Howard County Stats Update!

The local real estate market has been wild this year. Let's take a look back at where we've been so far in 2013.

For the first quarter of this year, Howard County had an inventory shortage (among our team we jokingly referred to it a a "crisis").  Even during the second quarter "spring market," the inventory only rose to less than 750 active listings.  During the the 2nd quarter, our team began to see multiple offer situations due to the shortage of housing available to buyers and outstanding interest rates. It was almost as if we had a small housing bubble.  As you can see above, the number of active listings is on the rise as we move into the third quarter.

Of the 413 properties that came on the market in July, 42% are in the $300,000 - $499,999 range. This falls in line with the fact that the median sales price for July was $414,450 and the average sales price was $452,364.

As inventory climbs back up, the Spring/Summer market winds down and interest rates increase, we have seen a drop in the number of properties going under contract. We would expect this to continue into the Fall/Winter market with properties taking longer to sell and possibly selling for less than asking price (keep in mind, this is a generalization about our local market. Each home is unique!).

Please don't misunderstand: we're still selling houses! The market conditions have changed so we're reacting and addressing them to help our sellers. Reach out to us anytime if you have questions or just want to chat about real estate.