Metropolitan Regional Information Systems

Andrew Wells is hoping to buy a Baltimore home for around the cost of an old car: Less than $10,000. Turns out he's in good company. One of every 10 city homes sold during the first half of the year - about 275 in all - fell in that price range. Twice as many sold for under $20,000. Often foreclosures, these properties are usually in bad shape but seem like deals to real estate investors and the occasional hopeful owner-occupier - such as Wells. "I don't have to worry about trying to get a loan," said Wells, 40, a bill-processing technician who works in Annapolis.

The number of homes sold in the Baltimore metro area last month dropped sharply from January, but the decline likely doesn't mean the market is taking a turn for the worse. There were just under 1,500 closed sales in Baltimore and its neighboring counties during February, a 5.7 percent drop from the first month of the year, according to data released Monday by RealEstate Business Intelligence LLC. It's not unheard of for sales numbers to drop off between January and February.

The number of homes sold in the Baltimore metro area rose 7 percent in February, the second month in a row of significant year-over-year gains in sales activity. Prices continue to fall. The statistics, released this morning by Metropolitan Regional Information Systems, shows the average price in the metro area dropping about 5 percent in February compared with a year earlier. The average home sold for just under $250,000 in the metro area, which includes Anne Arundel County, Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Carroll County, Harford County and Howard County.

The home on Belfast Road in Timonium was just a foundation when the newly married couple in their mid-20s made an offer on it last summer for $10,000 above the asking price. "This was the first time we were ready to even think about buying," said Tim Shirah, who with his wife, Michele Shirah, submitted a $395,000 bid and beat a handful of other offers for the new home. They wanted to stop "throwing money away on rent," he said. For the Shirahs, the time was right. They had money from their wedding to put more than 20 percent down and interest rates were at extraordinary lows.

More homes were sold last month -- and for more money on average -- than a year earlier in the Baltimore metro area. About 1,100 homes changed hands in January, up almost 9 percent from the previous year, according to numbers released Wednesday by Metropolitan Regional Information Systems. The average sale price was about $272,000, an increase of just over 2 percent. But it's not a sign that the days of home sellers lowering their asking prices are over. In January, average buyers got homes for about 10 percent less than the listing prices.

The number of homes sold continued to drop in the Baltimore area in September as the market — no longer aided by a federal incentive for homebuying — searched for a bottom. Buyers purchased about 400 fewer houses, townhouses and condos in September than a year earlier, said Metropolitan Regional Information Systems, which runs the region's multiple listing service used to buy and sell properties. The 19 percent decrease represented the third month in a row of double-digit declines after the rise spurred by the federal homebuyer tax credit.

All things being equal, the purchase price of a short sale will be less than a regular home on the market, and a foreclosure will be lowest of all. Here's the breakdown -- on average -- for the Baltimore region in April: Bank-owned home: $144,000 average sale price Short sale: $206,000 Non-distress deal: $307,000 So you can see why a big increase in foreclosures might pull the average price down -- and why now, with the big decrease...

From the Real Estate Wonk blog: Here's a snapshot of how the housing market in the Baltimore metro area looked in October: --Home sales dropped 30 percent vs. a year earlier, when buyers were rushing to get the first-time home buyer tax credit --The number of homes changing hands totaled less than 1,600, the smallest amount in the month of October for at least 12 years (that's how far back the records go) --Average prices fell just over 1 percent, to about $272,000 (though remember to take this calculation with a grain of salt)

From the Real Estate Wonk blog: The most expensive home sold in the Baltimore region during November -- changing hands for $3.4 million -- is an Annapolis waterfront property with its own heated lap pool and spa. The four-bedroom home, with four full bathrooms and two half-baths, sits alongside Spa Creek, near the point where it joins the Chesapeake Bay. The property comes with 168 feet of bulkheaded waterfront, two deep water slips and...

New contracts on homes for sale in the Baltimore area rose to their highest June level since 2007 — a positive sign for a housing market trying to heal after a years-long roller-coaster ride. Buyers and sellers struck deals on nearly 2,600 homes in Baltimore and its five surrounding counties last month, Rockville-based Metropolitan Regional Information Systems said Monday. That's about 30 percent more than the number of contracts signed last June — when activity plummeted after a federal tax credit for first-time homebuyers expired — and exceeds recessionary June 2008 by almost as much.

Seventeen properties in metro Baltimore sold for $1 million or more in October, according to data released Thursday by RealEstate Business Intelligence, an affiliate of Metropolitan Regional Information Systems (the region's multiple listing service). The top two priciest properties sold in Harford and Carroll counties are also included in the list below. SALE PRICEADDRESSDESIGNCOUNTYMLS NUMBER $4,400,000 12 WEEMS CREEK DR Contemporary ANNE ARUNDEL AA7676827 $2,450,000 920 CREEK DR Colonial ANNE ARUNDEL AA7863767 $1,825,000 807 BROADWATER WAY Colonial ANNE ARUNDEL AA7784878 $1,800,000 2525 CARROLLTON RD Rancher ANNE ARUNDEL AA7801469 $1,650,000 801 KEY HWY #T-16 International BALTIMORE CITY BA7947756 $1,575,000 411 FERRY POINT RD Cape Cod ANNE ARUNDEL AA7922377 $1,550,000 26 CAVESWOOD LN Traditional BALTIMORE BC7821752 $1,500,000 8184 PINEHURST HARBOUR WAY Colonial ANNE ARUNDEL AA7828556 $1,400,000 3611 WORTHINGTON AVE Colonial BALTIMORE BC7825837 $1,395,000 952 CREEK DR Contemporary ANNE ARUNDEL AA7840180 $1,325,000 13803 LAKESIDE DR Transitional HOWARD HW7827215 $1,200,000 807 BOUCHER AVE Colonial ANNE ARUNDEL AA7644502 $1,200,000 631 LAKELAND RD S Colonial ...

