Estate Market

WASHINGTON -- Metropolitan Baltimore's office real estate market improved markedly during 1993, but only modest increases in occupancy for offices and industrial properties are expected in 1994, a real estate industry group said yesterday.The annual market report by the Society of Office and Industrial Realtors, in conjunction with Landauer Real Estate Counselors of New York, said downtown Baltimore's office vacancy rate fell to 17.6 percent last year from more than 20 percent in 1992. The Baltimore rate is still slightly higher than the national average of 17 percent.

"Is there any way out other than the main stairs?" I asked. My husband, our real-estate agent, the seller's agent and I were standing in the finished basement of a home in Owings Mills. It was a vast space: a nice bathroom, a media room, a room big enough to waltz in and another room with hidden panels in the walls for stashing who knows what. There was even a fireplace at the bottom of the stairs, creating a spa-like atmosphere. But no, the selling agent said that there was just the one staircase, noting that some people like having only one way into the basement because exterior doors attract thieves.

The real estate market will improve in 1993 because Bill Clinton's election will boost buyer confidence, speakers at the recent National Association of Realtors' convention predicted."

The threat of automatic spending cuts by the federal government caused companies to press the pause button on real estate expansion in the Baltimore region during the third quarter, according to analysts. "It reflects the nature of the economic drivers in the region," said Robert Manekin, managing director of Colliers International's Baltimore office. Federal agencies and contractors make up a large percentage of office tenants throughout Central Maryland, and uncertainty about the national budget has caused them to be more cautious about leasing new space, he said.

As chaotic as the commercial real estate market is these days, the pre-engagement deal MNC Financial Inc. has with banking titan NationsBank Corp. isn't expected to shake things up much more."

The best news of the summer was Friday's announcement by MNC Financial that it was placing oversight of $1.8 billion in bad ++ loans and other non-performing assets into its South Charles Realty subsidiary.By doing so, Maryland's largest banking company was sending its strongest message to date that the worst may be over for the region's real estate market and the many financial and real estate companies that have been struggling for much of the past two years. As a dominant force in that market, any fresh air emanating from MNC would be a badly needed breeze for Maryland's becalmed economy.

The real estate market in metropolitan Baltimore held steady during the first half of 1990, with the total number of real estate sales dropping by only 1 percent from the number of sales in the first half of 1989, according to Rufus S. Lusk & Son Inc., a regional real estate information service.For the first half of 1990, according to the Lusk report, the number of single-family residences sold was 19,395 as opposed to a figure of 19,551 for sales in the first half of 1989. The total number of condominium sales rose 16 percent, from 2,534 sales in the first half of 1989 to 2,936 during the first half of 1990.

Earl Robinson, Ghermay Woldeab didn't let the threat of unpredictable winter weather keep him from visiting home sales centers in the Baltimore-Washington area to find a new house. On Jan. 9, he signed a contract on a three-bedroom, two-car garage townhouse at the Oaks at Waters Edge, a Ryland Homes community in Elkridge. Woldeab was just one local house hunter who decided to forgo the traditional holiday madness of shopping malls and instead scout out building sites before the spring selling season begins.

Ocean City -- Ocean City continues to attract a wave of tourists, but the real estate market is stagnant.The tourists are still coming to the seashore but their visits are less frequent and shorter. And when it rains weekend after weekend, as it did last year, people aren't inclined to stay even for a vacation, much less to buy a home.In addition, the sluggish economy has taken a toll."The economy is always a factor for us because we are a second-home market. We are the first ones to be cut out," says Barry Weir, president of the Ocean City Association of Realtors and sales manager of English Realty in Ocean Pines.

Peter Schmidt, a property manager in New Orleans, is one of the lucky ones. His condo, in an 1870 building in the French Quarter, was undamaged when Hurricane Katrina struck Aug. 29. So when he decided to list the 600-square-foot unit for sale in late October - after taking a job in California - he set the price at $299,000, nearly double what he would have asked before the hurricane. After all, Schmidt said, thousands of people in New Orleans are looking for places to live and he had been hearing that homes in good condition were commanding a premium.

After reading Jamie Smith Hopkins ' recent article on underwater mortgages ("That sinking feeling," June 3), I had a sinking feeling. Ms. Hopkins used Zillow as her source of information. Zillow does not pull its information from any multiple list service in the country. They pull their information from tax records only. Many assessments showing on tax records are wrong or outdated. To state that nearly 31 percent of homes in the Baltimore area are worth less than the mortgaged amount is just plain wrong and a very dangerous and irresponsible statement.

