Frederick County Monthly Housing Report

November is finally behind us and the report has been published.  It is not great news, but still encouraging to me.  The housing boom didn’t happen over night and we shouldn’t expect the fix happen any quicker. We couldn’t ask for any better conditions for the lurking buyers out there.  One of the biggest concerns in the buyers (outside of will I have a job;) is this the best price or will prices continue to drop?  If we could answer that, we would all be rich.  The buyers and sellers in early 2000s thought it would never end.  But rest assured, if we are not at the bottom, we are definitely near it.  We will really only know when it is in the rear view mirror. Once everyone gets out of the mindset that home ownership is not a “day trader” strategy, but a long term commitment, we should be just fine. People normally live in their homes 3-7 years.  Normal appreciation in the area prior to this debacle was in the 6% range.

Housing will have its ups and downs, but just not the extreme peaks and valleys that we have been experiencing these past few years.  So with the prices bottoming out, we have another part of the puzzle that helps buyers…4.5% interest rates on 30 year fixed loans.  (you can watch the rates on my side bar to the right)  Never in our history has interest rates been this low. Sellers should be preparing there homes for showings as activity starts to pick up.  With inventory still high, sellers need to stand out in the crowd.

Now what’s happening…

(Click on Chart to see the whole report)

This report is courtesy of Frederick County Association of REALTORS®.

For the most part you can see we didn’t have any earth shatter months in sales.  The chart represents contract.  The reality of things, not all contracts result in sales.  We owe the majority of this fall thru to short sales.  The buyers usually bail out before the bank has an answer.  I am enlightened to see that we are not far off last years numbers.  That gap is closing and should be an increase sometime soon.

With that said…contact your lender and let’s go looking for a helluva deal.

Bob is a licensed Real Estate agent in Maryland and Pennsylvania. You can contact him via email at bob@gotbob4homes.com or call him on his cell phone at 240-285-4918.  Bob left the Frederick area to manage a resort office near Deep Creek Lake in Western Maryland. He still stays in touch with the area that he has grown to love.