The Baltimore metro region had the best July in six years for contracts signed to buy homes, according to data released Friday by an affiliate of the region's multiple listing service. Home buyers signed 2,883 contracts last month — a nearly 20 percent increase over July 2011, according to sales figures from RealEstate Business Intelligence LLC. It was the highest July total for new contracts since 2006, said a statement from the firm, which is an arm of Metropolitan Regional Information Systems.

Homes selling for less than $100,000 in the Baltimore region outnumber those going for more than $1 million by a whopping 14 to 1. But sales on the low end are shrinking as the high end grows. About 1,850 homes sold for under $100k in the first half of this year, down 20 percent from a year earlier. The 130 homes that sold for more than $1 million? Up 20 percent. That's according to figures from Metropolitan Regional Information Systems' RealEstate Business Intelligence arm, which tracks sales made through the multiple-listing service.

Home sales in the Baltimore area were up 13 percent in May compared with a year earlier, but that figure hides some huge variations. Foreclosure sales dropped about 50 percent, simply because far fewer bank-owned homes are on the market right now. Short sales, by contrast, zoomed up about 60 percent. That isn't nearly enough to account for the drop in foreclosures, but it was sufficient to make short sales more numerous than foreclosure sales for the first time since Metropolitan Regional Information Systems began tracking distress deals three years ago. Conventional sales, meanwhile -- the ones with no bank involved except as a lender -- rose 28 percent.

Here's a phrase you probably didn't expect to hear associated with the housing market so soon after the crash: Bidding war. They've been roaring back into suddenly-hotter-again areas in recent months. Now they're a lot more common here, too -- in a milder way than during the bubble years, but surprising nonetheless. Online real estate brokerage Redfin says nearly half of its Baltimore-area buyers' offers in the first three months of the year had competition. Some buyers are using escalation clauses again to try to avoid being outbid.

David D. Igla lost out on three Ellicott City homes in the past few months before he finally beat the competition and had an offer accepted. What kind of so-called buyer's market is this, he wondered? Some houses zip off the market — occasionally above asking price — while others languish because the price isn't right, the home isn't updated or other aspects of the property don't appeal. The result: plenty of frustrated buyers and sellers. Welcome to the post-bubble, post-bust housing market.

Seventeen properties in metro Baltimore sold for $1 million or more in October, according to data released Thursday by RealEstate Business Intelligence, an affiliate of Metropolitan Regional Information Systems (the region's multiple listing service). The top two priciest properties sold in Harford and Carroll counties are also included in the list below. SALE PRICEADDRESSDESIGNCOUNTYMLS NUMBER $4,400,000 12 WEEMS CREEK DR Contemporary ANNE ARUNDEL AA7676827 $2,450,000 920 CREEK DR Colonial ANNE ARUNDEL AA7863767 $1,825,000 807 BROADWATER WAY Colonial ANNE ARUNDEL AA7784878 $1,800,000 2525 CARROLLTON RD Rancher ANNE ARUNDEL AA7801469 $1,650,000 801 KEY HWY #T-16 International BALTIMORE CITY BA7947756 $1,575,000 411 FERRY POINT RD Cape Cod ANNE ARUNDEL AA7922377 $1,550,000 26 CAVESWOOD LN Traditional BALTIMORE BC7821752 $1,500,000 8184 PINEHURST HARBOUR WAY Colonial ANNE ARUNDEL AA7828556 $1,400,000 3611 WORTHINGTON AVE Colonial BALTIMORE BC7825837 $1,395,000 952 CREEK DR Contemporary ANNE ARUNDEL AA7840180 $1,325,000 13803 LAKESIDE DR Transitional HOWARD HW7827215 $1,200,000 807 BOUCHER AVE Colonial ANNE ARUNDEL AA7644502 $1,200,000 631 LAKELAND RD S Colonial ...

All things being equal, the purchase price of a short sale will be less than a regular home on the market, and a foreclosure will be lowest of all. Here's the breakdown -- on average -- for the Baltimore region in April: Bank-owned home: $144,000 average sale price Short sale: $206,000 Non-distress deal: $307,000 So you can see why a big increase in foreclosures might pull the average price down -- and why now, with the big decrease...

The Baltimore region saw a double-digit jump in average home sale prices in April, the most in six years — but the gain was driven by a shrinking supply of cheap foreclosures rather than a resurgence in value. Just one in 10 homes sold in the Baltimore area last month was bank-owned, down significantly from the nearly one in four a year earlier, according to numbers released Thursday by RealEstate Business Intelligence, a subsidiary of the regional multiple listing service. That pumped up the average price for a home sold in April to $281,000, a 10 percent increase over a year earlier.