BUSINESS
Jamie Smith Hopkins | March 5, 2012
In what sort of housing market do sellers and buyers complain that it's rough out there? This one, apparently. The number of homes officially for sale has fallen substantially, both foreclosures and regular listings, leaving would-be buyers with fewer choices. And yet many homeowners are in the wish-I-could-sell group, unhappily off the market, because they can't afford to move at today's prices. Read all about it . But wait! There's more. This is the latest of our twice-annual analysis of the housing market down to ZIP codes in the region and neighborhoods in the city, so the story comes with a lot of extras.
NEWS
By Steven Soifer and Wade Rathke | October 12, 2010
Sometime in 2006, the U.S. housing market began to decline. By October 2007, the nation's housing crisis was so bad that the U.S. treasury secretary called it "the most significant risk to our economy. " Until the housing crisis ends, the Great Recession cannot end. The same kind of bold government action that saved the banking system during the Great Depression is necessary to allow the U.S. economy to fully recover now. The housing crisis not only continues, but it is worsening.
BUSINESS
Jamie Smith Hopkins | April 25, 2012
Real estate search site Zillow is predicting that the Baltimore region's housing market will hit bottom this summer. Zillow's chief economist, Stan Humphries, said the company expects an L-shaped recovery here and in most markets, with a substantial period of flat values or small increases. He said the forecast for the end of price drops in the Baltimore area is based on several factors, including the current slowdown in declines and lower-than-average foreclosure activity.
BUSINESS
By Jamie Smith Hopkins | jamie.smith.hopkins@baltsun.com | January 9, 2010
Home sales in the Baltimore metro area appeared to rise in 2009, ending a protracted slump that began after the frenzied buying of the housing bubble peaked in 2005. Buyers closed deals on almost 22,200 homes last year, up 3 percent from the year before, according to preliminary numbers provided Friday by Metropolitan Regional Information Systems and analyzed by The Baltimore Sun. Those numbers could change when the multiple-listing service revises its figures next month, but early trends suggest the final figure for home sales will go up. "I think that what we're seeing is the housing market is definitely bottoming out," said Andy Bauer, regional economist at the Baltimore office of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.
BUSINESS
By Jamie Smith Hopkins, The Baltimore Sun | May 9, 2011
House beautiful, this isn't: The yard is overgrown, the windows are boarded up, there's a big gash in the first-floor ceiling and the roof has holes. Mark Whitten was delighted. The real estate investor, who looks for homes he can flip to landlords and rehabbers, figured he could immediately find a buyer for the vacant North Baltimore rowhouse, probably someone who would fix it up and rent it out. "I'm going to make an offer and try to get this property under contract today," Whitten, 29, said as he walked through the derelict home last week.
NEWS
By Jamie Smith Hopkins, The Baltimore Sun | January 10, 2012
The Baltimore region's housing market posted the fourth straight year of average price declines in 2011 as the number of home sales hit a low not seen in at least a decade and a half. The average home sold last year in the metro area changed hands for about $262,000, down 4 percent compared with 2010, according to a Baltimore Sun analysis of preliminary figures released Tuesday by Metropolitan Regional Information Systems. Home sales also dropped 4 percent. The roughly 22,000 homes sold in the region — Baltimore and its five surrounding counties — represent the smallest number on record at MRIS, which began tracking the region in 1997.