New Homes

Defying rising mortgage rates and economists' expectations, sales of new homes shot to the highest rate in a decade in May, the U.S. Commerce Department said yesterday. But Baltimore's sluggish sales ran counter to the national surge.Nationally, sales of new homes jumped 7.5 percent to an annual rate of 828,000 from April to May, the Commerce Department said.But in Baltimore and the five surrounding counties, sales dropped for single-family homes, townhouses and condominiums during the same period -- 18 percent overall, said Washington-based Housing Data Reports Inc., which tracks the new-homes market in Washington and Baltimore.

The trustees of the Contemporary Museum announced Monday that they have voted unanimously to suspend operations May 31. That will be the last day for the executive director and four part-time staff members. Plans to secure a new home for the museum have been scrapped. "We are solvent," said board member Barbara Portnoy Levine, who announced the board's decision Monday. "We are not in debt. The board just decided that the model was not serving us properly. We were not getting the commitment in terms of fundraising and participation we feel we should be getting.

Your home is your castle — but even a palace would be unpleasant if it's drafty, leaky or crumbling. Under state law, new homes built in Maryland are protected by a one-year warranty, and they're guaranteed against structural defects for two years. This coverage can help buyers who discover defects after they move in. But persistence will be required, as Thomas Brower and his parents discovered. Their builder, Ryland Homes, had fixed several problems, such as a leaky gas fireplace, on the Rosedale house they bought in August.

For five days last month, Bryan Harris had found everything he wanted in a college basketball program. Harris, a 6-foot-2, 185-pound combo guard, graduated from Southern in 2011 with no Division I scholarship offers. But a standout post-grad season with Massanutten Military Academy in Virginia earned him several DI offers, including one from Duquesne, which he accepted May 18 . Harris' happiness, however, proved to be fleeting. On May 23, Duquesne fired coach Ron Everhart , leaving Harris' status as a Dukes commitment utterly uncertain.

Phillips Fields Ten home sites remain for sale at Phillips Fields, a 26-lot development of luxury single-family homes by NV Homes in Parkton. The Colonial-style homes offered have two stories, four bedrooms, two or three full bathrooms and one half-bath. There are nine floor plans encompassing 2,491 to 5,000 square feet. Priced from $380,990 to $500,000, the homes will be on 1- to 3-acre lots. Standard features include family rooms, gas fireplaces and two-car, side-entry garages. The model will be open next month.

Baltimore's new-homes market took a heavy hit during the third quarter, thanks to rising interest rates and weakened consumer confidence that has kept this year's sales dragging behind last year's.Sales of new homes in the region plunged 13 percent during July, August and September compared with last year, Legg Mason Realty Group Inc. said in a quarterly report released yesterday. Sales for the first nine months fell to 7,330, down 10 percent from the first three quarters of 1993, the report said.

New-home sales in the Baltimore region fell nearly 19 percent during the first three months of the year to the lowest level of any first quarter in nine years, Legg Mason Realty Group Inc. said yesterday.Through the end of March, 2,455 new homes were sold in Baltimore and Baltimore, Anne Arundel, Carroll, Harford and Howard counties, down from the 3,017 homes sold in the first quarter of 1994, according to Legg Mason's quarterly Housing Market Profiles.That was the lowest since the first quarter of 1986, when fewer than 2,000 new homes were sold.

There's no place like home for the holidays. And thanks to a $1 million federal grant, three Mayo families will be celebrating in new homes this Christmas."

For Paul and Michele Shultz, it all happened so fast.In March, the Howard County couple stuck a "for sale" sign in the front yard of their Columbia split-level. Within hours they had a buyer and three days later a ratified contract.And last week -- just in time for their daughter's third birthday -- they moved into their new four-bedroom home in Clark's Glen in Clarksville, one of the hottest selling single-family home communities.The Shultzes' experience is typical of the phenomenon that has helped fuel the housing boom in the Baltimore metropolitan region: Buyers purchase existing homes, allowing those homeowners to move up to new, more expensive homes and prompting builders to increase production.

The county has bucked a regional real estate trend with an increase in new home sales, a realty group reports.In the midst of a recession and the Persian Gulf war, sales of new homes fell in 1990 throughout the Baltimore region -- except in Anne Arundel, where sales shotup 17 percent, said Legg Mason Realty Group Inc.Legg Mason's quarterly housing market profile showed that as the economic slowdown took its toll on the Baltimore area last year, 8,232 new...

The O'Malley administration is proposing a regulation that in most of the state would require builders of new homes using septic systems to install more costly models that reduce water pollution. The Maryland Department of the Environment acknowledges that the requirement could add thousands of dollars to the cost of a new home. Maryland builders contend that the added cost is not justified by scientific findings. The proposal would accomplish by regulation a goal that environmental advocates tried to achieve in 2009 through legislation: to require use of the new technology virtually statewide.

WTMD-FM, Towson University's radio station, is moving to downtown Towson. The change, talked about last fall, was formalized Tuesday when university officials signed a lease for an 8,000-square-foot space at Towson City Center, general manager Stephen Yasko said. The station's new home is a result of WTMD's growth since it changed formats a decade ago, and the university's own drive to carve out a niche in the downtown corridor. Along with the station, four centers belonging to the College of Health Professions signed leases at the mixed-use complex in January.

Mike Posko was building a house with Habitat for Humanity International — in Nepal — when the Baltimore-area affiliate emailed him late last year to ask him to come in for an interview. He got the job. Posko, who took over as Habitat for Humanity of the Chesapeake's chief executive in February, said he's passionate about the group's affordable-housing mission. The nonprofit builds new homes and rebuilds vacant ones in the Baltimore region with the help of volunteers, then sells them at no profit and with no-interest mortgages to workers with modest incomes.

Talk about rebuilding or replacing Havre de Grace High School got me to thinking. Talk about rebuilding or replacing Havre de Grace High School got me thinking. For more than a year, some noticeable changes have been taking place at the school. It started with the removal of what for generations had been the school's tennis courts tucked behind the gym at the corner of Adams and Bourbon streets. It's been a long time since they've been used for tennis. In recent years as they fell further and further into disrepair, they had been used primarily for baseball, lacrosse and softball teams seeking a dry spot during the cold, wet months of spring.

Housewarming alert: This is the Real Estate Wonk blog's new home, a redesigned spot that is more fully integrated into the Baltimore Sun's main site. Good news: You can find blog posts I write from now on in the Sun's main search box, something that wasn't possible before. Bad news: Previous posts haven't moved. So we're keeping the old home for the time being at least, an archive of sorts where you can find Wonk topics stretching back to 2007. Here's that link: weblogs.baltimoresun.com/business/realestate/blog . You can get to the new location here by typing baltimoresun.com/realestatewonk -- easy peasy.

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The new-home sales boom that normally accompanies the balmy days of March in the Baltimore area turned into a bust this year, thanks in part to a mild winter that resulted in higher-than-average sales in January and February.New-home sales in Baltimore City and Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Harford and Howard counties totaled 797 in March, 33 percent fewer than the 1,144 sold during the same period last year, according to Housing Data Reports.The Washington-based company, which tracks new-home sales, said March numbers were 1 percent below the 807 houses sold in February.

Things have always been a bit uncertain for Second Chance, a salvage depot and nonprofit organization that has built a loyal following among homeowners, interior designers, commercial builders and art students seeking one-of-a-kind home items - bathtubs, shutters, mantelpieces, you name it - from old structures. Since opening in 2003 in a leased warehouse in the crumbling industrial area just south of M&T Bank Stadium, Second Chance has grown to occupy several leased warehouses.