecutive month of single-digit increases in home values - a sharp contrast to the peak of the housing boom when price gains sometimes exceeded 20 percent - and the worst showing since prices fell 0.08 percent in June 2001, MRIS statistics showed.

Home sales in the Baltimore region dipped in March, the sixth straight month of decline over the previous year, and the buildup of inventory escalated as the market headed into the crucial spring selling season. Pricing, however, remained strong, posting double-digit gains over a year earlier. The 3,170 homes sold in Baltimore and five surrounding counties was a 13 percent decline from March 2005, according to figures released by Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc., a Rockville company that tracks homes sold through the multiple-listing service, reported yesterday.

Baltimore-area home sales dipped again in February, the fifth straight month of decline, amid signs that the market was steadying as it heads into the spring selling season. The 2,439 homes sold in Baltimore and the five surrounding counties was down 9.97 percent, compared with February 2005, according to statistics released yesterday by Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc., a Rockville company that tracks homes sold through the multiple-listing service. But the decline was less than in the preceding months, and the average sales price, which has fallen in five of the past seven months, notched upward to $294,105.

With each passing month, there is mounting evidence of a mild if uneven slowdown in the regional real estate market, with the number of homes on the market rising steadily as prices and sales slip further from their summer peaks. Prices in the region peaked in July, and January's average sales price of $291,337 was 6.4 percent below that level, according to data from Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc., a Rockville company that tracks sales through the multiple listing service.