Sales In Baltimore

Yes, you can click your mouse through colorful, graphics-rich, interactive home pages laden with real estate listings on the World Wide Web. But the heads of some of the nation's largest residential brokerages -- gathered in Baltimore last week -- don't think technology will replace live agents."

Stephen E. Masel Jr., 52, car sales managerStephen E. Masel Jr., sales manager for 20 years at Parsons Auto Sales in Baltimore and before that a racetrack cashier for 15 years, died of cancer Monday at Manor Care Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Ruxton. He was 52 and lived in Towson.Mr. Masel was a 1961 City College graduate and attended the University of Baltimore. He was a member of Mount Vernon Presbyterian Church.A memorial service is planned for 4 p.m. today at Mitchell-Wiedefeld Funeral Home, 6500 York Road, Rodgers +V Forge.

Home sales in the Baltimore region remained on an upswing in October, jumping 14 percent over year-ago figures, the Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors said yesterday.The number of new and existing home sales in Baltimore City and Baltimore, Howard, Harford and Carroll counties climbed to 1,607 from 1,406 in the corresponding period last year, the board reported.The housing market had emerged from a 14-month slump in September, when sales rose 11 percent. For several months, a rising number of homes have gone under contract, signaling that stronger settled sales would follow.

Home sales in metropolitan Baltimore fell for the 13th straight month, dipping 3 percent in July, the Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors said yesterday.Sales of new and existing homes fell to 1,673, compared with 1,718 homes sold in the same period last year, the board said.Nonetheless, the figures came as encouraging news to industry officials because they indicate the housing market may have seen the last of the sharp declines of the past year.The market should gain momentum in the coming months, based on a 36 percent jump in the number of contract signings in the region compared with last July, the board said.

George W. TilfordSales directorGeorge W. Tilford, retired national sales director for a food manufacturer and a native of Baltimore, died Monday of complications of Alzheimer's disease at the Broomall, Pa., Presbyterian Home. He was 84 and lived in Haverford, Pa.He retired in 1984 after having worked for Mrs. Paul's Kitchens since 1967. Earlier, he had worked for the Keebler Baking Co., first in Baltimore as a salesman and then as head of sales in Baltimore, Washington and Virginia. In 1960, he was transferred to Philadelphia as East Coast sales manager.

Settled home sales in the Baltimore area rose 12 percent in March compared with the same month last year, and pending sales were up 14 percent, the Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors reported yesterday.Local real estate specialists say that the market strengthened last month after the difficult weather conditions in February."Everything came to a head in March," said David Desser, an agent for Long & Foster in Pikesville.Realty executives say that February's gentle rise in mortgage rates prodded buyers into becoming serious about purchasing property, but that rates haven't risen so much that they've shut people out of the market.

Completed home sales in the Baltimore area shot up 14 percent in February compared with the same month last year, the Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors reported yesterday.At the same time, pending home sales increased 2 percent for the month, the realty board said. (Pending sales are those under contract that have yet to go to settlement.)"The market is launching into the spring buying season," said Nancy C. Hubble, president of the realty board.Michael Conte, director of regional economic studies at the University of Baltimore, said the settled sales figures for February reflect a genuine revival in the local housing market that began in the fourth quarter of last year.

For homeowners and homebuyers, 1993 was a busy -- and confusing -- year.Declining mortgage rates created a frenzy of refinancings; buyers, in hibernation for much of the past two years, pounced on a depressed market; a succession of mergers kept industry watchers checking their scorecard; lenders by the dozen came to Maryland to offer borrowers a dizzying number of choices; and new and proposed rules -- including agency and seller disclosures -- kept everyone...

Erroneous information in the city zoning office's computer files has locked two mom-and-pop grocery stores in West Baltimore in a battle for profits and, maybe, survival.Charles J. Purnell, owner of the Last Stop Confectionery on Fremont Avenue near Fayette Street, complains that the erroneous information allowed the competing Poppleton Food Market to open at a location that is not zoned for business but is more convenient to residents of the Lexington Terrace public housing complex.The new store siphoned away business, and he is having problems paying his bills, said Mr. Purnell, 34. "My business is cut almost down to zero," he said, adding that he opened the store in 1984 only after being assured by officials that zoning restrictions prohibited competitors from opening in a location closer to customers' homes than his store.

Driven by low mortgage rates, home sales increased in the Baltimore area during September, the Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors reported yesterday.The number of home deals that reached settlement last month rose to 1,539, a 4 percent increase compared to the same month last year. Sales still in the financing pipeline, known as "pending sales," picked up 24 percent, to 1,676.And in another sign of good news for local home sellers, the average price of a home sold increased in September to #F $136,142, 8 percent higher than the same month last year.