Sales are picking up and so are the prices

For most of the spring market, it seems that the magic number was $250,000.  Everything that had seen go under contract in Frederick County was at or below $250,000.  My best guess was these are the first time home buyers trying to take advantage of the $8,000 tax credit.  With them removing the starter homes, the next natural step is for the upgrade sales to start to occur.  The average sales has jumped up a little but more importantly the number of sales are up too.  The next graphic shows you the average sales asking price and the number of homes under contract.

Personally have I have seen an increase in multiple offers on well priced homes that were under $250,000.  I had a conversation with one of our Title Attorneys at RGS Title, Chris Patt, the other day and he had mentioned the traffic in DC has also increased.  He said most of the contracts are multiple offers.  This is only a matter of time that it will roll out to Frederick County.  It always seems that it starts in the higher populated areas and then comes out to us.  Even though the prices are picking up, they are still dropping, if that makes any sense.  They are buying higher price points at a lower price.

So, words of wisdom; Buyers be prepared to pay asking price for the home. The beat down on the sellers is slowing down.  Appraisals are actually very close to asking price.  The sellers are getting wise and pricing appropriately.  Sellers make sure your home is ready and price right. It’s not time for you to fix things while the home is on the market. Don’t put it on until you think it is ready for the pickiest buyer.  Now is not the time to use “Kentucky Wind-age” pricing model.  (Price a little high, knowing the buyer is going to cut you down.)  Clean and priced appropriately!!!

I am ready to help you with your purchase and your sale.  Just give me a holla…

Housing Report for the Greater Washington DC area

MRIS released the Trends Reports for the first quarter of our MLS area.  It has some good news for buyers as well as sellers.  We are in changing times and everyone needs to know what to do in this type of market.  You can review the physical document on the MRIS webpage for the Trends Reports.    But for the mean time enjoy the video that accompanies the report.  I particularly like the part about sharply dropping from 11 months of inventory to 7 months of inventory.  We are still in a buyers market and they are purchasing the homes for about 10% less than the asking price.  Everyone needs to think about this when marketing their homes.  Frederick County is experiencing very similar results.

If you would like a more detailed report of you community, please contact me.

Have a great day.

Condo Investors are starting to come out

I have been getting a good bit of inquiries about the condo market in Frederick.  I have been watching the activity with the condos, because I feel this is where it will really start to turn first.  Kind of like a rolling snowball, it starts small then grows and grows.

So lets take a look at what’s happening to day in the condos around Frederick County.

Frederick Condo Market 4/22/09

Condo Assoc.	Active	Contract	Sold in last 90 Days	Price Range
Ambertowne	11	1	2	58,900-134,900
Ballenger Creek	2	O	3	149,900-215,000
8th St Mews	0	1	O	189,900
Creekside Plaza	8	1	O	353,900-990,000
Echo Glen	1	2	3	162,900-169,900
Jefferson Chase	5	1	O	145,850-165,900
Mill Crossing	6	O	O	174,000-219,900
Maxwell Place	4	1	1	274,900-524,900
Monacacy Overlook	2	1	1	139,900-179,900
Old Farm Station	7	1	1	119,900-199,000
Ridgeview II	2	3	1	165,000-199,900
Springridge	5	1	1	199,999-242,000
Stuart Mechanic	5	1	2	130,000-180,000
Wormans Mill	1	O	1	250,000-289,500
All Frederick County	110	21	28	58,900-990,000

These are very encouraging numbers you can see improvements over the last six months to a year. You can see by the numbers above some of the hotter areas like Ballenger Creek and Echo Glen are doing better than others. Prices are still coming down (and you can see some sellers are still pretty stubborn about there asking price.) Activity is picking up in all parts of the market but prices are still on a decline. I don’t think we will see an increase or at least a stabilization in prices for another six months to a year, but homes are definitely selling at a much faster rate than this time last year.

Here’s a snap shot of last year around this time.

Frederick Condo Market 4/7/08

Condo Assoc.	Active	Contract	Sold in last 90 Days	Price Range
Ambertowne	6	1	2	113,000-159,900
8th St Mews	5	2	1	189,900-219,900
Creekside Plaza	5	O	O	397,900-1,180,000
Jefferson Chase	4	O	O	149,900-192,900
Mill Crossing	13	O	1	209,900-269,900
Maxwell Place	5	O	1	325,000-673,750
Monacacy Overlook	6	O	O	174,900-215,000
Old Farm Station	12	O	1	179,900-250,000
Ridgeview II	10	O	1	210,000-250,000
Springridge	6	1	2	175,000-249,900
Wormans Mill	8	O	O	234,000-369,900
All Frederick County	171	15	30	115,000-1,180,000

Investors contact me for a more detailed look at these markets for potential rental income.

Middletown Housing Market and the Glenbrook community

It has been a while since I have taken a close look at the Middletown market and posted it here.  I have had some recent inquiries in this area.  That’s a good sign…inquiries that is.  Activities have started to pick up all over the county.  With the latest stimulus package offering $8,000 tax credit to first time home owners, it should help a few people get off the fence.  In my opinion, there still needs to be some hard work done to keep home owners in their house.  I have written plenty of articles about Short Sales and foreclosures in the area…what I have learned about them over the last few years, the banks don’t know how to make a decision quickly.  Once they are foreclosed, they are able to make quick decisions.  The main reason is that they turn them over to third party asset managers. They should consider this for short sales as well.  I think they would make more money or at least minimize their loss.

So why am I talking about short sales in Middletown?  Because they have their share of them.  Just looking at the Glenbrook Community, there are five out of twelve homes listed are either short sales (“subject to third party approval”) or bank owned already.   Here’s the most recent activity in Glenbrook.

No matter how nice the community, today’s economy has an impact on everyone.   Below you will see some numbers of the whole Middletown area.  You will see some major price drops over last year and also much longer market times.  (you can click here for last years update)

Market Conditions in Middletown MD 2/23/09

	Active	Under Contract	Sold in last 90 days	Ave. Days on Market	Ave Price (sold)
Condos	O	O	O	NA
Town Homes	3	4	2	94	$251,800
Single Family	79	14	11	241	$453,118
Total	82	18	13	220	$421,546
January	2009	2008	Change
Ave Sold Price	$370,980	$399,200	-7.07%
Ave List Price of Solds	$423,560	$436,320	-2.92%
Percentage of Avg List Price:	87.59%	91.49%

If you would like to see the list of homes that make up this report you can check that out here.  This will give you an idea of the homes in zip code 21769.  If you would like a more personalize report specific to your home and neighborhood, feel free to contact me.

Have a great day.

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