Estate Market

Marking the first decline this year for the local housing market, sales in October dipped slightly, by 5 percent, the Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors said yesterday.For the month, 1,523 homes were sold in a region that includes Baltimore and the counties of Baltimore, Howard, Harford and Carroll. That compared with 1,599 sales of existing and new homes in the same period last year, the board said.Sales have climbed each month, compared with the same month a year earlier, since January -- by as much as 35 percent in April -- board statistics show.

PERHAPS IT'S the expensive gasoline. Or a renewed faith that Baltimore can be turned around in these good economic times. Whatever the reason, the city's high-end residential real estate market has taken off. Open houses in neighborhoods like Roland Park, Mount Washington and Guilford have been mobbed in recent weeks. Some properties have been snapped up as soon as "For sale" signs appeared. Harbor neighborhoods are also doing well. The surest sign is the number of in-fill houses being built on vacant lots.

At the Baltimore City Council's budget hearings last summer, the news from Mayor Martin O'Malley's administration was bleak: Raise taxes or resort to layoffs and reduced city services. The council agreed to much of the mayor's proposed package of new and expanded taxes to close a $40 million budget gap. Despite the decision, which left the property tax rate untouched, the council members and the mayor easily won in November's elections. What a difference a year - and a hot real estate market - makes.

Real estate brokerage firms are becoming "lean and mean" in an effort to survive and develop a respectable share of business in an increasingly competitive market.To attract new business, brokers also are becoming more "customer friendly," enhancing the quality and number of services. If they don't perform productively for a customer, a competitor will quickly step into the scene to capture the business.Computer-generated data, customized to the needs of individual customers, and sophisticated relocation assistance are among special services offered by brokers.

It was all bright skies and warm temperatures outsid yesterday.But, inside Baltimore's Convention Center, it was doom and gloom as local real estate developers, lenders and brokers gathered to discuss the current and coming dark days of the region's commercial real estate market.The Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors symposium, entitled "The Changing World of Commercial Development," kicked off the board's one-day commercial and industrial exposition at the Convention Center.Approximately 80 exhibitors were on hand, each paying $500 per booth.

Here's an unpleasantry awaiting Maryland homeowners in 2009: Even if your home has declined in value this year - perhaps even substantially - and your local tax rates are unchanged, you may be facing a higher property tax bill. Talk about adding insult to injury. There's nothing quite like taking a heavy dose of theoretical pain (the loss of equity in your home, which you don't see until it's time to sell) with a bracing chaser of higher taxes in the here and now. For about one-third of homeowners, the bad news arrived in the mail this week with the latest round of real estate assessment notices.

For more than a year, Dana and Judy Camak have daydreamed about owning a more luxurious home in Owings Mills. Only recently, however, did the Woodlawn couple's search for the perfect property turn serious."

Japanese investor firms will be less active in the U.S. real estate market during 1991. And they are changing their regional focus of interest.That's the conclusion of a recent survey of Japanese firms, conducted by Mead Ventures, a noted research-publication firm. About 42 percent of firms surveyed indicated they will be less active in the U.S. real estate market this year -- up from 6 percent one year ago.The firms that are actively seeking real properties in the United States have widened their geographic scope of interest.

Few people in the real estate business will tell you that these are the brightest days of their careers but they are quick to point out some solid reasons why they are holding on.Relatively low interest rates, a large inventory of houses and the lucrative Baltimore-area real estate market -- these are market indicators that usually translate into a healthy business climate, real estate agents say."There really isn't any excuse except for mind-set," said Mary Bell Grempler, of Grempler Realty in Towson.

Spending on clothes, furniture, and home appliances was hot in Howard County this spring, but the county's housing market got the cold shoulder, a report released yesterday says."