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.

When Bay Theatre Company actors take their bows at the end of Arthur Miller's "The Price" on Sunday, they may be their last for a while. After more than a decade, the Annapolis company is suspending its operations while it looks for a long-term home. The final performance will be bittersweet for Janet Luby, the company's artistic director and co-founder. "We're doing so well, reputation-wise, but the money wasn't matching it," she said. The company has been on a month-to-month lease at its small space in the West Garrett Building at 275 West St., and has been unable to secure a long-term deal with the landlord, Luby said.

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.

It might be hard to duplicate the anticipation and publicity that greeted the inaugural season in Everyman Theatre 's inviting new home on West Fayette Street, but that hasn't stopped the company from trying. "I want next season to be even more exciting than the first one," said Vincent Lancisi, Everyman's founding artistic director. "We've got three modern classics and three newer plays. Three of the works are by women. And three are Baltimore premieres. " The 2013-2014 lineup is the first full season in the new venue, which opened in January with an acclaimed staging of Tracy Letts' "August: Osage County.

The sluggish housing market and the ensuing decline in school enrollment has the Carroll County Commissioners considering a proposal to drop impact fees on new home construction for the next few years. The county collects the fees on residential construction to offset the growth-related costs of building the schools and other infrastructure needed to meet the demands of new residents. The fees, which depend on the size of a new home and can be as much as $6,000, pay to build new schools and parks and provide recreation.

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.

Despite the General Assembly's failure last week to pass pit bull legislation, there are still ways Maryland voters and animal lovers can show their support for this and similar breeds, which are being turned in at Maryland animal shelters in increasing numbers ("Pit bull compromise fails, trial lawyers win," April 10). On April 21, the Maryland SPCA will host its annual March for the Animals, the organization's biggest fundraiser of the year. All donations go directly to provide care, shelter, food and medical care for the animals in the group's adoption center, which last year placed more than 3,000 pets in loving homes.

Anne Arundel County Fire Chief John Robert Ray, who has been with the department for 35 years, announced Friday that he will retire on May 1, according to the department's spokesman. Ray had served in every division of the fire department when he was appointed chief in 2008 at the age of 52. He oversaw changes that included implementing billing for emergency medical services and pushed for mandating sprinklers in new homes in the county. In the news release, Anne Arundel County Executive Laura Neuman wished Ray well.

My Thai's first run wasn't very long - just over three years - but its good, clean Thai food found a following. When its first home was destroyed by a fire in December 2010, we wondered when and where the owners, Varattaya "Pui" and Brad Wales, would return. My Thai is back, and it's got a few things extra. Now located in the Tack Factory, on the edge of Little Italy, My Thai has almost twice as much floor space to work with as it did when it occupied the basement level of Mount Vernon's Park Plaza Building.

As more people occupy the same amount of land, things change. A generation or two ago, it was perfectly OK in Harford County to burn garbage and maintain a residential dumping pit on a rural property. It isn't all that long ago that the sewage system and stormwater system in Havre de Grace were one in the same, both emptying into the Susquehanna River largely untreated. Indeed, the city continues to deal with issues of separating the storm drains from sewerage lines under the roadways.

Homeowners across the city could see their property rights altered by the first zoning code overhaul in more than 40 years. City officials said the sweeping revisions, dubbed Transform Baltimore, would preserve the character of neighborhoods and make it easier for homes to be modernized. "If your zoning is changing, it doesn't necessarily mean your neighborhood is going to change," said Tom Stosur, Baltimore's director of planning. Stosur and his staff, who spent the past four years writing and rewriting the proposed code, want to assure people that the changes would not allow businesses to spring up in the middle of tree-filled blocks of single-family homes.

One of the builders working with Forest City East Baltimore Partnership, the master planner for East Baltimore Development Inc., is holding an open house Sunday so that potential homebuyers can get a feel for residences that they expect to construct in the footprint of the 88-acre urban renewal project near Johns Hopkins Hospital. The Verde Group, a Baltimore-based green builder, plans to sell 25 new homes along East Chase and Mcdonogh streets. The event will offer the opportunity to tour two homes that Verde has already constructed on East Chase Street, said CEO Martin Richardson.

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.

Wooded land is plentiful around The Pointe at ArundelPreserve, a subdivision at one end of a massive mixed-use development off Arundel Mills Boulevard in Hanover. But as is happening throughout Maryland, finished home lots — barren plats that are ready for the erection of new homes — are becoming few and far between at the 268-acre planned community, which also contains a hotel, restaurants and offices. Builders were eager to lock up lots in this locale, according to the Pointe's developer.

Enterprise Community Partners, a Columbia-based organization that helps people around the country find affordable housing, is itself getting a new home but staying in Columbia. After considering numerous locations, the nonprofit founded by James and Patricia Rouse plans to move its headquarters next year to the Columbia building once occupied by the Ryland Group, less than a mile from its current location. Before starting Enterprise, James Rouse headed the company that launched the development of Columbia 50 years ago. "The location is important to us because of its relationship with Mr. and Mrs. Rouse, and Enterprise was founded here," said Charles Werhane, president and chief executive of Enterprise Community Investment, an affiliate of Enterprise Community Partners that also will move to the former Ryland building.