Frederick, what is going on in this market?

It has been pretty busy last couple weeks for me, showing property around Frederick County and around Gettysburg.  I haven’t had the chance to pull very many numbers, until now. WOW is all I have to say.   We are not climbing out of this market slowly.  There are some leaps and bounds being made in a few neighborhoods.   I have talked to a few agents and managers around the DC area.  Manassas, Va was ground zero for the distressed homes in our area.  They are currently up 200% over this time last year in units sold.  Simply amazing!!! It is not uncommon in today’s market for homes to receive multiple offers.  Price, condition and location are still major factors in real estate (and always will be regardless of market conditions.)  Here is a snapshot of the town homes in The Villages of Urbana and the Urbana Highlands. Seven of the 16 Active homes are actually New Homes offered by Advantage Homes, NV Homes and Main Street Homes. Those listings usually never leave until they sale all the homes in the neighborhood. They are seeing more business as well. Client almost missed out on their dream home by one hours. They had put a hold on the property and another buyer returned after thinking about it only to find out it was going…YAY for my buyers.

What that means is that only nine town homes are left as resales (or available now.) You have total of 19 homes under some form of contract. This used to be flipped and a much wider gap only six months ago. This means there will be a shortage in homes and we will be back to fighting over listings as a buyer. For the longest time we had too many homes on the market. It is the old adage of “Supply in Demand” Too much supply and not enough demand means lower prices and longer time on the market for the sellers. Too little supply and all this pent up demand means arm wrestling for homes. Prices are still low but if this continues we might see the decline stop. Previously (last couple months) I have noticed increase and activity and low prices where buyers were offering lower than asking…this market might have a different outcome.

Couple things affecting the total number of active listings; Sellers are getting serious about their homes sales (no longer just testing the market,) People are able to stay in their homes (refinancing for lower monthly payments,) and of course, more are selling than last year. You can see the latest report from FCAR.org by clicking this link. You will notice sales trends have been up for the past three months…another good sign that we should have the horrible market behind us. Now, let’s not get drunk and disorderly like the early parts of the 2000s. Stay within your means!

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.  He has been the Assistant Manager at the Mt Airy office for the past two years. Not only does he list and sell residential real estate, but can help you with your commercial real estate needs as well. He has been a resident of Frederick County for the past nine years.