A homeowner should not pay more in property taxes than his two neighbors put together for their nearly identical homes. But that's exactly what Sun reporters Scott Calvert and Jamie Smith Hopkins found in a comprehensive and unprecedented review of Baltimore City's homestead tax break program. And it's not an isolated incident. A program designed to be a temporary fix for soaring home prices in the 1970s has turned into a leviathan that perpetuates inequality, robs the city of more than $100 million a year in revenue and helps lock Baltimore into a property tax rate that is nearly twice as high as any other jurisdiction in the state.

Business has been slow lately for Earl E. "Gene" Preston Jr. In better times, the Fallston-based contractor said, he had about 15 workers servicing and installing septic systems for homes and businesses beyond the reach of public sewer in the Baltimore metropolitan area. Lately, though, with the real estate slump dragging on and harsh winter weather hindering what little construction there is, Preston said, he has had to lay off five of his employees. He is worried he may have to let more go if legislation backed by Gov. Martin O'Malley passes that would either bar or raise the cost of building new homes on septic systems across Maryland.

Mercy Medical Center is converting a former Giant grocery store in Lutherville into a hub where patients can go for lab work, minor surgeries and to visit primary care physicians. Urgent care centers such as Patient First and Doctors Express are taking over retail spaces in high-traffic areas, including where a Roy Rogers fast-food restaurant was once located. And Thomson Reuters this summer opened its first branch dedicated to health care research in Woodlawn office space, where more than two dozen employees will provide data and analysis to the federal government.

First Mariner Bancorp reported Monday that it lost $4.7 million in the second quarter, nearly double the loss of the corresponding quarter a year earlier. On a per share basis, the parent company of Baltimore's 1st Mariner Bank lost 28 cents per share, compared with 37 cents the year before. First Mariner Chairman and Chief Executive Edwin F. Hale Sr. blamed the soft economy and weak real estate market for the downward pressure on earnings. The company set aside $4.4 million for loan losses in the second quarter, a 52 percent increase over a year earlier.

Even in this real estate market, a for-sale sign can create a buzz. A "STUNNING/ELEGANT" 6BR, 31/2 BA house for sale in Reisterstown has people talking. It's not the "updated" kitchen that's generating interest. Nor the "lush landscaping." It's the political intrigue. Jim Smith, the term-limited Baltimore County exec, is selling the house and moving to an apartment in Andy Harris' state Senate district, where he'll mull a run for that seat. Smith and his wife, whose four children are grown, put their house up for sale two weeks ago. "My wife and I are planning to downsize," Smith said.

NEW YORK -- Last autumn, morale was sinking at Citicorp faster than its stock price, which was about to reach an eight-year low. Profits were slumping. Layoff rumors were spreading. Bonuses were in doubt.Just when the troops needed a boost, the Harvard Business Review published a lengthy interview with Citicorp Chairman John S. Reed that left many feeling deflated.In the wide-ranging interview, Reed discussed abstract concepts like "globality" and "textured competence." He compared professional pride to lining up socks in a drawer.

Baltimore's red-hot real estate market is helping to insulate the city from the widespread property fraud known as flipping that once ravaged some of its most vulnerable neighborhoods, according to law enforcement and industry officials. Today, the 100th defendant will be sentenced as part of a broad federal investigation of residential property scams that stretched back almost a decade. This case, prosecutors said, could be among the last. "I think we're close to the end," said Joyce McDonald, who oversees flipping cases for the Maryland U.S. attorney's office.

Would you take a $100 chance on winning a $1.6 million house? Organizers of an estate home raffle in Baltimore County are betting as many as 35,000 people will step up to buy a ticket, compelled by the unusually big prize - a 5-bedroom mini-mansion on an estate lot in Phoenix - and the chance to help out a local charity. House raffles such as this one have been used as fundraisers by a handful of nonprofits for years, and they are a growing phenomenon as home sellers caught in a recession look for creative ways to stand out and nonprofits seek alternative funding.

If you wanted to buy a home for less than $250,000 three years ago, three-quarters of the market in the Baltimore metro area was out of your price range. Then sellers got walloped. Housing slump. Mortgage meltdown. Recession. Now you under-$250,000 buyers - classic first-time home purchasers - have a lot more to choose from. Properties with asking prices in that range made up 43 percent of the metro area's housing market in May, up from 24 percent in May 2006. More under-$250,000 homes were for sale at the end of May - 8,149 - than in any previous May since 2001, according to a Baltimore Sun analysis of Metropolitan Regional Information Systems data.